Admissions Policies for Elite Public Schools

Yeah, Jackson Heights and Flushing are teaming with rich immigrants.

 

The type of parents who get their kids into test prep that intense would set up their kids to succee academically by any standard. Fair or not, meritocracy favors certain upbringings.

 

My wife used to teach at a public school that was one of the better schools in a city not known for its strong academic reputation. In literature bragging on its diversity, the school said that "both black and white students" are welcome. As good as that school was/is (not sure; don't live there any longer), the boneheadedness of some of the stuff it produced was amazing.

 

Teeming.

Also, you are taking a broad demographic profile of an entire region and assuming it applies for this subset of 50 or 100 kids. That's just stupid of you.

Chinese and Indian parents who bring their kids here have an astronomically higher educational and financial background than other immigrant communities.

 

Asian-American household income is considerably higher than the average.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/19/asian-immigrants-america-surpass-hispanics

As a group, Asian immigrants stand out for their disproportionate participation in the top end of the labor market and high levels of education and income, according to the Pew report, "The Rise of Asian-Americans". Asians account for three-quarters of new H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. India alone accounted for 56% of H-1Bs issued in 2011. The median household income of Asian Americans was $66,000, compared with a national average of $49,800.

 

I would of have never passed that test.

 

I took that test a million years ago -- the day that I took the test, there was a parade for the hostages coming back from Iran -- and got into Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science but whiffed on Stuyvesant. I remember that I was totally clueless as to the format until I sat down to take the test, but there were certainly lots of kids who took prep sessions/were tutored even then.

It is probably more of a preparation/awareness thing than just a money thing. I will say, if you go to Science or especially Stuyvesant, that is a mark of prestige which can last a lifetime.

 

Thanks for the black mark.

Both my father and I attended Bronx Science. The demographics of the school have certainly changed. Back when my dad was there, it was mostly Jews -- many of them first-generation Americans -- and predominantly from the Bronx. My friends were mainly Asians from Queens who endured two-hour commutes each way for school.

I went to a prep course for the exam because my mom insisted on it. Most of my friends did not. Same thing for the SAT and, much more recently, the GRE. Like Webster, I'm not sure it was a matter of economics. They didn't even know such a thing existed back when we were all in eighth grade.

 

It would be nice to hear the folks filing the suit explain how the tests are racially biased to benefits Asians but not whites, blacks and Hispanics.

 

I understand that characterization, Ragu. My wife is from a family like that. Very blue-collar -- here. But in their home country they were very well-educated, as most from the culture are. And not coincidentally, most of the immigrants from Asia are here legally and thus are more likely to be engaged in available services and opportunities.

Even in those blue-collar communities, the education and financial profile of the parents would be much higher than in a similar community of Latin immigrants (or, for that matter, in many neighborhoods that are predominantly African-American).

It's a tough situation because the opportunities are available and one culture chooses to prioritize and use them while another culture doesn't. So the results are about what you'd expect. But to YF's earlier question of how many of those kids are getting the test prep and tutoring, I would again say, in the Asian cultures probably all of them, even if we would consider them poor or low-income.