NAACP Files Suit Over Discriminatory NYC High School Entry Tests

Eight elite public schools have abysmal black and Latino enrollment, group says

The NAACP on Thursday filed a complaint over the admissions tests at New York City’s elite, specialized public high schools, citing effective discrimination against black and Latino students. More than half of the city’s population is black or Latino, but black students last year made up only 1.2 percent of student at Stuyvesant High School, one of eight schools named in the complaint. Latino students represented 2.4 percent of “Stuy,” according to city data. The civil rights group says the highly competitive, 2-1/2-hour, multiple-choice Specialized High School Admissions Test creates the disparity. "Year after year, thousands of academically talented African-American and Latino students who take the test are denied admission to the Specialized High Schools at rates far higher than those for other racial groups," the NAACP said in a complaint draft made available before the Thursday filing. Citing the 1964 Civil Right Act, NAACP says the city’s federal education funding could be withheld if a judge agrees that black and Latino student have been discriminated against. (Reuters)

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