High School Thoughts

I don't recall if I ever mentioned that I graduated from the STEM magnet high school locally, a billion years ago when STEM wasn't even an acronym that people used.

Regardless, I loved my time at the nerd school. Roaming the nerd halls. Feeling like I'd found people who, if not my actual peeps, were not going to be annoyed with me because I enjoyed studying. I was nowhere near the brightest there and was a solidly slightly better than average student. (I can't remember my GPA. I know it was good enough that I got into college and my report cards never got me in trouble at home. That was enough.)

Anyway.

As the years have gone by, it's gotten harder and harder to get in to said school. It's become (in my opinion) less about the students wanting to go there and much more about the Tiger Parents making sure that their kid has that check mark for their college apps.

When I attended, it was primarily Asian (specifically and primarily Korean and Vietnamese when I was there but they may have diversified some there, I'm not sure) if you were looking to sort things by ethnic demographics. We had 7-10 Black students. (I'm thinking through the names and I know I didn't know everyone but I had two good friends who were Black and knew some of the rest by virtue of association.)

The other-than-Asian-or-white attendance has been plummeting downward every year. And every year there's a bit of an uproar in the alumni groups. And this year, given the world and the fact that the stats just released admitted that there were ZERO Black students in the upcoming freshman class...well, you can imagine.

There's quite a hue and cry within the Alum Faceplant group for the school to be closed down as an abomination and misuse of public funds.

I think that's a bit of an overreach, myself. Because I do think there are students who benefit greatly from the school who wouldn't necessarily flourish as well at their base schools. But I also do agree that they should be doing more for diversity. Because there are students of EVERY background who would benefit greatly from the school who wouldn't necessarily flourish as well at their base schools. And there are many kids who end up there who would do just fine -- and perhaps flourish even more -- at those base schools.

Anyway, my general feeling on how I'd fix it were I to be in charge is this: If an average incoming class if 500 students, and there are 5 primary categories on their racial/ethnic demographic checklist, then each checkbox gets 100 students. 

They can keep running their entrance exam exactly the same way they've been doing, but the top 100 from any checkbox category get accepted. (If there's a serious concern about academic ability that the test is supposed to measure, then establish a "minimum baseline" and take those kids who score over that. But it needs to be a realistic minimum, not one that's inflated to try and game the system.)

I realize this would create probably an even bigger hue and cry from among the 67% ethnic majority at the school (which is not white) - but if we're aiming for fair? Let's be fair. 

The trouble might arise finding 100 kids of every racial/ethnic checkbox who actually want to go through the hassle of taking the test. In that situation? I guess the left over spots could be done as a lottery for kids in other checkboxes who were over the minimum baseline but below the top 100. But I'd say there needs to be a cutoff so that it's not a situation where, for example, only 10 Black kids apply so now we have space for 90 more of other boxes as a lottery. There needs to be something done to encourage application by a large spread of kids (and I haven't looked at the application stats in depth, so it's possible this issue is moot. I just know many of the Black alums have said they've actively discouraged siblings/friends from applying because of their experiences. That's wrong and I hate that it felt like the best course of action for them. That's not the school I went to.)

But maybe, knowing that every group was guaranteed 100 spots, then the understanding that the kids who get in are the ones who start test prep when they're 9 would start to be less true. Because it's RIDICULOUS to me that anyone would spend close to five years prepping for an entrance test for high school. 

No kid chooses that. That's something parents choose.

And no high school is so amazing that kids should be forced to go there by overly ambitious parents. The kids who were there because their parents made them go when I was there were miserable.

I can't imagine that's changed.