Along with former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, the Bronx Science graduate is putting up an additional $500,000 to renew and expand a test prep tutoring program for African-American and Hispanic city kids.
The two men launched Education Equity last year to counter calls to scrap the single test admissions structure at the eight schools in favor of multiple metrics.
The group said that 31 of the 197 kids enrolled in their first tutoring program scored high enough on the test to land specialized high school spots for the upcoming school year.
“While we continue to work with the City Council on passing universal test prep, we’re building on last year’s success by enrolling twice as many Black and Latino students in proven test prep courses this summer,” Lauder said.
Rather than scrap the single-test system, Education Equity has pushed for universal tutoring, an expansion of specialized high school seats, more Gifted and Talented programs in low-income areas, letting kids take the test during school, and the creation of a task force to probe the state of city middle schools where more than half of students fail basic English and math.
