The Paw Print

A news publication created by Baruch's College Now high school journalism class

Education

Keeping the Bar Up

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BrooklynTech
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Legislators are considering changing the standards of the SHSAT exam, which is the only way to get into Brooklyn Tech, one of the eight elite schools in the city.

A group of legislators has been pushing Albany to increase diversity among the specialized high schools in New York City. On paper, it seems like a great idea for future applicants.

However, to achieve this, the legislators want to change how students are accepted to these prestigious and competitive schools.

“I don’t want them changing the test that gets to Stuy or Tech,” said Kevin Lin, a student that attends Brooklyn Tech.

In their proposal, legislators explained how instead of a single score in the Specialized High School Test (SHSAT) being the determining factor of whether students are accepted or not, there should be multiple factors taken into account. These factors include classroom grades, attendance, and scores from state exams.

This concept seems to make sense because it could broaden the ethnic and racial makeup of the elite schools.

After all, Asians compose about 54% of all students in the eight specialized high schools with whites second at around 30% of the student body. But in New York, Blacks and Hispanics are the two dominant races, combining for 70% of the students attending public schools in the five boroughs.

That’s a stark difference compared to the same races in the students attending these elite schools as blacks and Hispanics were offered seats at a measly 5% and 7%, respectively.

But, if the proposal does go into effect, the special in specialized high school will be nonexistent since anyone could be accepted.

“If people want to get into a specialized high school, they should work for it and the admission test demonstrates if you have the mentality to do so,” said Brandon Chang, a student that attends Stuyvesant.

Also, classroom grades can be biased sometimes because some teachers pick “favorites,” that is they prefer one student to the other. As a result, the “favorite” gets a better grade than the other person.

“The SHSAT is a standardized test that acts like a barrier between the students who have the brainpower to get in and the students who just have high grades from their teachers,” Kevin Lin continued.

Instead of weakening the standards, legislators should find other ways to broaden the racial distribution while maintaining the same high level of excellence.

According to Brooklyn Tech’s school newspaper, The Survey, the alumni suggests increasing expectations and toughening the middle school curriculum in order for middle school students to be able to transition well to high school. They also stressed tutoring as an opportunity for students to keep up and be on the same page.

When the city’s middle schools undergo a makeover and expectations are raised, the number of Blacks or Hispanics in some of the best middle schools should increase. As a result, there would be a better distribution among the races in the city.

According to a news source called ibTimes, many students including Blacks and Latinos weren’t even aware about these testing procedures.

Because of this, a good idea is that all eighth graders should be able to register online automatically in the admission process. Then, they should include an opt-out button for students who don’t want to attend these schools. That way, students are more informed on these competitive schools.

All in all, the SHSAT exam is the only fair way to get accepted because every accepted student has to earn his or her spot in one of the eight elite schools.

Investing in Education

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“I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” said President Obama during a speech in Washington in 2009. President Obama stated that the U.S. has fallen behind in education compared to other countries in the world, and it has. He proposes that the United States have longer school years and days, one of the many ideas that have been considered as a way to improve the education system.

The time to spend and invest on our education system has long been past due. Studies published by universities such as Harvard and tests such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) have shown that the U.S. lags dangerously behind in education. With a score of 487 in mathematics, the U.S. is below average worldwide and ranks 31st of the many countries whose students have taken the PISA test. This further emphasizes the need for the U.S. to invest in education.

As President Obama said in his speech, extending the school year and day is not a popular idea, especially among students. Many students would prefer to spend their time doing activities they like, such as hanging out with friends and hobbies. Parents and students who are in favor of extending the school year and day argue that countries that score the best in PISA and other national assessments such as China, have a much longer school years and that students often spend more than 10 hours in school or in an academic activity. Opponents of the idea of extending the time students spend in school however, claim that doing so would not actually improve education levels.

Consider Finland for example. The PISA test scores of Finland are far superior to that of the United States, yet students spend less time in school. According to the Washington Post and Business Insider, Finnish students spend a half hour longer at recess than the U.S’ average recess time of 27 minutes.

Finland invests in education in a different way. The process for selecting teachers is also radically different than that of the United States. To become a teacher in Finland, students must graduate in the top 10 percent of their college. Teachers are paid less when they start out, when compared to U.S. teachers. By the 15th year of teaching, however, Finnish teachers earn much more than a teacher in the United States with the same amount of experience.

The rewarding of teachers does not occur just in Finland. Countries that outperform the U.S. in education such as South Korea also reward teachers who perform well with higher pay, sometimes equal or rivaling to the salaries of doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Opponents argue that if we reward teachers in such a way, teachers in the United States would perform better, or risk losing their job.

Whether the United States decides to extend the school year or not, the government needs to reform the education system quickly. With many countries that once could not be compared to the United States in education now surpassing us, the need for the government to invest in the education system is even more dire. A country without educated citizens damages its reputation and cannot compete with foreign countries.

For these reasons, the United States needs to act hastily if we want to continue to compete with other countries. By investing in our educational system and supporting children in their academic life, we can become the educated powerhouse we once were.