Admissions Policies for Elite Public Schools

Sadly, I think what this issue eventually works its way around to is the old cliche about how black and Latin kids are mocked for "acting white" and doing well in school.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060400126.html

Among white teens, Fryer and Torelli found that better grades equaled greater popularity, with straight-A students having far more same-race friends than those who were B students, who in turn had more friends than C or D students. But among blacks and especially Hispanics who attend public schools with a mix of racial and ethnic groups, that pattern was reversed: The best and brightest academically were significantly less popular than classmates of their race or ethnic group with lower grade point averages.

 

So if one culture chooses to prioritize education and another doesn't, then the test isn't really racially biased.

 

I don't think anyone is saying the test itself is racially biased. I think the objection is that the process of using only a single test - without taking anything else into account - winds up being discriminatory.

 

The test is supposed to be discriminatory ... it's supposed to discriminate between the most prepared/capable (for the challenging curricula those schools aim to dish out) and the least. Which is preferable? Not getting into one of those schools, or getting into one of them and then failing miserably because you're simply not prepared?

 

Nailed it.

 

The test itself is certainly meant to be discriminatory in the manner you describe. The process of vetting the students most likely to succeed in these schools may or may not best be served by bouncing a single test off a student's head.

 

I lean toward may. The point is to use an objective, known standard and see who achieves it.

 

Looking at it from the production side, it sounds like colleges and future employers have great things to say about program graduates, so tinkering with that very successful formula may not be in the public's best interest either.

 

Might be a reasonable standard for math and science.

Might not be so hot for less empirical pursuits.

Depends entirely upon what's on the test.

 

For math, especially, it is a perfect standard. My two teenagers are fine students, but the last thing in the world I'd want for them is to get caught up in some heavy-duty math program they couldn't handle. In those circumstances, it's not that you learn less than everyone else ... you learn nothing.

 

While I understand that the specialized high schools under discussion in this instance are (mostly) math and science outposts, Brooklyn Latin and the American Studies high school at Lehman College are most assuredly not. Nor is Stuyvesant exclusively a science high school.

Again, fairness here, or predictive accuracy, depends on the test.

 

How is the test not fair?

And they people suing need to explain what would be fair. My guess is they want quotas that disregard a student's ability to survive academically.