Chancellor Carranza's efforts to diversify NYC schools

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Since taking the job in March, New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has made diversifying public schools his top priority. Now as he prepares to begin his first full school year, his ambitious ideas will be put to the test.

One plan includes giving admissions preference at some of the best public middle schools to underperforming students who come from low-income families. The chancellor believes doing so will increase diversity at schools.

When the proposal was first introduced, many parents of students at P.S. 199 on the Upper West Side there told me they are against it.

Another bold move also supported by Mayor Bill de Blasio includes trying to get rid of the test to get into elite specialized high schools in the city. Right now, middle school students hoping to attend certain high schools (such as Stuyvesant in Lower Manhattan) have one way in: a standardized test called the Specialized High School Aptitude Test, or SHSAT.

If the mayor and the schools chancellor get their way, the test will disappear. However, dropping the SHSAT first needs state approval.

Currently, black and Hispanic students make up nearly 70 percent of the city's public high school population but hold just 10 percent of seats at elite high schools.