Bill to Add Specialized Schools And Expand Test-Prep Counters Mayor

State Sen. Leroy Comrie of Queens has proposed legislation that would expand free test prep for the specialized high schools admissions test to all 6th and 7th graders in city public schools and would establish gifted and talented programs in each school district to increase the number of black and Latino students accepted to the elite schools—but education experts believed the planned reforms would not shake things up enough.

The bill, introduced less than a week before the State Legislature adjourned for the year, pushes back against Mayor de Blasio’s controversial plan to eliminate the test required to gain entry to the eight elite schools in order to diversify them. Although black and Latino students make up about 70 percent of public high-school students, they comprise just 10 percent of students at the specialized high schools.