The Bronx Ink

Introduced in 2017 by then New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and hailed as a “groundbreaking proposal” by both Cuomo and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Excelsior scholarship program intended to help low to middle income students, isn’t getting to the poorest students in the state, according to a report published in May by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization.

The report found that about 68 percent of funds awarded through the Excelsior scholarship went to middle-income students, specifically those with incomes at or above $70,000. The report also found that among fully eligible students in the 2018 cohort, community college students and Black students were least likely to receive Excelsior funds.

The reason why many low-income students have slipped through the cracks comes down to the last dollar nature of Excelsior, co-author of the report Daniel Sparks said. 

“Because it’s focused specifically on that remaining gap in tuition after (federal student aid) and after TAP (New York’s Tuition Assistance program), we see disproportionately fewer low income students actually taking up, or even applying for the scholarship,” Sparks said.

The scholarship is only awarded when tuition is not covered by other financial aid programs like the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or TAP. Even then, Excelsior does not account for non-tuition related expenses that many students face. Additionally, Excelsior has a long list of requirements for a student to be eligible for aid, including a contract that the student will reside in New York state after graduation, for however long they receive the scholarship. 

Community college students make up about seven percent of all CUNY Excelsior recipients according to data from the Higher Education Services Corporation, despite the fact that they make up approximately 38 percent of all CUNY students, according to CUNY data.

In the Bronx, 48 Bronx Community College students received the Excelsior scholarship between 2017 to 2020, the lowest number of recipients for a single school amongst all CUNY schools. While Bronx Community College students make up about four percent of all CUNY undergraduates, they only make up about 0.2 percent of CUNY Excelsior scholarship recipients.

Sparks also hypothesized that many students do a cost-benefit analysis and decide that Excelsior is simply not worth the hassle.

“It’s not really worth the hassle of going through yet another application process,” Sparks said. “You’re going through all of that just for an extra 500 bucks a year, it might not make a ton of sense, they might just decide to forgo it.”

Bernice Agyeiwaa, a Bronx Community College student who received the Excelsior scholarship, said that she wished the process for applying for financial aid was easier, citing the tough requirements of Excelsior.

“It is a lot at first, I even tried to give up on the Excelsior, it’s quite a lot,” Agyeiwaa said. “But then I looked at the tuition and finances and was like, okay, let me just put in effort and apply… I wouldn’t say it’s easy.”

However, after pulling together all materials required and after being notified that she was a recipient, Agyeiwaa did not receive any funds from the scholarship since her tuition was covered by federal student aid.

Bronx Community College student Hawa Tiama told the Bronx Ink that she was upset at how her Excelsior application was handled. After two months of not hearing back after she submitted the application, she was notified that she was ineligible for the scholarship because she did not complete two years of high school in the U.S. despite completing the General Educational Development to get the scholarship.

“They came to my (adult school) and they told us if you have your GED, you can have this scholarship,” Tiama said. “That’s why I was inspired, okay, I can do the GED and they’ll pay for my school. I’m now registered and they tell me I’m ineligible.”

Andrew Whyte, another Bronx Community College student, said that while he was deemed ineligible due to income requirements, he felt that the scholarship required too much of a student.

“It would have benefited me a little bit if I would have accepted but at the same time, it wouldn’t. I’m not fast-paced when it comes to the pace of college,” Whyte said, referring to the 30 credit per year requirement.

The New York State HESC did not immediately respond to request for comment.

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Bronx Community College costs about $4,405 a year to attend after financial aid.

New Deal for CUNY

As Excelsior gets renewed for another year, some are looking into other ways to provide free tuition for CUNY students. The New Deal for CUNY bill, introduced by state Sen. Andrew Gournades (D-Brooklyn) in February last year, seeks to change how free college tuition works in New York.

The bill as it stands for consideration in the Higher Education Committee in the state senate would create a new “tuition reimbursement fund” controlled by the Office of the State Comptroller using funding previously earmarked for TAP and Excelsior, and would be a first dollar award. 

In an interview with the Bronx Ink, Gournades said that he believes that the Excelsior scholarship is not helping enough CUNY students and has too many requirements for students to access free college tuition.

“The reality is the Excelsior scholarship does not fully reach all of the students who would otherwise be attending CUNY,” Gournades said. “The Excelsior scholarship does not offer the type of help and does not make college affordable for those who need it most.”

While the bill is still waiting to progress through the senate, the recently-enacted state executive budget shows an increase in funding for CUNY schools. In the current fiscal year, funding for operational support for CUNY schools increased by over $62 million, according to the supplemental budget report. The overall spending budget for CUNY schools have also increased since last year, from $1.6 billion to $2.4 billion, according to the state’s budget reports.

Gournades said while he’s still fighting to pass the bill, he’s optimistic that the small steps in funding will help fuel larger investments in CUNY.

“I think there’s this belief that only if you adhere to a certain criteria, are you worthy of being invested in,” Gournades said. “So many young people at CUNY institutions today have so much promise and so much potential, and the public should be invested in that.”

The Bronx Community Board 8 held a public hearing on the School Construction Authority’s proposed public school at 160 Van Cortlandt Park South, but no one from the SCA came to the meeting which was held via zoom last Thursday. 

The board invited SCA to attend, but SCA declined.

“It’s pretty ridiculous that they are not here,” said Dan Padernacht, a board member. “We should demand from them or even forward in the resolution that they appear in front of us.”

School overcrowding has been an issue across New York State where about 37 % of school enrollment exceeds capacity, according to a 2019 report by the Citizen’s Committee for Children of New York. District 10, including Riverdale, Kingsbridge and Fordham, has an overcrowded rate of 42 %.

The SCA has proposed a 736-seat primary school grades from pre-K through five that will open in 2027. It will occupy one-half-acre sharing the site with an affordable housing project by Tishman Speyer. Residents in the area and board members have raised concerns over safety for children, traffic, parking, environmental impact and other issues the new development will bring to the neighborhood.

“I agree that a new school should be put in our neighborhood due to overcrowding in nearby schools,” said Alexandria Fittipaldi, a New York City Department of Education teacher who lives in the Bronx. “But it is important that we keep class sizes low and give our students an opportunity to learn and grow successfully.”

She also questioned the rooftop playground on the proposed school’s five-story structure.

“Being successful is also having a large outside space to run and play in addition to a playground. Not one on top of a roof,” she said.

“Most of our students live in small apartments and then they go to overcrowded classrooms. They don’t need a cramped space to play in,” she said. “They need open space.”

Christina Carlson, a resident who lives next to the proposed site, echoed that children need to “have a safe outdoor ground level playground as opposed to a rooftop cage that nobody knows how tall it is supposed to be.”

SCA first notified CB 8 about the new school proposal on November 19, 2021, but the sizing and planning of the school have since changed. The most recent document was a Negative Declaration issued by SCA on June 22, 2022, pursuant to their 144-page Environmental Review published on May 26, 2022. 

In the document, SCA determined that the project “will not have a significant adverse impact on the environment including but not limited to traffic, parking, flooding, noise, air quality, shadows, and sewer system because their plans will mitigate those impacts.”

The site is located on Van Cortlandt Park South, at the entrance to the Major Deegan Expressway. Residents living near the site said that the area has already suffered from congestion because of the volume of traffic. The SCA will mitigate some of the traffic problems with the implementation of traffic signals and adjustments to signal timing, according to the document.

“How will we be able to reassure our neighbors here that there will not be double parking of parents, guardians and caregivers picking up their children,” Fittipaldi said. “This is going to make the commute longer for everyone.”

However, without the presence of representatives from SCA, Tishman Speyer and the state senate in the public hearing, the board can only act as a mediator.

Since October 2021, the board has had people from SCA and Tishman Speyer coming to land use meetings and education meetings separately, but they never show up together.

“Both School Construction Authority and the developer (Tishman Speyer) should be here where they stand as two different projects but they stand on the same block and the impact of traffic and space etc. is a shared concern for this site,” said Rosemary Ginty, a board member.

“I think there needs to be another public hearing of this community with representatives from both agencies appearing,” she said. “You can’t figure out what the issues are or what the questions are until you get a full presentation. Otherwise, you’re just guessing what the issues and questions are. You have a feeling for your community but you need that presentation.”

Another board member, Camelia Tepelus, added that there is also a lack of authority in the meetings.

“I would beg the office to make a more concerted effort to have our elected representatives tell the community what they believe about these projects,” Tepelus said. 

“We are an advisory body but these people are people in executive positions. I do believe that the board could reach out a little bit more not to hear only from people but from the people they voted for,” she said.

Jeffrey Dinowtiz, the New York State District 81 Assemblyman, who has been supporting a new school at the site but voiced concern over the size of the school at the Sept. 13 full-board meeting did not come to the public hearing. In an email response, he said that his office does not have a formal role “other than being a voice for our community to bureaucrats.” However, he said that he is “absolutely aware of the issue,” and his office “will do what we can to help advocate for reasonable concerns to be rectified.”

The CB 8 Chair, Laura Spalter, said the SCA has stated it will respond to the comments and questions raised and will “come back later in the process to publicly discuss design and construction with representatives from the Department of Education.”

However, a joint meeting with both SCA and Tishman Speyer has yet to be scheduled.

“We’ve been told different things by different people,” said Martin Wolpoff, a board member. “There’s misinformation and there’s no information and there is counter information. And we’re not getting any of it as correct.”

Residents have reached out to both Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Senator Robert Jackson who oversee SCA about the issue.

Dozens of families attended the annual Kids Comic Con event held at Bronx Community College Saturday—the first one held in-person since 2019. This year’s convention, named Sci-Fest, was focused on the relationship between comics, science and technology.

The event was co-founded and organized by comic book writer Alex Simmons and Bronx Community College Director of Collaborative Programs, Eugene Adams, as a way of introducing Bronx kids, particularly those in Black and Latino communities, to careers in science and technology through comic books.

“We want young people to see that—of course, Iron Man is cool—but we also want you to know the technology for Iron Man,” Adams said. “They are areas that … you can actually learn from. So we combined the idea of comic books with robotics, computer science, coding and media production.”

A number of volunteer vendors had comic book displays and sketches, as well as tabletop science experiments and demonstrations. Many displays featured main characters who were people of color.

“The goal is just to see more kids of color enter STEM based careers,” said Delanda Coleman, founder of the publishing company behind More than a Princess, Sydney and Coleman. “A lot of kids, especially minority kids, children who are poor or in rural areas, don’t get the right level of exposure to STEM based concepts… so we integrate science concepts into the story.”

The convention also featured a tribute to the late actress Nichelle Nichols, who starred in the Star Trek franchise and led efforts in the 1970s to diversify recruits in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, including the hiring of the first Black American astronaut and the first female American astronaut.

“[Other] comic cons are more expensive,” said Danira Roman, a student at Bronx Community College who works with children with special needs. She added that Saturday’s convention was inviting.

Other attendees were in agreement, making references to New York Comic Con, where a one-day ticket costs $67.75 according to its website.

“It’s kind of tight right now with a lot of parents, especially mine” said Aryanna Chiraunjilal, a Bronx Community College student. “So having this free Comic Con at the college, it provides a safe environment to bring the kids out here and give them an opportunity to be excited, to explore, to meet new people, especially to be creative.”

Bronx residents voiced concerns Tuesday, over a proposed development that would include a new school and apartment complex at the site of the former Church of the Visitation at the first in-person Community Board  8 meeting since the pandemic.

Tishman Speyer, a real estate investment firm, purchased part of the former site of the Church of the Visitation, located at 171 West 239th Street in Kingsbridge, and plans to build a 336-unit residential building with approximately 70 parking spaces. The other part of the site was purchased by New York City School Construction Authority to build an approximately 736-seat school.

“We had advocated for a school on that site. They’re accommodating the school but the school that they’re accommodating is reduced to one-quarter of the property,” said Christina Carlson, a college professor at Iona University who lives close to the site.

“It doesn’t allow for a playground, it doesn’t allow for outdoor space. It’s terrible. It’s just not appropriate for the neighborhood,” Carlson said.

The Church of Visitation was closed in 2015, and its parochial school was closed in 2017. New York State 81st District Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said that since then, he has been proposing a new school. Building a new school at the site would be ideal since there are four school zones, each within a few blocks away, and the new school can alleviate the overcrowding at the other schools.

However, Tishman Speyer’s residential housing program is going to occupy 1.3 acres of the site, leaving the school with only half an acre.

“I want the school on the site, on the whole site,” said Dinowitz in the meeting. “It’s very important that we get that the school is going to be crammed into a little corner, a little part of that site. And it’s just not enough.”

There were also concerns about the housing complex.

Tishman Speyer is going to build an eight-story building with 25% studio, 45% one-bedroom, 20% two-bedroom, and 10% three-bedroom, resulting in more than 40 units per floor, according to Gary Rodney, the Managing Director and the Head of Affordable Housing at Tishman Speyer. The project is going to be built between Van Cortlandt Park South and 239th Street, and between Broadway and the entrance to the Major Deegan Expressway.

Residents are also worried that building a school and residential housing with just 70 parking spaces is going to add more pressure to the already congested corridor.

“Imagine what it would be like with at least an additional 1,000 vehicles including dozens of school buses, staff, teachers and private cars,” said Giovanni Puello, a retired consultant who also lives close to the site. “This is a recipe for a disaster.”

Carlson also voiced her concern about the traffic at the school.

“Where will they gather in the event of a fire drill, or god forbid, a fire when the fire trucks can’t get to them because of the traffic,” she said.

Robert Fanuzzi, a community board member, who was also at the land use committee meeting, voiced his concerns over the site’s geographical region, which is vulnerable to flooding.

The Bronx was heavily impacted when Hurricane Ida hit New York City last year. Kingsbridge and Van Cortlandt sections suffered most of the flooding, especially Major Deegan Expressway, right by the site.

The Major Deegan Expressway has been closed three times since Hurricane Ida.

“You (Tishman Speyer) are contributing a lot of wastewater now through additional units, residential space to already sewers that I need to tell you are at capacity and presenting a real public emergency on a regular basis now,” Fanuzzi said. “There is definitely an environmental impact of building in a flood zone.”

A spokesperson from Tishman Speyer declined an interview request, but sent a statement via email.

“We are pleased to be a part of the redevelopment of the former Visitation Church site, which will bring quality affordable housing and much-needed public school seats to the neighborhood,” it stated.  

“We are grateful for the opportunity to present our initial vision for an all-affordable apartment building to Community Board 8 and appreciate the feedback we have received from the community.”

Laura Spalter, chair of Community Board 8, said that she understands the concerns of the community regarding traffic, public safety, flood planning and education for the children, however, the Tishman Speyer affordable housing project is an as-of-right project, meaning the company can take action without obtaining permission from the community. 

“We can try to influence the design, and we have set up a committee with Tishman and members of our traffic and transportation committee, also members of our environment and sanitation committee,” Spalter said.

“But this is an as-of-right project, so we don’t have a vote.”

“It wouldn’t be as problematic if it wasn’t next to this affordable housing project. People support affordable housing. They support a school. But it’s the density,” she said. “That’s just a lot of cars, a lot of traffic, a lot of school buses… Just a lot.”

Approximately 400 students in New York’s 36th district will start this school year with new supplies after The Office of State Senator Jamaal T. Bailey hosted a back-to-school giveaway on Saturday. 

Children from preschool to high school received backpacks, drawstring bags, folders and writing utensils.

Katian Henderson, a Bronx resident for over ten years whose children attend a local public school, believes that events of this nature benefit parents who may have otherwise felt “shame” or “guilt” seeking financial assistance. Giveaways are “important to the community,” Henderson said.

Local organizations at the event also provided a range of products and services, like access to COVID-19 boosters and flu vaccines. 

Representatives from the New York Public Library signed parents and children up for library cards and the mayor’s office and New York’s sanitation department hosted a table handing out informative pamphlets about housing and insurance alongside supplies. 

Another Williamsbridge parent, Elizabeth Douglas, often attends community events. She said that Bailey is “always doing stuff for the children.” 

This back-to-school giveaway is a staple event of the senator’s office. At the event, Bailey emphasized the importance of adequate funding for schools, a “diverse” and “inclusive” curriculum and ensuring that students have the chance to “rise from adversity.” 

Bailey has prioritized education since he entered office in 2017. In 2018, as a member of the Senate Children and Families Committee, Bailey sponsored Senate Bill S7983 which is currently under review in the state senate’s Education Committee., The bill would “ensure that all students entering high school have an opportunity to participate in the discovery program to gain access to specialized high schools in the city of New York.”

On weekday afternoons, Co-Op City resident Hewan Fraser takes a walk along Baychester Avenue to pick his kids up from school. He first stops by P.S. 178, the Dr. Selman Waksman School, for his nine-year-old daughter then makes his way over to P.S. 153, the Helen Keller School, where his seven-year-old son is a second grader in the gifted and talented program. 

In pre-school, both of the Fraser kids took the admissions test required for entry to New York City’s gifted programs, but only one of them scored high enough to enroll. 

“It is night and day as far as the type of facilities, the type of education, and even the staff,” Fraser said about the difference between the two schools. At P.S. 153, his son is in an academically rigorous environment, but at P.S. 178 his daughter is not, Fraser said. 

“Part of the reason that my wife and I are still living here, is because of the attention that he gets at (his) school,” Fraser said about his son.

Much may be changing for the Fraser family.

Gifted programs have been under scrutiny citywide, given the recent recommendation by a group of 45 parents, students, educators and advocates that such programs be phased out. The group—known as the School Diversity Advisory Group or SDAG—was established three years ago to assess the state of New York City public schools and recommend ways to make them more equitable and diverse. It’s a mission that Mayor Bill de Blasio has long had on his agenda. 

Though de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza have not yet offered a definitive answer on the fate of the city’s gifted and talented programs, they announced last month that they would take the 2019–2020 school year to decide. The decision will only be made after considering public input, they said.

“We have to make sense of the recommendations very carefully,” said de Blasio at a press conference held on the first day of school. “We know we are going to take the whole year for deep stakeholder engagement to really think it through because we’re all trying to figure out what’s a fair way of going forward.”

Should Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza adopt the recommendation as policy, gifted and talented programs in elementary schools across the city would eventually come to an end. That includes the nine programs located in the Bronx.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. has openly opposed the SDAG recommendation and its potential implications in the Bronx community. “The path toward true equity is providing quality education to every student at every grade and the mayor’s administration should expand, not eliminate, accelerated learning opportunities for our children,” Diaz wrote to Bronx Ink in a prepared statement. “If more black and Latino students take the test, more will undoubtedly qualify for these programs.”

Back in 2017, Diaz partnered with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to produce a gifted and talented report of their own wherein both presidents concluded that the way to save gifted education in the city is to increase access by testing all pre-kindergarten public school students, not just those whose parents opt them in. 

The SDAG argued in their report on screened programs in NYC schools, however, that the test is an exclusionary admissions practice which segregates students by race and socioeconomic status, especially considering that “families who can afford to enroll their four and five year-old children in test prep programs have an important and often consequential advantage in G&T admissions.”

Using data provided by the NYC Department of Education, the SDAG showed that although 65 percent of all NYC public school kindergarteners were black and Latino in the 2016–2017 school year, only 18 percent of the kindergartens offered gifted and talented enrollment were black and Latino, meaning the majority of gifted and talented students were white or Asian.

The opposite is reflected in the Bronx where, during that same year, roughly 64 percent of all Bronx gifted and talented students identified as black or Latino. 

For Thomas Sheppard, a parent of three public school students in District 11, the failure of gifted education in New York is that the programs don’t recognize that demographic distinction. “People have an assumption that all gifted and talented programs are the same and they’re not—just like our schools aren’t the same, just like our communities are not the same,” he said.

Sheppard, who is also a member of the District 11 Community Education Council, which has not officially taken a position on the SDAG report and gifted programs, has his own recommendation for how gifted education could improve.

“These programs need to be much more enriching,” he added. “What they (gifted and talented students in the Bronx) learn should reflect who they are, not just from a culturally responsive place, but from a place that helps them develop what they want to do with their lives.”

Sheppard agrees with the SDAG that gifted programs should be phased out in order to develop equitable curriculums that served each community’s needs.  

Although the recommendation to move away from gifted programs has proved a controversial issue, those involved in making the recommendation don’t view the phasing out of  programs as the end-goal. “The idea is not to just pull the rug out and then say ‘all right figure it out,’” said Matt Gonzales, director of the Integration and Innovation Initiative at NYU Metro Center and a member of the SDAG. Instead the group wants the city to provide funding so that school districts can develop their own alternatives to the current programs, he said. 

“Let’s build in a process that communities can have a stake in and a role in shaping education policy and priorities,” Gonzales said.

As the father of a gifted program student, Hewan Fraser’s priority is that his son doesn’t get left behind. If the gifted programs go, so might he and his family. Fraser would consider moving to his second home in upstate New York, or enrolling both of his children in private school.

About 40 middle school children—all but one from Bangladeshi immigrant families in the Bronx—sat quietly inside a stark classroom at Khan’s Tutorial in Parkchester on a Sunday afternoon in September. Barely audible from the upstairs classroom were the sounds of children playing at a nearby park as the 12 and 13-year-olds reviewed fractions, greatest common factors and least common multiples.

Eighth grader Rafsan Zaman, with the beginnings of a moustache and a mouthful of braces, reviewed again and again the one math problem he missed on a practice test from that morning. Rafsan’s name was up on the Khan’s Tutorial room whiteboard as it had been nearly every week. It meant that he was the top scorer on the 100-question practice exam for the specialized high school admissions test, known as the SHSAT, the all important gateway exam into the city’s eight legendary, elite public high schools. It was set to be given on October 24 and 25–in just two weeks.

Eighth grader Rafsan Zaman studies nearly 15 hours a week for the specialized high school exam he will take at the end of the month.

Still, for Rafsan, one wrong answer meant there was room for improvement. Parents said they can spend up to $4,000 for the year-long tutoring program. Their hopes for their children’s futures depend on a high score.

“Every time the score comes back it gives me more information of what I need to study,” said Rafsan, tightly clutching an algebra practice book under his arm. The eighth grader expects to get into Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, considered the best of the best of the elite schools that include Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech and LaGuardia School of the Arts. Admissions decisions are based solely on results from the highly competitive SHSAT, a requirement that is currently up for debate in the state legislature.

“It sets the way for college and career,” Rafsan said.

Three rows behind Rafsan sat Rahat Mahbub, also an eighth grader, but with a younger face and gentler demeanor. Rahat worried that his reading comprehension scores would not be good enough. His mother, Taamina Mahbub, enrolled him in Khan’s SHSAT prep program in June of 2013. She feels almost the same pressure as her son, and urges him to keep studying. “The process is stressful and the culture is competitive,” Taamina Mahbub said. “I am really nervous—usually the parent is more nervous than the child.”

For the last two decades, this private SHSAT tutoring company has successfully targeted the city’s growing Bangladeshi immigrant community. Khan’s Tutorial, a 20-year-old institution begun in Queens, recently set up its second center in the Bronx, following the Bangladeshi immigrant migration from Jackson Heights to Parkchester that began in the 1990s. The website advertises prices at $15 per hour. Parents said they pay as much as $4,000 for their children to attend tutoring nearly two years before the exam, hoping a high score will help guarantee placement in a good university down the road.

Since its founding in 1994, Khan’s has sent 1,400 students to specialized high schools. Some students come two weeks prior to the exam for tutoring, some start as early as the sixth grade. The company’s administrators recommend that students prepare for the exam at least one year in advance. “For South Asians or Asian Americans, the SHSAT has been the common path to pursue in our culture,” said Sami Raab, director of Khan’s Tutorial in Jamaica Queens. “You see testing as important and that carries over to first generation children.”

Khan’s Tutorial, a prep center for standardized tests like the SHSAT, opened a second location in the Bronx this year to accommodate the growing Bangladeshi community in Parkchester.

For students who are well prepped, scoring high on the SHSAT is possible, but for those who can’t afford tutoring programs, or don’t know about the test at all, access to specialized high schools remains out of reach. Bronx students have historically ranked at the bottom in the city in terms of the number of children who take the test, and who score high enough to be considered for admission. Although the city provides free tutorials, such as the DREAM Specialized High School Institute (SHSI)—a rigorous 22-month program offered to sixth graders with high test scores and financial need—some feel that more needs to be done. Many, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, believe that the single test criterion is unjust and leads to student bodies in the elite schools that do not represent the public school population.

Last year, 375 Latino and 243 African American public middle school students were offered admission at the eight specialized high schools, compared with 2,601 Asian and 1,256 white students; this in a system where 72 percent of the public school students are black and Latino. After a complaint lodged by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the increased controversy over the schools’ one test admission process, Mayor de Blasio proposed a bill in June that would allow for criteria such as attendance and grade point average to be considered as well. Those in favor of the bill claim the legislation would give students without extended tutoring and prep, a better shot at specialized high schools.

Assembly member Luis Sepulveda who represents Castle Hill and Parkchester, is a co sponsor on the bill. He called the 12 percent of African American and Latino students at the elite three specialized high schools—Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science “dismal” and “unacceptable.”

“Anyone can have a bad day and do poorly on a test,” Sepulveda said. “Schools have to look at other criteria. It’s not solely about your education, it’s about your involvement in your community.”

The day after de Blasio proposed the bill last June, coalitions in favor of the test formed in protest.  Don’t Abolish The SHSAT and CoalitionEdu, as well as parent and alumni associations from the specialized schools, argued that the test did not cause a lack of diversity in the high schools. Instead, they said, the fault lay with a school system that failed to prepare more diverse students to pass it. Don’t Abolish The SHSAT has collected 4,198 signatures through its website and CoalitionEdu offers politicians’ contact information, urging parents and students to get involved. These groups claim the school district’s lack of communication about the test leaves students from low socioeconomic backgrounds out of the loop until it’s too late to study.

“The overall issue is failing K through Sixth grade and middle school systems throughout New York City,” said the head of Khan’s Tutorial, Ivan Khan. “By proposing a more holistic approach, wealthier families will have better access to more subjective resources. We strongly feel that those should be explored further rather than changing the criteria.”

While Khan’s Tutorial addresses the bill from the corporate level, tutors keep the issue at bay during weekend test prep. Rafsan and Rahat had two more Saturday classes before they took take the two-hour test alongside 27,000 other eighth graders on October 25 or 26.

“It’s just a test,” said Rahat, with uncommon calmness. “I know it’s the most convenient way, but one Saturday moment doesn’t determine everything.” Rahat’s mother believes an essay or report card should be included. His stay-at-home mom has seen too many bright students miss out on the opportunity to go to a specialized high school because of the single criterion. “It should change,” Mahbub said. “One test is not fair. One or two points and you have to go to another school.”

Still, tensions are high as the test date approaches. It may abate after the test is given, but will likely return in February when the results are announced. Middle schools, tutoring centers and the Parkchester neighborhood unofficially referred to as Bangla Bazaar, will buzz with the news of who got in where. And who didn’t.

Mohammad Rahman, a 14-year-old from Castle Hill, remembers the day last February when his SHSAT results came back. Fifteen months of prep at Khan’s in Castle Hill and countless hours studying at home were for naught—Mohammad’s scores weren’t high enough to get accepted. He would not join his brother at a specialized high school. “I felt to an extent ashamed I didn’t get in,” Mohammad said. “My mom felt I should follow in [my brother’s] footsteps.” Now a freshman at Manhattan Center for Math and Science, Mohammad thinks maybe the single test process isn’t fair. “People just study the test format,” he said.

Wasi Choudhury writes the top scoring students’ names on the whiteboard as incentive for all of the students to study harder. “Everyone’s goal is to get on that list,” he said.

Photocopies of practice tests fill Rafsan’s backpack. He estimates he has taken over 20 by now. Because Khan’s Tutorial is known for giving diagnostic tests that are more difficult than the actual SHSAT, Rafsan is hopeful. “If you can get a 95 or a 96 on these tests, you can definitely get into a specialized high school,” he said.

Rafsan’s tutor at Khan’s Tutorial, Wasi Choudhury, will continue to write the top scorers’ names on the whiteboard for the class to see. There are only 2,500 seats in the top three specialized high schools and students know their competition is each other.

“Everyone’s goal is to get on that list,” Choudhury said. “It pushes them to get up there.” Choudhury, a student at New York University and an alumnus of Bronx Science said Rafsan has a good shot of “going specialized,” though tutors can never know for sure. “Stress ruins it for a lot of students,” Choudhury said. “There were kids that we said were sure to get in and failed the test.”

Rahat lives a few blocks away from Khan’s center in Parkchester and looks forward to the coming weeks when he doesn’t have to come sit for four hours on the weekends. This summer his family will be able to visit Bangladesh—a vacation forgone last summer due to his tutoring schedule. In November, Rahat plans to apply to private schools, in case the test day doesn’t go as planned.

But life will be good, he said, if he scores high enough on the test. “I’m going to play six hours a day. Nothing will matter because you got into a specialized high school.”

Josselin wants to go to college some day and her mother ,Maria Gama , is determined to help her, despite the odds. (VALENTINE PASQUESOONE/The Bronx Ink).

Maria Gama wants nothing more than to send her 15-year-old to college. The 34-year-old immigrant from Mexico was never able to complete high school herself, and she wanted something more for her daughter.  So Gama, who works as a housekeeper and a nanny in Manhattan, looked around her Highbridge neighborhood for advice.

She quickly realized help was hard to come by. It turns out that the neighborhood has one of the lowest rates of college graduates in the city. The U.S. Census reported that only 7.5 percent received a diploma from a four-year college, compared to 18 percent of around the Bronx.  About 19 percent of Highbridge’s residents enrolled in college at one time or another and never finished.

Even fewer–5.6 percent in Highbridge–received a community college diploma, a full 36 percentage points behind New York City’s average.

During her freshman year at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, Josselin was able to find a summer program for promising high school students in Westchester County. She spent weeks there surrounded by college bound kids, which helped open her eyes to the possibilities. “She saw the difference between people who study and people who don’t,” said Gama.

Still the hurdles are only beginning. In Highbridge, only 13 percent of Highbridge students are ready for college when they graduate. Many point to something called the opportunity gap. A new report from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University shows in statistical terms how living in a low-income neighborhood can affect high school students’ chances to go to college.

“The poorer you are, the worse your education is,” said Peg Tyre, author who works as a director of strategy at the Edwin Gould Foundation, a non profit dedicated to funding college readiness programs for underprivileged kids. “Education is probably the most powerful lever in reducing economic inequities.” In 2011, an adult with a bachelor’s degree earned an average of $1,053 a week in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor. Someone with no college education earned $415 less every week.

Residents in the mostly low-income Highbridge section of the Bronx are now starting to worry about how few of its youth residents go to college —an issue that had remained under-addressed for years.

“Most people don’t even think about college here,” said Chauncy Young, 36, a community education organizer since 2004.

The initiative to finally tackle it came from the United Parents of Highbridge. A member of the parent organization, Young was among those to identify programs to prepare students for college as a key issue for the year, during one of the organizations’ monthly meetings at the Highbridge Library on August 29.

Gabriela Silverio, a community activist, writes down ideas to help prepare students for college in the neighborhood, at a United Parents of Highbridge meeting on Aug. 29. (VALENTINE PASQUESOONE/The Bronx Ink).

Community organizers and education advocates talked about college trips and college fairs, discussions about colleges between teachers, principals and students in the neighborhood’s schools. “And explain what it really takes to go to college,” Young said. “What are the financial resources available? What are the steps? Parents just don’t know the options.”

Maria Gama, who wasn’t at the meeting, moved from Morrissania to the neighborhood in February. She said many of her friends there send their children to the closest colleges like the Bronx Community College. “They don’t know about the greater opportunities they might have,” she said. Maria Gama wasn’t aware of college possibilities for her daughter until a friend told Josselin to search admissions’ requirement for a variety of colleges.

“My family was talking about college, and that’s about it,” said Brigitte Bermudez, a 20-year-old resident who grew up in Highbridge. “Children don’t care about college. But teachers should have pushed us, they should have given us the information.”

Brigitte Bermudez, 20, hopes to return to college next year. (VALENTINE PASQUESOONE/The Bronx Ink).

Bermudez went to Boricua College in Manhattan for a year, but she dropped out in June. She said she didn’t like it after a while. Her professors in the second semester were not as engaging, and she felt it was high school again. She is now trying to apply to other colleges for next year.

Bermudez’s grandmother, Aida Davis, has taken her to a few United Parents of Highbridge meetings to help her with college searches. Otherwise, Bermudez said, “there’s nobody to go through applications with here.”

Schools and community organizations have so far only taken small steps to raise college awareness in the neighborhood. Last May, two college representatives came to the library to introduce their universities. Leticia Rosario, the principal of P.S/I.S. 218, said on August 29 that her school would hold a college fair in December.

Sarah Gale, a 32-year-old business consultant and member of the United Parents of Highbridge, said the process of choosing a middle school for her son —and worrying about college ahead of time— was “nerve-wracking”. “Unless we do the research to get our youth into the right schools, there’s not much hope for them here,” she said.

Her son now goes to the Thurgood Marshall Academy, a college-preparatory school in Harlem. “He’s 13, and he knows where he wants to go to college,” Gale said. “Most of his friends don’t talk about it at all.”