Academic high school is too elite (and Asian) for SF

“…After  — including Abraham Lincoln High — for historical imperfections, San Francisco school board is fast-tracking a plan to end merit-based admissions for Lowell High School, one of the top high schools in California, reports David Li for NBC News.

The board is on track to approve a resolution to admit students to Lowell (which will be renamed) by lottery, rather than grades and test scores. Selectivity “perpetuates the culture of white supremacy and racial abuse towards Black and Latinx students,” states the resolution.

The real issue is Chinese supremacy. Of Lowell’s 2,871 students, 50.6 percent are Asian, mostly Chinese, in a district that’s 33.4 percent Asian, reports Li. Whites are slightly over-represented (18.1 percent at Lowell, 14.9 percent districtwide), while Hispanics (11.5 percent vs. 28.2 percent) and Blacks (1.8 percent vs. 6.4 percent) are under-represented. (Looking at 2018-19 data, I get 63 percent Asian/Filipino with 4 percent multi-racial and some decline-to-state students.)

“Exam schools” for high achievers are controversial everywhere: They always have “too many” Asians and Whites, too few Blacks and Hispanics. An elite Virginia school may switch to a lottery for academically qualified students, reports Education Week.  But the San Francisco plan doesn’t limit the lottery to A or B or even C students. The renamed Lowell will be just another high school…”