Discovery Changes Have Drawn Controversy
The city’s eight specialized high schools, including Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science, enroll about 16,000 students, or 5% of the city’s high school population. But they command outsize attention because of their long track record of vaulting students into elite colleges and careers, their powerful alumni bases, and their considerable resources.
The same 1971 state law that mandated the schools admit students based on their score on a single exam also established the Discovery program. Each specialized school administers its own Discovery program and has a different test score cutoff. Students who qualify must complete a summer academy before enrolling.
A Determined Student Faces Long Odds
Derek Sandoval, a 14-year-old from Venezuela, seemed like a good candidate for Discovery. He and his parents arrived in the summer of 2022 with little English and no housing. They moved into a homeless shelter in midtown Manhattan, and the city assigned Derek, then a seventh grader, to a public middle school in Greenwich Village while his parents found work as a cleaner and in a car repair shop.
In his eighth grade year, Derek set his sights on the city’s coveted specialized high schools, which admit students on the basis of a single test offered only in English. With dreams of becoming a doctor one day, he decided those schools could help secure his future.
With weeks to prepare and no access to paid tutors, Derek took the test. His score, a 457, was below that year’s threshold of 491 for an automatic offer but high enough to qualify for Discovery, which provides spots in specialized high schools for disadvantaged students who score close enough to the cutoff and complete summer coursework.
The School-Level Poverty Criteria
A change made to the program six years ago rendered Derek ineligible for Discovery. Under the 2018 eligibility change, students must attend a school where at least 60% of their classmates are economically disadvantaged. At Derek’s school, 59% of students fell into that category last year.
The change – part of a broader effort under former Mayor Bill de Blasio to boost the notoriously tiny share of Black and Latino students at the specialized high schools – was designed to ensure Discovery offers go to the "most disadvantaged" applicants, city officials have said. But cases like Derek’s raise questions about whether, in some instances, the eligibility rules may be excluding those very students.
Conclusion
Derek’s story highlights the challenges faced by students who are new to the country and lack access to resources and support. The school-level poverty criteria may have been intended to promote diversity, but it has also led to controversy and concerns about equity. The city should consider exceptions for students from groups that are severely underrepresented in the specialized high schools, such as homeless students, those in foster care, and English learners.
FAQs
Q: What is the Discovery program?
A: The Discovery program is a program created to boost the numbers of disadvantaged kids in New York City’s elite public high schools.
Q: How does the program work?
A: The program provides spots in specialized high schools for disadvantaged students who score close enough to the cutoff and complete summer coursework.
Q: What is the school-level poverty criteria?
A: The school-level poverty criteria requires students to attend a school where at least 60% of their classmates are economically disadvantaged.
Q: Why was Derek ineligible for Discovery?
A: Derek was ineligible for Discovery because his school did not meet the 60% economically disadvantaged criteria.
Q: What is the controversy surrounding the Discovery program?
A: The controversy surrounds the school-level poverty criteria, which some argue may be excluding students who are severely underrepresented in the specialized high schools, such as homeless students, those in foster care, and English learners.
