New York City’s elite public high schools continue to admit disproportionately low numbers of Black and Hispanic students, according to the latest admissions data released for the upcoming academic year. Despite making up about 62 percent of the city’s public school population, Black and Hispanic students are expected to represent only around 10 percent of incoming freshmen at the city’s eight most selective high schools—a figure largely unchanged from previous years. Asian and white students together account for approximately 80 percent of accepted students.

At Stuyvesant High School, widely regarded as the most competitive specialized high school in Manhattan, just three of 777 admission offers were extended to Black students, while 21 went to Hispanic students. This marks about a one-third decrease in Black and Hispanic admissions compared to the prior year. Staten Island Technical High School admitted only one Black student.

Specialized high schools enroll roughly 5 percent of the city’s high school students, but their annual admissions releases attract significant attention for highlighting long-standing racial and ethnic disparities. Admission is solely determined by the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), a 14-question, three-hour exam designed to evaluate students’ abilities in math and English through complex problem-solving under strict time constraints. Critics argue that the single test favors those with access to extensive test preparation and fails to accurately measure overall student potential, while supporters maintain it ensures a merit-based selection process.

The admissions system has been a contentious issue for decades. Current Mayor Zorhran Mamdani, an alumnus of Bronx High School of Science, has described the testing process as a “struggle” and indicated his administration is carefully reviewing the latest results. His predecessors also criticized the system: former Mayor Bill de Blasio called it a “monumental injustice,” and former Mayor Eric Adams referred to it as a “Jim Crow school system.”

Efforts to reform or abolish the SHSAT face significant opposition from alumni groups and well-funded lobbying campaigns. Because the specialized schools’ entrance requirements were established by the State Legislature in 1971, any substantial modification would require legislative approval. Further complicating matters, federal oversight during the Trump administration included reductions to funding linked to diversity initiatives, an environment likely to intensify scrutiny of proposed changes.

Enrollment trends over the past half-century show a dramatic decrease in Black and Hispanic students at these schools, alongside a marked rise in Asian representation and a decline in white enrollment. Asian students constitute about 19 percent of all public school students but received 57 percent of offers for specialized high schools this year. At some schools, the proportion of Asian admits was even higher: 69 percent at Stuyvesant and 78 percent at Queens High School for the Sciences at York College.

Following the recent admissions announcement, several elected officials renewed calls for reform. Brooklyn City Council member Lincoln Restler criticized the exclusive reliance on the SHSAT as “deeply flawed” and proposed incorporating multiple evaluation criteria, including writing skills, into the admissions process. “It’s not how we do admissions for colleges, for law school, for business school, for medical school,” Restler said. “How on earth do we do it for these specialized high schools?”