Hunter Students, Teachers Protest After School Keeps Exam

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Dozens of students and teachers protested outside Hunter College High School on Friday, blasting administrators' decision to keep a controversial entrance exam that critics say perpetuates segregation.

"Hunter has failed the students of New York City for far too long," said senior Chloë Rollock, one of only six Black students in her graduating class of 201 people. "It is long past time to take a step towards real change."

The highly selective public school, on East 94th Street and Park Avenue, has faced harsh criticism for its worsening "diversity crisis" — as of last year, it was just 6.2 percent Latino and 2.4 percent Black, far lower figures than the rest of its school district, and less diverse than Hunter itself was decades ago.

Students and faculty have blamed that trend on Hunter's entrance exam, which is typically administered each January to high-performing sixth-graders across the city. After the city suspended it last year during the pandemic, the student group HCHS4Diversity pushed administrators to cancel it again in 2021 and replace it with a weighted lottery.

Their campaign was boosted in December by the New York Times editorial board, and again the following month in a letter signed by 37 elected officials across the city, who urged Hunter leaders not to administer the exam this year.

That advocacy did not prevail on administrators, who announced last month that Hunter would hold its exam again in June — ending months of silence that had left some puzzled.

Lisa Siegmann, director of the Hunter College Campus Schools, said at the time that Hunter was still evaluating how to improve diversity, in part through a task force of students, alumni, faculty and parents.

The nearly 100 people who gathered Friday took aim at the decision, which they said came "with little notice" and in spite of their repeated demands.

"We thought we were a school where teachers' voices mattered," said Eugene Lim, a librarian at Hunter who said many fellow faculty had pushed to reform the exam. "But this year has shown that to be a lie."

Students have vowed to continue the campaign into the next academic year.

Previous coverage:

• Despite Student Protests, Hunter Keeps Contested Entrance Exam
  
• Pols Pressure Hunter High School To Scrap Test, Improve Diversity
• Hunter Students Lament School's Growing 'Diversity Crisis'