A disproportionately small number of Black and Hispanic students received admission offers to New York City’s elite public high schools for the upcoming academic year, continuing a pattern of racial and ethnic gaps that has existed for years despite promises by elected officials to address the divide.

About 62 percent of the students in the city’s public schools are Black or Hispanic. But at its eight most prestigious high schools, about 10 percent of the students in the incoming freshman class are expected to be Black or Hispanic, roughly the same as last year. About 80 percent of the seats went to Asian and white students.

At Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, often considered the most selective of the city’s specialized high schools, three of the 777 offers were made to Black students, and 21 were for Hispanic students, together representing a nearly one-third decline from the previous freshman class. One Black student was admitted to Staten Island Technical High School.

While only 5 percent of high school students attend a specialized school, the annual release of the admission results has stirred debate and scrutiny for decades, especially as the profile of students in those schools stands in stark contrast to the rest of the school system, the nation’s largest. Gaining entrance to the schools has been perceived as a path out of poverty and a gateway to the nation’s top colleges and, perhaps, a flourishing career.

The sole criterion for admission is a 114-question, three-hour exam known as the Specialized High School Admissions Test, a grueling assessment of students’ mastery of math and English that rewards multistep problem-solving skills and time management. Test preparation companies offer middle schoolers years of practice and coaching.

Critics have called the one-day, high-stakes test racially discriminatory, saying it does not capture a student’s intelligence or capabilities. Supporters say it is a fair, rigorous and meritocratic assessment.

The critics have included Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, a specialized school, and the two previous mayors. Bill de Blasio called the admissions process a “monumental injustice,” while his successor, Eric Adams, labeled it a “Jim Crow school system.”

Before his run for mayor, Mr. Mamdani had called for the high school exam to be abolished, but did not make that position central to his campaign. He softened his stance last year, describing the issue as a “struggle” for him.

After the latest release of admissions results from the city’s Department of Education, Mr. Mamdani’s administration said that it was “reviewing these results carefully.” About 10 percent of offers at Bronx Science went to Black or Hispanic students, about the same as when Mr. Mamdani graduated.

“We know that a single test does not reflect the aptitude of students across the city,” Mr. Mamdani said on Tuesday at a news conference on an unrelated issue. “We know that there is so much more work to be done, especially to address the racial inequities that we’ve seen not just when we’re talking about the disparities in admissions of one test, but across the system as a whole.”

Efforts to reform the admissions process have been met with fierce resistance from alumni groups and multimillion-dollar lobbying efforts. Eliminating or altering the entrance process would require action by the State Legislature, which approved the test-based admissions system for the specialized high schools in 1971.

Any changes would undoubtedly be scrutinized by the Trump administration, which has cracked down on diversity efforts in public schools and sought to cut federal funding over programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

During the past 50 years, enrollment of Black and Hispanic students at the schools has plunged as Asian representation has surged. Enrollment of white students has also fallen. About 19 percent of all public school students are Asian, but they received 57 percent of the offers for the specialized schools for the fall.

At Brooklyn Technical High School, the number of Black students climbed to more than 50 percent in the early 1980s, but this year, it is less than 4 percent. In the 1980s, students from all over the city attended the school, including Sam Adewumi from the South Bronx.

Mr. Adewumi said that his middle-school teachers not only made him aware of the test and the specialized schools, but also prepared him and other students for the exam. Three other students from his eighth-grade class attended Brooklyn Tech with him, he said.

“Middle schools don’t have that as a priority anymore,” said Mr. Adewumi, who later taught math and engineering at Brooklyn Tech for 12 years before recently retiring. “Many middle schools are just trying to stay afloat to have students pass the state tests.”

Mr. Adewumi, who runs a test prep organization, said that it would be nearly impossible for students to receive a high score on the specialized high school exam without months if not years of studying. The questions are far more challenging than those on state exams, he said, and students who have practiced and are familiar with the test’s structure are at an advantage.

Students’ scores are not determined by individual performance but instead based on how students compare with their peers. Students must move through the exam at a quick, steady pace and, on the math questions, will fall behind if they have not memorized formulas.

Once again this year, the admission results led some elected officials to demand changes. Lincoln Restler, a City Council member from Brooklyn, said that the admissions process — and its reliance on a single test — was “deeply flawed” and that it should be broadened to include multiple evaluations, such as a student’s writing abilities.

“It’s not how we do admissions for colleges, for law school, for business school, for medical school,” Mr. Restler said. “How on earth do we do it for these specialized high schools?”

Yiatin Chu, a public school parent and the co-founder of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, a group that has supported gifted and talented programs, said that the entrance exam was a “race-blind, income-blind test.”

Ms. Chu attended Bronx Science and her daughter will be a sophomore next school year at Stuyvesant. She said the exam was a fair measurement that should remain.

“These schools are rigorous and demanding, and students who go to these schools should be well-prepared to take that on,” Ms. Chu said. “Why are we minimizing the effort that is put in for something that is important to them?”

Kirsten Noyes contributed research.