Arguments Against The Hecht-Calandra Act

The SHSAT is the only factor taken into consideration during the admissions process for the specialized high schools of New York City. The Hecht-Calandra Act was passed in 1971 for what was considered the four elite high schools of New York which included: Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, and Fiorello H. LaGuardia of Music & Performing Arts. This bill made it so that the only admissions criteria the four schools had was an exam particularly focusing on math and English Language Arts. In 2002, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College; High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College; and High School of American Studies at Lehman College were established as specialized
One of the biggest arguments against the SHSAT is discrimination. The NAACP Legal Defense filed a case, in September 2012, stating that, "There is also a marked failure to provide African Americans and Latinos with opportunities to learn the material or otherwise prepare to meet the admissions standards used to determine whether students will be placed in these specialized programs." Minority groups aren't given the same chances as other races to get familiar with the material. In addition, minority groups often can’t pay for preparation for the test. With these obstacles, it's clear that minority groups have lesser chances of acceptance. The diversity in specialized high school acceptance rates aren’t representative of the city's
For one, the math portion of the test covers topics such as trigonometry. With more challenging questions, the students must prepare thoroughly since this is their last chance. The cutoffs are higher than usual by at least 30 points. According to Tariq Hussain, the president of the tutoring center, Bobby- Tariq Learning Center (BTLC), “A score of 560 in the 8th grade SHSAT for 2016 would be a Stuyvesant score while it is considered a Bronx Science score for the 9th grade SHSAT.” The seats are also very limited. According to the 2016 New York City High School Directory, Stuyvesant High School in 2015 offered only 10 seats to incoming 10th graders while offering 814 seats to incoming 9th graders. Along with this second opportunity, a program known as the Summer Discovery Program hosted by the specialized high schools themselves allow students to attend a school that they didn’t get into by a few points. However, this only occurs if the school chooses to host this program. To be eligible for this program, certain factors must be discussed with the guidance counselor. Some of these factors include “being certified as disadvantaged” such that the student attends a Title 1 school, is a foster child or ward of the state or even participates in the Human Resources