NYC specialized high schools continue to offer few seats to Black and Hispanic students

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Jul 10, 2026

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NEW YORK — New York City’s specialized high schools continued to make few offers to Black and Latino students during Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first admissions cycle in office, according to data released Friday.

Black students received 3.5% and Hispanic students 6.5% of acceptance letters — broadly consistent with last year’s 3% and 6.9%. At Stuyvesant High School, the most selective of the eight public schools that use a single admissions test, only three out of 777 offers made this year went to Black test takers.

Specialized high schools are known as the crown jewels of the city’s educational system, yet at the same time have sparked controversy for failing to admit classes representative of the city’s diversity: Close to two-thirds of all local public schoolchildren are Black or Hispanic.

Asian students received 56.5% and white students 23.5% of offers to specialized high schools, compared to 53.5% and 25.9% in the previous admissions cycle.

Mamdani, himself an alumnus of a specialized high school, Bronx Science, opposed the single-test admissions system in the past, but changed his stance while running for mayor. At the same time, he said he would support an independent analysis of the entrance exam for gender and racial bias.

“The mayor believes we must root out the deep racial and economic inequities that persist in our public school system, and our administration will be reviewing these results carefully,” said Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for Mamdani.

“The young people of New York City are more than a score on a single exam. We are deeply committed to building a public school system where every child has access to an excellent education and every school is rigorous, well-resourced and a place that every child is proud to attend.”

The New York Daily News asked City Hall about the status of the review but did not hear back in time for publication.

The specialized high schools educate only a small fraction of the public school students across the city. But they receive disproportionate attention for both their student bodies’ persistent racial disparities and the path to the middle class they can provide students from low-income and immigrant families.

Out of 26,123 eighth-grade students who took the Specialized High School Admissions Test, only 4,023 received acceptance letters to enroll in one of the elite high schools this fall, according to Friday’s data.

This application cycle was the first time students took a digital version of the entrance exam. An additional 200 students took the admissions test when it was offered in the new format.

Overall, 70,100 eighth-graders received an offer to enroll in a public high school, with 58% receiving their top choice and 82% one of their top three. Each was down one percentage point from last year.

“New York City Public Schools is committed to ensuring that every child across our city has access to a high-quality education that meets their needs,” said Dominique Ellison, a public schools spokeswoman.

“NYCPS is the largest school system in the country, and outcomes like those we see with the SHSAT reflect the wide range of experiences, circumstances and priorities across the communities we serve. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and we’re just as clear about the work still ahead to ensure every child, in every neighborhood, has access to an education where they can learn and thrive.”