• Since our last correspondence, John Liu lost his bid for a State Senate seat, improving our chances of victory in Albany! • The NYC Department of Education is considering changing the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test by adding an essay and translating it into 10 languages, as evident in their request last month for proposals from vendors to administer the SHSAT. • CoalitionEdu filed a formal protest through an attorney, Claude Millman, objecting to the changes to the SHSAT because an essay is scored subjectively, which violates state law mandating that admission be through an "objective" scholastic achievement test. • The Alumni Associations of Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, Stuyvesant and all 6 of the other specialized high schools including LaGuardia HS have formed a coalition to maintain objective admissions standards at these schools. • A Forum has been planned for Saturday October 18 at 3:00 PM in the Auditorium of the Taiwan Center 137-44 Northern Blvd Flushing NY. A panel will discuss proposed changes to the admissions policy for the specialized high schools. The forum will be co-sponsored by The Queens Chronicle, and politicians and experts have been invited. Event details: Specialized High Schools Community Forum Sponsored by The Queens Chronicle and CoalitionEdu.org Saturday October 18, 2014 3:00 PM Taiwan Center Auditorium 137-44 Northern Blvd. Flushing NY 11354 Invited Panelists include: • Assemblyman Ron Kim • Assembly Candidate Phil Gim Topics include: • Changes under discussion to the SHSAT-only admission policy • How changes to the SHSAT or the admission policy would affect Queens • What can be done about overcrowded Queens schools • Informational Question and Answer period Moderating the discussion will be Laura Shepard, contributing journalist to the Queens Chronicle. For more information please contact info@CoalitionEdu.org