After an over five year wait, the DOE finally released the Metis Associates report on whether the SHSAT is an indicator of student academic achievement in high schools. The report's conclusion was that there was a strong correlation between passing the SHSAT and academic achievement in high school. The question is why did the DOE refuse to release the report to the public for five years?
The report was commissioned by the DOE after the NAACP filed a civil rights complaint that the SHSAT was not a valid indicator of student academic achievement. In the New York Times article the report found that the mean G.P.A. for students who scored high enough on the test to be accepted to one of the specialized high schools was 3.036 in their first year compared with 2.387 for students who were not accepted to the specialized schools. Similarly, the mean scores for accepted students on Regents examinations ranged between 82.59 and 93.41 across various subjects. The mean scores for students not admitted ranged from 68.69 and 79.16.
Obviously, the Metis Associates report did not support the NAACP's claim that the SHSAT was not a valid indicator of student academic achievement in high school and the City administration decided not to release the report. Why?
The answer to that question needs to be made public. Was it a racial issue? How about poverty? Maybe it was due to political considerations? Could it be all three? The public has a right to know why the DOE refused to release the report to the public? What were they afraid of?
