San Francisco progressives "de-tracked" Lowell High School a couple of years ago.
That was quickly reversed, and I believe all the relevant school-board members were resoundingly voted out. Go Indians!
"Progressives" have completely lost the thread. YES, racism created an unequal society, and much racism and inequality persist to this day. AND the answer is not to throw out all standards. Particularly at a school like Lowell, which was the best chance for a POOR smart kid to get a great education. The rich kids already go to Lick or University or wherever.
I think it’s more accurate to say that CUNY suffered immensely under the budget cuts it underwent in the 1970s, cuts that were never fully rolled back. It’s impossible to extricate the CUNY system’s open admission challenges from the fact that it hasn’t been allowed to grow as an institution for close to half a century at this point.
The white and Jewish students of the time didn’t flee because of costs, but because they were suddenly surrounded by students that weren’t at all prepared for college. Why pay for a sub-par experience?
“Middle-class whites left CUNY in droves after tuition was imposed. Lavin said there was almost a feeling at the time that "CUNY is only worth going to if it's free."
“Lavin and some others still at CUNY feel that the fiscal crunch gave the board an excuse to tighten admissions standards and impose proficiency tests in addition to charging tuition.”
“George H. Hanford, president of the College Board, said his group was pushing high schools to improve programs so CUNY and other colleges won't have to spend so much time and money on remedial work. Half of today's entering college students requires such courses, he said.”
The fiscal crunch allowed CUNY to make a slow recovery, though as I said before
it never really recovered.
The CUNY experiment of open enrollment was a failure. Contrast that to the formerly-free but still highly-selective Cooper Union.
> When school districts get rid of advanced offerings in a bid to reduce racial inequality, they end up doing to opposite of what they claim to intend. While wealthier families can move to better school districts or enroll their children in private schools, smart—yet poor—kids end up getting stuck in "equitable" classrooms that leave them under-stimulated and ignored.
I hope the education system pushes for more students in under represented groups to partake in advanced offerings instead of getting rid of them. In my ideal, the school system should strive to help all students push their intellectual ability. Moreover, school sports and extracurriculars are great places to push for greater diversity since they tend to lack under represented groups.
That’s basically what the SPS says they are doing, by embedding gifted programs in every classroom rather than separating gifted kids out into different classrooms. We will see how it works, but I don’t see how one teacher is going to handle gifted, normal, and special needs kids all at the same time. It sounds futile to me, but we will see. My kid is just 7 in a north Seattle public K-8, and I’m not sure where he is going to be on that spectrum yet, I’ll re-evaluate around 6th grade to see if I have to put him into private school or not.
I went through the Seattle program back in the days of the dinosaurs. You can “push for” anything you want, but those groups aren’t excluded, and in fact are sought after. A key problem is that nobody wants their child to be the lone minority in a class full of kids they can’t connect with socially.
All this bloviating by commentators is just chickens and pigs all over again. Much as those on the outside would like to wring their hands and describe high-minded ideals, the parents and children who are most affected by the situation are making rational choices.
But the optics are bad, really bad, and the reality on the ground is bad too. Go see who sits with whom in the lunchroom.
I was in one of these programs. I thought it was weird at the time and still do 40 years later. Fix the way students progress through subjects and get rid of this artificial distinction... I know, it'll never happen.
It's far more likely people who dislike name-calling and poor quality confrontational comments flagged the threads.
Everything about HN's karma and moderation is designed to encourage high quality discourse and discourage conflict. That approach attracts readers who are drawn to high quality discourse and who dislike the trash-talking low-grade conflict found on other sites.
None of this implies anyone thinks it's "bad" to disagree, it only implies that HN isn't the place for combat, because it's intentionally designed to be a place for conversation. The two are different and encourage and lead to different behaviors on the part of the participants. Every other online forum ends up being a forum for conflict. HN is unique in being a forum for discussion.
"When schools get rid of advanced offerings, they hurt smart, underprivileged students."
What about the "non-smart" underprivileged kids? These gifted schools are another version of "separate and unequal". IMO, this decision will only have a small effect in addressing inequality - you will still have massive factors, like money, parental education, race, etc. But at least, the state decided not to exacerbate the problem.
That was quickly reversed, and I believe all the relevant school-board members were resoundingly voted out. Go Indians!
"Progressives" have completely lost the thread. YES, racism created an unequal society, and much racism and inequality persist to this day. AND the answer is not to throw out all standards. Particularly at a school like Lowell, which was the best chance for a POOR smart kid to get a great education. The rich kids already go to Lick or University or wherever.