Prep course aimed at diversifying elite city schools fails to reach black and Latino students
Meredith Kolodner, NY Daily News | March 25, 2011

A city program aimed at diversifying the city’s specialized high schools is not making a lot of progress with black and Latino students, stats show.

Just 19% of black students who went through a city-funded prep course aimed at recruiting lower-income students to elite high schools were accepted, down from 21% last year. About 21% of Latino students were successful, down from 24% last year.

The overall number of black and Latino students accepted after attending the Specialized High School Institute grew – 38 black students compared with 31 last year and 39 Latino students, up from 31 last year.

Still, the pass rates for students who went through the program are better than those who didn’t. Only 5% of black students and 6% of Hispanic students who took the exam were accepted to one of the eight schools.  (Read more)