Disproportionately low percentages of students of color in Boston’s lauded exam schools prompted a City Council hearing on Tuesday, where councillors probed school officials and experts from non-profits and educational advocacy groups on the barriers to entry and possible solutions.

Co-sponsored by Council President Andrea Campbell and Councillor Kim Janey, the two-and-a-half-hour hearing delved into data for Boston Latin Academy, Boston Latin School, and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics & Science. The city’s three exam schools all accept students from grades 7 to 9, though the O’Bryant will also accept students for grade 10 contingent on space, solely based on middle school student performance on the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) and grade point average.

Demographically, the schools are not reflective of the larger BPS student body. Black and Hispanic students are 75 percent of the student body as a whole, but only 40 percent of the exam schools in all and 20 percent of Boston Latin School.

“These are not new conversations,” said Janey at the hearing. “These are conversations that have been happening for years now.”

Arising from a 2016 School Committee decision that called for revisions to the exam school entrance requirements to “increase opportunities for students of color,” a working group is rolling out policies to increase the number of applicants of color and address systemic barriers, said Interim Superintendent Laura Perille.

The ISEE, the council submits, disadvantages students who are unable to prepare for it independently, as it includes information not found in the normal 5th or 6th grade BPS curriculum. A more holistic process drawing from MCAS scores and other metrics would lead to greater access to the elite schools, according to a 2018 study from the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Perille reviewed four recommendations to improve admittance rates for Black and Hispanics students: using a top percentage for students by zip code, a top percentage by elementary schools, a holistic model that ranks students by a variety of factors, or use a BPS specific test.

“We have been looking at all of those,” Perille said, adding: “Some of these are complicated proposals that really are very large citywide conversations and also looks into logistically, legally, all of those things, how would you make some of the big changes? For instance, conversations around percentages. While those conversations are happening and we think those are important conversations, our strategies have been aimed at things we can do right now to address reducing barriers and increasing access.”

One program “in mid-stream right now” that should help with test taking is a pre-registration protocol that identifies students “that have a high potential of making it into the exam school,” said Colin Rose, assistant superintendent for opportunity and achievement gaps, but also allow an opt-in for those who are not on that list and an opt-out for those on the list that are not interested.

“We’re attempting to be conscious of the fact that we’re introducing another test for students, and so I think it’s for that reason that the team has thought carefully about this,” Perille said.

Elaborating on Rose’s point, Perille said “BPS has begun using a broader set of criteria, so we’re no longer relying on — for those of you are familiar — the Terra Nova test you take in third grade that sends you to into advanced work class, looking at a range of MCAS statistics, disaggregated, as well as grades to cast the broadest possible net to identify students who would then be strong.”

Councillor Annissa Essaibi-George raised a question on the frequency of students who are on disability or special needs programs who are accepted to exam schools but are not able to stay.

“We’ve received phone calls in my office about that, and I think it’s because the special ed services aren’t happening in a satisfactory way at the exam schools,” Essaibi-George said.

Two of the three exam schools are in Janey’s district, and she said she is “encouraged” by some of the efforts made to expand the exam school applicant pool. She asked a panel including Rev. Willie Bodrick II if they had a favorite improvement from the four listed recommendations.

They all said a holistic model is called for, and emphasized the school district’s responsibility to help invest in extracurriculars if those are going to be taken into account.

“I think we need to think critically about how do we comprehensively support and fund the realities of our young people,” Bodrick said. “And if we’re going to have the conversation about how to move toward a holistic model, we also need to have a conversation around a budgetary response to these issue where we know there are huge inequities and gaps as well.”

Campbell said after the meeting that they are watching existing short-term solutions like “adjusting grade configurations, so BPS students are not at a disadvantage against their private school counterparts,” and making the ISEE available to all fifth and sixth graders and administered in their schools.

On the long-term front, Campbell said it will be an ongoing conversation with BPS.

“I just want the administration to have a sense of timeline and deadline for the community for when this will actually happen,” she said.