The teachers union led a push Monday to overhaul the admissions policy for the city’s most selective public high schools — a move critics slammed as “dumbing-down” standards.
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, said entry into the eight elite high schools should no longer be based solely on the results of the Specialized High School Admissions Test.
Instead, Mulgrew backed an Albany bill that would base admission to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech and five other specialized high schools on a blended “power score” that includes grades, attendance and state test scores, as well as the test.
Assemblymen Karim Camara (D-Brooklyn) and Ronald Kim (D-Queens) and state Sen. Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan) are sponsoring the bill that has the city’s backing.
“A student is more than the result of one exam,” said a spokeswoman for Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.
Blacks and Latinos account for 70 percent of the city’s public-school population. But of 5,096 students accepted by the specialized schools this year, just 5 percent were black and 7 percent were Hispanic.
“They are absolutely dumbing-down standards. It’s an outrage.,” said Mona Davids of the NYC Parents Union.