Talk:Specialized high schools in New York City

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Would this topic be better named in with "high school" in capital letters, also? Joyous | Talk 17:17, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Are you kidding? Townsend Harris has an acception rate of less than 5% and this article says these schools are the most competitive? And the most elite? Who are they kidding? Last year nearly 70% of THHS students went to Tier I schools.Kwazyutopia19 00:59, 26 October 2006 (UTC)KwazyUtopia19

[edit] Page is in need of expert help

This article is in need of serious work by someone who knows the subject. It may represent the current list of New York's specialized high schools (or may not, I don't know), but it is quite inaccurate as far as "history" - for example, Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, and Brooklyn Tech were specialized science high schools for many years before 1972, and in fact used a unified entrance exam for the three schools for many years. At best this page is misleading, and may have other inaccuracies and likely omissions, and could become a candidate for removal. Tvoz 22:31, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

There are indeed currently 9 schools. And yes, the unified exam pre-dates the Hecht-Calandra Act, although I haven't been able to find a citation for how old it is. That bill was the one that enshrined the New York City exam in New York State law, taking the ability to change the rules out of the hands of then-Chancellor Scribner and then-Mayor Lindsay, both of whom seemed at the time to be preparing to make significant changes to the admissions process. Some of this is discussed at Stuyvesant High School#History, but I'll see what else I can dig up. RossPatterson 23:53, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, missed this until now. Yes, i know about the 9 schools and I'm familiar with Calandra-Hecht and why it came about. I think some reference should be made to that - the implication in this article is that the exam system began in 1972 which of course is wrong. I can attest to the entrance exam being a unified exam for the three schools for at least 45 years, and I am sure that it is longer than that - my attesting isn't good enough, but it would be worthwhile to find some documentation on that and throw in a paragraph or two of history on this page. I do have a letter from Dr taffel (then Science principal) from Spring 71 urging alumni to support this bill which he says "simply mandates admission to these schools by the present system of entrance examination and examination of records". I just think this article, in addition to being kind of sketchy, would be misleading to anyone researching this subject. I'll keep looking - I found that Taffel letter in an Alumni News, stuck into my yearbook. You never know what you might have saved. Tvoz 20:33, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hunter College High School

This is the second time this month someone has inserted a paragraph about Hunter College High School being a competitive school but not one of the Specialized High Schools. The first time, I editted Ylee's text around into a general statement about such schools with Hunter as an example. I believe that makes sense in light of the changes in the school world in general (e.g., charter schools, academies, etc.). When 24.13.203.76 re-wrote it back to basically the original text, I just reverted it back to the general form. If Hunter really is the only such school worth talking about, then the place to talk about it is the Hunter College High School article, not here, and the whole section should be deleted. RossPatterson 13:37, 29 December 2006 (UTC)