To be fair, many are concerned about the results and want to help more black and Latino students succeed. But their common starting point is trying to determine why more of those students do not score higher on the test. However well intentioned, they are asking the wrong question.

By legitimizing test-only admissions, many well-intentioned people are (perhaps inadvertently) laying blame on the students who are hurt by the policy, implicitly suggesting that they do not work hard, that they need to improve and better demonstrate their academic merit, that the poor admissions results are a byproduct of poverty and failing middle schools and that there are simply not enough qualified black and Latino students to justify more than a handful of admission offers.

The resulting narrative of inferiority has had a paralyzing effect on policy.

While running for mayor, Bill de Blasio criticized the admissions policy and called for change. Many current and former staff members in his administration have denounced it as well. And a number of reports have provided a road map for change. But so far his administration has merely adopted predictable and feckless interventions that not only have been proven ineffective by the latest admissions numbers but also insult the intelligence and dignity of black and Latino students: expansion of test prep courses, outreach to encourage more black and Latino students to take the test, expansion of prekindergarten, making slight changes to the test and administering it on a more convenient day in certain middle schools.

If the administration is truly committed to admitting black and Latino students who deserve to be in specialized high schools, it must find the courage to disrupt the status quo and ask the harder questions. For example, why not ask how the schools could do a better job — not of expanding or improving the applicant pool, but of recognizing the talent we know exists among black and Latino students? What if the school district (still under significant mayoral control) and the State Legislature (which mandates a test-only policy for three of the schools) started from scratch to create an admissions process that rewards those who do well in middle school? What if school officials and the public actually believed there are many talented black and Latino students who can succeed in an elite setting? What if they were willing to create a process that recognized their merit?

These are the big questions. Asking these types of questions will help to shift the false, prevailing narrative that only a few black and Latino students are good enough for the city’s best high schools. It will help New Yorkers get to some real solutions and a fairer process — not only for those students, but for everyone.