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Same old story, but this time is in a new political climate. "Few black and Hispanic students won seats in eight of the city’s specialized high schools this year, prompting Mayor Bill de Blasio to repeat a campaign trail declaration that the admissions process needs an overhaul."
Asian students grab most seats in the Big 3 specialized high schools. Stuyvesant admits only 7 blacks and 21 Hispanics out of 952. In the name of diversity, what should we do? Lowing the bar? Kicking out half of Asian kids to make room for Blacks and Hispanics?
Study harder! Spend more time studying. Try to find problems on black and hispanics themselves instead blaming system or other people. Asian is example of minority black and hispanics should learn from, study ethic and work ethic
The issue is that the vast majority of Hispanic and Black students are competing with Asians who send their kids off to study programs as early as 11 years old, sometimes younger. Just like with the influx of 2200+ SAT scores, these schools have an oversupply of children who get perfect SHSAT scores. The system is broken in the sense not every child has access to such programs to ensure success. What needs to happen is to improve the education system overall and not create an environment of elitism.
However, decades prior the minority population at those HS were much much much higher than present. Therefore its safe to conclude that Hispanic and African American children lack mentors in their lives. Everyone likes to use the cliche, "oh their kids go to SHSAT prep classes" but we did not have these expensive study programs back in the 70s, 80s, 90s. The truth is the lack of guidance equals lack of motivation. If no one is telling your child to study for the SHSAT he or she wont as it is ingrained in a child's DNA to play first and work latter. Only those who have been groomed or influenced inherently know the importance of education.
In an effort to fix this, I know that some after school programs were created for distinct minority groups, but it is not enough and imo the government has neglected this issue long enough. While yes the opposition can say, "well Asians did it" the issues minorities (other-black-asian-hispanic) face have fundamental differences. Needless to say, I do not believe replacing the student roster with less deserving kids is the answer and if anything will lower the quality and reputation of any school that does thus reducing the opportunities of a child who worked hard.
Anyways, I think parents take our proven to be inferior education system too seriously. All your child needs to do is learn the SAT. Instead of spending thousands in study programs, they should be sending their kids to SAT prep programs because K-12 that is the only test that matters. All is not lost and while your child may not get the exposure, in reality everything leads up to that robotic SAT test anyone can learn in less than a year with or without prep courses.
Not sure how implementing racist educational policies against Asians will work. There's been an implicit quota on Asians in the Ivies for the past 20 years already and what has been gained from it? Everyone knows about affirmative action by now and guess what if you're in the minority group who's gotten preferential treatment people are bound to discount your achievements. This is a slap in the face to those in the groups who didn't need the preferential treatment as well as those who thought they were going to achieve something but were filtered out because of their race.
You know if you look around the world, they have this all figured out in some southeast asian countries, i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia they have quotas for East Asians and Indians for top schools as well as all government jobs. In the past racial tensions/violence were so bad in these countries against what was the minority Chinese population that they even decided to implement apartheid by breaking off a piece of the country in what is now known as Singapore so that the Chinese can just compete against themselves, and we all know how Singapore did economically since then. Just imagine breaking apart a piece of California and designating that to be the Asian ex-American zone/country. What is strange in these countries is that they have a sort of a reverse affirmative action policy. Just imagine if Whites automatically get 200 extra points on the SATs for being White in the US, it's a bizarro world after all.
If you really want true racial economic equality there is no other way but to not only have quotas in the education sphere, but on employment as well. You need strict racial quotas for all government jobs, i.e. law enforcement, fire department, sanitation, etc and if any private company like Google wants to get beneficial tax breaks setting up offices in the city they would need to abide by these racial quotas as well. Only then can you have true economic equality by racial groups, albeit at the expense of a couple of minority groups. I'd like to see who in this country would want to see these policies get implemented.
Last edited by bumblebyz; 03-12-2014 at 12:36 PM..
They should expand the city-sponsored prep program. Some think that this is open to everyone, but a kid needs to have a very high state exam score to be eligible. Some kids have been going to many hours of additional schooling for their whole lives, and they are the ones who tend to do better on the state exams and are therefore eligible for these free specialized high school prep classes.
A surprising number children of low income Asian immigrants are going to these quite costly programs, and years later getting into the specialized schools. In my opinion, it's a racket. WNYC did a profile once of a "typical" family. They were a family of four (who also owned a house) in Queens supposedly making 24K and getting the earned income tax credit. The taxpayers are obviously helping to fund these cram schools already, so why not fund them for everyone?
I'm not saying that they are not working hard, but many are also using the system to their advantage.
My husband, a black kid from East Harlem (who is now 44) got into Bronx Science (but didn't go) without studying at all. His sister got into several as well without any prep. They are bright but not superstars. There is simply much more competition now than in the past.
So many factors that come into play with education attainment. Will be hard for any child to succeed if they don't have parental support at home. The majority of gifted students I have taught had had more than enough opportunities OUTSIDE of school to get help academically. They went to summer camps, ACT/SAT tutoring sessions, had parents at home helping them, etc. Asian families definitely push the need for education. Financially they tend to be better off. So more opportunities are available.
The majority of young black men and women are growing up in low income single parent households where resources are limited. Add to that the push for athletics over academics and you can see why things are the way they are.
The way caribny started dancing at an early age, I guess these Asian kids were learning math and science. Hopefully we don't start holding that against them.
It has nothing to do with race/ethnicity, and everything to do with economics. You go to a ****ty school, get a ****ty education, ****ty environment, you're going to get ****ty test scores. Despite going to a really bad JHS and Elementary school, i still got into the specialized schools because my parents paid for a study program, one of those princeton review courses. They teach you how to take the test basically.
Maybe instead of changing the admission process, offer the same high level of study courses available to those that pay more? I'm not sure.
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