Only 3 Black Students Admitted to NYC’s Stuyvesant HS
Stuyvesant High School, one of New York City’s most prestigious public schools, admitted just three Black students to its incoming ninth-grade class of 777 — the lowest number since at least 2014, according to data released by the city’s Education Department. The stark figure has reignited long-simmering debates over racial equity, admissions policies, and the role of the single-test system that governs entry to the city’s specialized high schools.
A Pattern of Disparity
The incoming class at Stuyvesant breaks down as follows: 534 Asian students (68.7%), 133 white students (17.1%), 39 multiracial students (5.0%), 21 Latino students (2.7%), 3 Black students (0.4%), 3 Native American students (0.4%), and 44 students whose race is listed as “unknown” (5.7%), as reported by Gothamist.
This marks a continued decline from recent years: eight Black students were admitted in 2025, and ten in 2024. The numbers have become an annual flashpoint for critics who argue that the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) — the sole criterion for admission to Stuyvesant and seven other specialized schools — perpetuates racial segregation.
Citywide, the picture is similarly stark. Of approximately 26,100 eighth graders who took the SHSAT, about 4,000 received offers. Just 140 Black students received an offer to any of the eight specialized schools — roughly 3.5% of total offers, edging up slightly from 3% the previous year, according to Chalkbeat New York. Latino students received about 6.5% of offers, down slightly from 6.9% the year before.
These figures stand in sharp contrast to the demographics of New York City’s public school system, where Black students make up 19.3% of the student population and Latino students make up 42.3%. Asian American students, who received 56.5% of specialized school offers, represent 18.7% of the city’s public school enrollment.
Mayor Mamdani Faces Renewed Pressure
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a graduate of Bronx High School of Science, addressed the data publicly, calling the numbers “jarring” while stopping short of endorsing the elimination of the SHSAT.
“We know that a single test does not reflect the aptitude of students across the city,” Mamdani said in an interview with NY1. “We know that Black and Latino students are excelling across the five boroughs.”
A spokesperson for the mayor, Jenna Lyle, said the administration would “be reviewing these results carefully,” adding that Mamdani believes the city must “root out the deep racial and economic inequities that persist in our public school system.”
Mamdani’s position represents a shift from his earlier stance. During his 2022 state Assembly campaign, he indicated support for abolishing the test. But during last year’s mayoral race, he said he would keep the SHSAT in place — a move seen as an appeal to Asian American voters who have historically defended the exam as a merit-based system.
The Discovery Program Controversy
Complicating the debate is the ongoing legal challenge to the Discovery program, which reserves 20% of specialized high school seats for disadvantaged students who score just below the SHSAT cutoff. This year, approximately 800 students were invited to participate — 11% Black, 16% Latino, 62% Asian American, and 7% white.
Brooklyn mother Yi Fang Chen has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, arguing that the Discovery program’s eligibility criteria are “deliberately designed” to reduce Asian American enrollment. Her son scored 558 on the SHSAT — just three points below Stuyvesant’s cutoff of 561 — yet was deemed ineligible for Discovery because his score exceeded the program’s 495-point cap. The Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed the suit on her behalf, argues the policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Voices from Both Sides
Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseed, an integration advocacy organization, expressed frustration at the recurring nature of the disparities.
“The release of NYC’s specialized high school offer numbers has become its own Groundhog Day,” Berg told Gothamist. “Every year we look at the glaring disparities in these numbers, and every year nothing is done about them.”
David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, argued that the admissions system itself is fundamentally flawed. “It shouldn’t be based on a multiple-choice test that people can study for, for years, in order to get in,” he told NY1. “It selects for test prep — it doesn’t select for brightness.”
Meanwhile, AdmissionSquad, a nonprofit that prepares Black and Latino students for specialized high schools, urged a longer-term perspective. “The solution has never been one prep program, one policy, or one admissions cycle,” the organization wrote on its blog. “The solution is building strong readers, writers, and mathematicians beginning in elementary school.”
What Lies Ahead
The SHSAT is protected by the Hecht-Calandra Act of 1971, a state law that mandates single-exam admissions for the original three specialized high schools. Changing this would require action from the state legislature — a politically fraught prospect given the intense debate surrounding the issue.
This year also marked the first digital administration of the SHSAT, and starting next year, the test will become computer-adaptive — meaning students’ responses will affect the difficulty of subsequent questions. The long-term impact of these changes on racial disparities remains unclear.
For now, the Mamdani administration has signaled a focus on improving educational outcomes in the years before students sit for the exam, rather than overhauling the admissions process itself. Whether that approach can meaningfully shift the numbers before the next election cycle — and before the next round of headlines — remains an open question.