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“My favorite part is the energy,” said Kevin Wolfe, the Senior Government Affairs Manager at the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (the Center) when asked what he liked most about Lobby Day, or Day of Action, in Albany, New York.

“There’s so much activity here. There are so many people who are very passionate about making New York a better place. They have converged to make their voices heard and that’s just infectious. I love that,” he said.

What Lobby Day Looks Like

“Making their voices heard” is an understatement. It’s more like a deafening cacophony of chants, demands, and applause bouncing off of the dramatic archways and intricately carved columns of the Capitol Building. Normally, its hallways are filled with legislators and their aides wearing black and blue suits and click-clacking on the floor with hard-bottomed shoes. Lobby Day is not like Christmas. It doesn’t fall on the same day every year. Different organizations pick different days during the legislative session and just go for it.

On that Lobby Day, May 31, the Capitol Building was full of constituents and they weren’t quietly sitting in waiting rooms. They had banners and signs, and they wore t-shirts with logos and slogans that made it clear who they were and why they were there. Everything from environmental justice to affordable housing to police reform was the order of the day. There was a palpable buzz in the air. It felt like change was inevitable. The people didn’t wait to be empowered—they snatched up their own power and proudly displayed it.

It also happened to be Sneaker Day, so even the elected officials brought out their most prized athletic footwear to round out their tailored suits. Wolfe fit right in with his gray suit and gray sneakers, clutching a branded folder full of what the Center prioritizes. He was going to need comfortable shoes to reach his ambitious goal of talking to 56 legislators that day. His aim was to highlight the Center’s legislative priorities and the priorities for the Center’s Black Homeownership Project.

“The Black Homeownership Project’s Black Housing Agenda is deeply informed by the work and knowledge of coalitions and organizations that have led the advocacy on these issues,” said Sabrina Bazile, Senior Program Manager of the Center’s Black Homeownership Project.

With the legislative session ending on June 8, there was precious little time to convince elected officials to take action and vote on the bills the Center would like to become law.

What’s at Stake

“We want to make sure members of the State Assembly and Senate are aware of the importance of our legislative priorities and that they become supporters,” said Wolfe. “We want to really press our case for the issues of affordable homeownership and expanding opportunities particularly to Black homeowners and prospective Black homeowners. We are looking at low to moderate income homeowners and communities from across the state that are typically disenfranchised and don’t have access to homeownership.”

If the bills don’t pass, the Center (and all of the other groups marching around the Capital on their respective Lobby Days) will have to wait until January when the new legislative session starts and all the calls to action begin anew.

Affordable Homeownership Super Team

Fortunately, Wolfe had back up for Lobby Day in the form of his Center colleagues. There was Program Manager Yvette Chen, Urban Policy Program Associate Sophie Harrington, and Neighborhood Forecasting Program Manager Ariana Shirvani. This reporter is the Communications Manager at the Center and attended Lobby Day in an observational role.

Wolfe gave the team a brief tour of the maze-like government buildings in Albany that are connected by an underground tunnel. If you don’t have a map, you need a guide like Wolfe who knows his way around the place. It’s easy to get lost, which could be a metaphor for politics in general.

Two-Hour Challenge

After ping-ponging between protests and press conferences with a backdrop of late 19th century architecture, Wolfe sat the team down to get the one-pagers in order and to give each person a chance to run through how they would interact with the legislators or their aides. The problem? Time and timing. It was about 12:30 p.m. and the team’s train was scheduled to leave Albany at 3:10 p.m. Factoring in the time to the train station, that left a little more than two hours to get the job done. Adding on to that problem was that this was on the heels of Memorial Day weekend, so a lot of legislators weren’t even in the office. Tick tock.

The Center’s team split up and went to different floors. Sometimes the door-knocking led to brief conversations with staffers, but as it neared 3 p.m., the goal morphed into dropping the information in the mailbox.

The Result

The Center made contact with 30 offices. The contact was a mix of encouraging in-person chats, virtual meetings, and stuffing material in a box. The team ended the day sitting on the steps of the Legislative Office Building overlooking the Capitol Building as they waited on a car service to take them to the train station. A few legislative directors have already followed up as of this publication.

That might seem like a big lift for the outcome, but in this line of work, progress comes in many shapes and sizes.

When asked how he would characterize how the day went, Wolfe said “Very productive and tiring. Satisfied with where we are.”

The post A day in the life of fighting for affordable homeownership in New York appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Every spring, the NYC Department of Education releases the results of the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), a 3-hour long, 114 question test of reading comprehension and math questions that is the sole criteria for admission into NYC’s Specialized High Schools (SHS). The SHS represents some of NYC and the nation’s top high schools.  Each year, the headlines shout, “Only, some single digit number, of students are accepted into Stuyvesant this year.” Stuyvesant High School has the highest cutoff  score and is considered the most competitive of the 8 SHS. After the scores are released, there are some words of outrage by different concerned individuals and organizations and then we wait for next year for the cycle to repeat. No significant changes are ever made.

Let’s look at this year’s results. Only 11 Back students received offers to Stuyvesant and 7 have accepted those offers. Let us look at the larger but equally prestigious Brooklyn Technical HS. This year 56 Black students received offers out of the 1,498 offers that were made, a paltry 3.74%. 

Some would say that maybe Black students are not taking the test. Out of the 27,667 students that took the test, 5,714 students were Black, representing 20.65% of all test takers. I would consider that a pretty significant number. Out of these 5,714 students, only 131 received offers, representing 2.29%. My heart goes out to the 5,583 students who did not receive offers and tried their best.

I would assert that the SHSAT is the most challenging High School entrance exam our students encounter. Its complex reading passages and challenging math questions are based on concepts that students learn in  school but most have not experienced the intricate level of questions being asked on the exam. The SHSAT can reduce high performing students who are  level 4’s on state tests to shells of themselves, guessing their way through the test, completely outmatched by a test like nothing they have seen before.

RELATED: Chancellor Banks addresses confusion over admissions policy

Despite these challenges, in the 80’s and 90’s a school like Brooklyn Tech would have anywhere from 30 % to 45% Black students attending the school. Tech was considered the Howard U of SHS. Since the early 2000’s there has been a steep decrease in the number of Black students attending the SHS.

Why have the numbers fallen so low? The majority of the population of the  SHS has historically come from the gifted and talented (G and T),  classes, programs or schools of NYC. Ask any alum from a SHS that attended in the 80’s and they will proudly tell you about their middle school and how it prepared them for the test without prepping, just based on the depth and quality of their curriculum. G and T programs are frowned upon today and most significantly, are no longer housed in most schools, as it used to be. The few G and T programs that exist do not exist in communities of color. The few historically G and T schools that did exist in Black communities, such as Philippa Schuyler Middle School, no longer functions as G and T schools. The acceleration that occurred in G and T schools allowed students to move past the limits of their grade level curriculum and interact with higher order work. If students never see the challenging questions and concepts found on the SHSAT until they sit for the exam or just take the two practice tests found in the city’s SHS brochure, how are they expected to perform well? There is absolutely nothing wrong with our Black students, we just have not, will not, for whatever reason, prepare them or give them the tools needed to navigate the complexities of this test.

What can we do, if we care to do anything? Each stakeholder in our children’s educational journey can play a role in addressing this situation. In the case of the city, a few years ago two promising state senators offered a proposal of a practice SHSAT that would be given to incoming 6^th graders, similar to the way the PSAT is given to 10th and 11^th grade students before they have to take the SAT. Giving all students or interested students this pre SHSAT would be multi-purposeful. It would 1) allow students to see where they fared in comparison to students across the city, 2) provide a city wide benchmark that could give parents a sense of where their child really stood in relation to this challenge and 3) create a roadmap to determine the work that would be required for success on the actual test. 

For schools, creating  strong co-horts of students from 6^th grade through 8^th grade that could be enriched and accelerated would be an investment that would bear fruit in two years leading to higher state test results and even Regents classes while still in middle school. This has been done before, but not using a concerted and coordinated approach. Imagine if each school in District 13 identified 15 students per grade for its SHSAT academic enrichment program. In two years, District 13 would have a pipeline cohort of about 100 students each year who would be ready to effectively compete for seats at a SHS as well as potentially take the Algebra and or English Regents in 8^th grade.   Now imagine if District 16 was doing the same thing. For parents, if your school doesn’t provide a program, working with an academic enrichment company for two years may just be the investment that leads to great outcomes for your child’s future. 

When I started CAS Prep 10 years ago the number of Black students offered admission to Brooklyn Tech was slightly above 100. Despite our success in getting students through the SHSAT test prep process, the numbers of Black students offered seats has declined each year. This year’s 56 offers worry me, it represents a drop of 50 students in 10 years. If we don’t wake up and put some legitimate plans into actions, in ten years the headlines may read.” This year Brooklyn Technical High School admits 1500 students and only 7 are Black!”

Samuel Adewumi is an alumnus of Brooklyn Technical High School. He came back to his alma mater to teach math and engineering and was the head football  coach for several years. He created CAS Prep to give students of color an enrichment and prep program that was 1) located in their community, 2) spoke to their needs and 3) believed in their genius and potential. He can be reached through casprep.org or casprep1@gmail.com

The post OP-ED: Educational Apartheid NYC? Specialized High School Admissions system leads to diabolical number of Black students appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Every spring, the NYC Department of Education releases the results of the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), a 3-hour long, 114 question test of reading comprehension and math questions that is the sole criteria for admission into NYC’s Specialized High Schools (SHS). The SHS represents some of NYC and the nation’s top high schools.  Each year, the headlines shout, “Only, some single digit number, of students are accepted into Stuyvesant this year.” Stuyvesant High School has the highest cutoff  score and is considered the most competitive of the 8 SHS. After the scores are released, there are some words of outrage by different concerned individuals and organizations and then we wait for next year for the cycle to repeat. No significant changes are ever made.

Let’s look at this year’s results. Only 11 Back students received offers to Stuyvesant and 7 have accepted those offers. Let us look at the larger but equally prestigious Brooklyn Technical HS. This year 56 Black students received offers out of the 1,498 offers that were made, a paltry 3.74%. 

Some would say that maybe Black students are not taking the test. Out of the 27,667 students that took the test, 5,714 students were Black, representing 20.65% of all test takers. I would consider that a pretty significant number. Out of these 5,714 students, only 131 received offers, representing 2.29%. My heart goes out to the 5,583 students who did not receive offers and tried their best.

I would assert that the SHSAT is the most challenging High School entrance exam our students encounter. Its complex reading passages and challenging math questions are based on concepts that students learn in  school but most have not experienced the intricate level of questions being asked on the exam. The SHSAT can reduce high performing students who are  level 4’s on state tests to shells of themselves, guessing their way through the test, completely outmatched by a test like nothing they have seen before.

RELATED: Chancellor Banks addresses confusion over admissions policy

Despite these challenges, in the 80’s and 90’s a school like Brooklyn Tech would have anywhere from 30 % to 45% Black students attending the school. Tech was considered the Howard U of SHS. Since the early 2000’s there has been a steep decrease in the number of Black students attending the SHS.

Why have the numbers fallen so low? The majority of the population of the  SHS has historically come from the gifted and talented (G and T),  classes, programs or schools of NYC. Ask any alum from a SHS that attended in the 80’s and they will proudly tell you about their middle school and how it prepared them for the test without prepping, just based on the depth and quality of their curriculum. G and T programs are frowned upon today and most significantly, are no longer housed in most schools, as it used to be. The few G and T programs that exist do not exist in communities of color. The few historically G and T schools that did exist in Black communities, such as Philippa Schuyler Middle School, no longer functions as G and T schools. The acceleration that occurred in G and T schools allowed students to move past the limits of their grade level curriculum and interact with higher order work. If students never see the challenging questions and concepts found on the SHSAT until they sit for the exam or just take the two practice tests found in the city’s SHS brochure, how are they expected to perform well? There is absolutely nothing wrong with our Black students, we just have not, will not, for whatever reason, prepare them or give them the tools needed to navigate the complexities of this test.

What can we do, if we care to do anything? Each stakeholder in our children’s educational journey can play a role in addressing this situation. In the case of the city, a few years ago two promising state senators offered a proposal of a practice SHSAT that would be given to incoming 6^th graders, similar to the way the PSAT is given to 10th and 11^th grade students before they have to take the SAT. Giving all students or interested students this pre SHSAT would be multi-purposeful. It would 1) allow students to see where they fared in comparison to students across the city, 2) provide a city wide benchmark that could give parents a sense of where their child really stood in relation to this challenge and 3) create a roadmap to determine the work that would be required for success on the actual test. 

For schools, creating  strong co-horts of students from 6^th grade through 8^th grade that could be enriched and accelerated would be an investment that would bear fruit in two years leading to higher state test results and even Regents classes while still in middle school. This has been done before, but not using a concerted and coordinated approach. Imagine if each school in District 13 identified 15 students per grade for its SHSAT academic enrichment program. In two years, District 13 would have a pipeline cohort of about 100 students each year who would be ready to effectively compete for seats at a SHS as well as potentially take the Algebra and or English Regents in 8^th grade.   Now imagine if District 16 was doing the same thing. For parents, if your school doesn’t provide a program, working with an academic enrichment company for two years may just be the investment that leads to great outcomes for your child’s future. 

When I started CAS Prep 10 years ago the number of Black students offered admission to Brooklyn Tech was slightly above 100. Despite our success in getting students through the SHSAT test prep process, the numbers of Black students offered seats has declined each year. This year’s 56 offers worry me, it represents a drop of 50 students in 10 years. If we don’t wake up and put some legitimate plans into actions, in ten years the headlines may read.” This year Brooklyn Technical High School admits 1500 students and only 7 are Black!”

Samuel Adewumi is an alumnus of Brooklyn Technical High School. He came back to his alma mater to teach math and engineering and was the head football  coach for several years. He created CAS Prep to give students of color an enrichment and prep program that was 1) located in their community, 2) spoke to their needs and 3) believed in their genius and potential. He can be reached through casprep.org or casprep1@gmail.com

The post OP-ED: Educational Apartheid NYC – Stuyvesant posts diabolical number of Black students appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here