Last year, PASSNYC reported that the diversity of students both taking and succeeding at the Specialized High School SAT (SHSAT) was in decline across the board.

In 2017, we are excited to see some signs of change...

We're pleased to share our 2017 Student Summit Report--a summary of the first ever PASSNYC student-focused forum.

The first PASSNYC Student Summit took place at BuzzFeed Headquarters on May 13, 2017—with over 20 high school and middle school students gathered to brainstorm ideas on how to increase student awareness of the SHSAT. 

Akil Bello, PASSNYC board member and resident test prep expert, goes into detail on changes to the 2017 SHSAT based on the new handbook.

After a long wait (changes were first announced in September 2016), I finally got a full look at the new SHSAT when the DOE posted the 2017 - 2018 Specialized High School Handbook online. Read on to learn about the changes and how they might be relevant to you.

In June 2017, PASSNYC beat out 150 other applicants to take home the $30K Grand Prize at NYC BigApps, a prestigious CivicTech competition for data and technology solutions that can improve the quality of life for New York City youth, seniors, and immigrants... 

After last year's SHSAT, the eight specialized high schools are poised to become even less diverse. Just over 3 percent of offers went to black students, while only 5 percent went to Hispanic students, according to data released this week by the education department. These groups represent about 70% of New York City's public-school population.

We're pleased to share our 2016 Collective Impact Summit Report--a summary of the inaugural PASSNYC Collective Impact Summit. 

Download the full report for updates on collective impact projects that were deployed as a result of the Summit, guest speaker highlights and opportunities for future work.

Akil Bello, PASSNYC board member and resident test prep expert, overviews changes to the 2017 SHSAT!

For the last few years, the NYC DOE has been under pressure to address the demographic imbalances at the Specialized High Schools. While considered some of the city's (and even the nation's) top schools, these schools have not reflected the diversity and demographics of the city as a whole in decades. The De Blasio administration took steps to increase the diversity of these schools and signaled that they would actually attempt to address the fact that only 11% of specialized schools are Black or Hispanic while approximately 70% of other city schools are. The administration took another step later in the fall when it paved the way for changes to the Specialized High School Admission Test (SHSAT), the sole means of entry to the Specialized High Schools.

Our First Collective Impact Summit focused on networking, collaboration, and new solutions.  We gathered talented and passionate individuals and challenged them to work together in a short period of time.  We are overjoyed that the Summit was a tremendous success.  

Hosted at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, our First Collective Impact Summit brought together 50 attendees from over 40 different organizations on Friday, October 14, 2016.  A breakfast through lunch affair, participants got to hear from Dr. Hazel Dukes of the NAACP, and Harold O. Levy of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, before completing our Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking and Collective Impact Boot Camp activities.   

To help drive SHSAT outreach, we partnered with the Princeton Review to increase access to practice SHSATs. Over the summer of 2016, we challenged schools, non-profits and community groups to sign up for practice exams for a chance to win a free Princeton Review Ultimate Classroom SHSAT course for 20 students, including 25 in-person instruction hours, 4 full length proctored practice tests, and all course materials. 

This week’s blog post is guest-written for PASSNYC by Akil Bello, a career test prep teacher and tutor who has spent 25 years helping people prepare for admissions tests, and board member of PASSNYC.

As we approach September in New York, we enter that special time of the year affectionately known as "fall hell," when parents of students in every transition grade realize that admission testing is looming. 

In this post, I'll take on the SHSAT, explain how it's different from other exams, and share the top 3 things you can do to prepare. Let's go...