The Department of Education (DOE) added a new specialized high school last year, bringing the total number to nine. The Brooklyn Latin School, located on Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn, was founded in September 2006, but this year’s freshmen are the first class admitted based on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT).
With this second class, the school has a total of 63 students, 268 fewer than the second smallest specialized high school, the High School of American Studies at Lehman College.
The Brooklyn Latin School is based on the prestigious Boston Latin School, which provides an academic program in the classical tradition, including the study of Latin.
The school is now the only specialized high school that enforces a uniform dress code—a white and purple outfit.
“The culture of The Brooklyn Latin School is very different from any of the other specialized high schools,” said Brooklyn Latin Head Master Jason Griffiths. “There are few schools in New York that offer a classical liberal arts curriculum in a small, disciplined close knit school community.”
Griffiths wrote in an e-mail that the school “will attract a specific type of student, one that is different from other specialized high schools.”He said that because the school plans to accept fewer than one hundred students in each of the upcoming years, “I do not see us having a significant impact on the other specialized high schools.”
The SHSAT is used for admission to the specialized high schools, selective public high schools run by the DOE. In 1972, the New York Legislature passed the Hecht-Calandra Act establishing Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High Schol of Music and Performing Arts as the original four specialized high schools. The act also laid out hte requirement for admission into Laguardia, which is the only school whose admissions are not based on the SHSAT.
In 2002, the DOE expanded the number of these selective specialized high schools to include American Studies at Lehman College; High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College; and the Queens High School for the Sciences at York College. Staten Island Technical High School became a specialized high school in 2005.
According to Griffith, “academic expectations and not hte way students are selected define what a specialized high school is.”
Griffith said Brooklyn Latin has “always operated from the premise that we are a specialized high school.” Though this was the first year admissions were based on the SHSAT, he said there has been “no significant difference between year one and year two aside from the fact that we have added a tenth grade.”
Adding specialized high schools is meant “to give underrepresented students more opportunities to qualify for specialized high schools,” said DOE spokesperson Andrew Jacob.
The ninth specialized high school has received differing responses.
“We should definitely add more specialized high schools,” said Parent Coordinator Harvey Blumm. “It gives good options for students who are serious about academics. This is definitely a step in the right direction for helping out black and Latino kids.”
According to DOE statistics, at Brooklyn Latin, 46 percent of the students are black and 30 percent are Hispanic.
At the three original SHSAT-based specialized high schools, black students make up an average of around 7.3 percent of the student body and Hispanic students make up around 6.2 percent.
In 2006, 25,085 eighth graders and 1,878 ninth graders took the SHSAT. This high number of students “shows a need for more [specialized] high schools,” Blumm said.
Blumm said another specialized high school can provide students with another option, especially for students who live nearby Brooklyn Latin. “When it comes time to choose the high schools, Stuyvesant is quite reputable, except when it comes to travel.
Principal Stanley Teitel does not find the ninth specialized high school to be advantageous. “I think at this point, we have enough exam schools,” he said.
Teitel said he does support screened program schools, which use a selection method that is based on the academic record, standardized test scores and attendance history of prospective students.
The addition of a new specialized high school is seen to have a small impact on Stuyvesant High School. “For many reasons we remain the first choice of most students,” Teitel said.
Some students agreed. “I chose Stuyvesant as my first choice, and I’m pretty sure other kids would also,” said senior Joshua Clemente.
“Stuyvesant’s pretty popular, so people would choose it anyways,” said sophomore Monika Tuchowska. “As for the city, if there are more [specialized] high schools, more kids get a better education.”
