入学靠考试成绩还是随机抽签

billzhao

旧金山一所很有名的高中，一直是根据入学成绩的好坏决定是不是录取学生。这样一来很少很少的黑人可以进入这个学校学习, 黑人学生只占总数的2%。这些学生感觉受到了孤立甚至歧视。在一次学校教育学生如何避免种族歧视的活动中，网站被黑了，出现了很多种族歧视的言论。那个时候正是 black lives matter 黑命贵的时候，迫于舆论压力，学校董事会投票决定是否把入学靠成绩的传统取消，只看随机抽签结果。当时7个董事会里只有一个亚洲人，他投票不同意，但是总共只有2个人不同意。所以在去年就取消了入学看成绩的要求。这样去年入学的黑人就多了起来。记者采访一个黑人学生，说种族歧视是不是好多了。她说没有觉得。
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这个学校里57%的学生是亚洲人，但是左右他们利益的董事会成员中只有1/7也就是14%的人是亚洲人。其实很多学生和学生家长是反对入学靠抽签的。于是不少学生家长开始参与到选举活动中，不再当看客。今年董事会重新改选，投票决定入学是按成绩还是靠抽签，4个投票按成绩。于是入学的要求又改了回来。
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- b$ R0 b3 N& _7 X& ]  B) E8 E2 n' H7 O感觉这是个很有启发意义的故事。我们中国人不太愿意参政议政，但是吃亏的还是我们自己。另外，感觉很多政客除了会演讲之外其实什么都不懂，没有老百姓的监督和参与，他们会把很多事情搞乱。

下面是纽约时报的报道，今天的 podcast
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billzhao

Following Recall, San Francisco School Board Reverses Course
0 `; N* g5 z& g5 m" xThe board voted this week to switch elite Lowell High School back to a merit-based admissions system.
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- A, S! q+ |; S# N( ^* CJune 24, 2022, 8:42 a.m. ET
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San Francisco voters in February ousted three school board members in a landslide election that proponents hoped would reshape the city’s education policy and politics.
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3 `7 K6 @3 |2 C/ [" O6 M/ OJust four months later, the impacts of that vote are emerging in a big way.

7 d; {2 S% y' V  w  J& W" B) I0 vThe recall effort was driven in part by disagreement over how to handle admissions at Lowell High School, an elite public school that for decades accepted students primarily based on high test scores and grades. (Lowell’s long list of notable alumni includes Justice Stephen G. Breyer and former Gov. Pat Brown.)

' k9 M' p5 |0 ZIn October 2020, the San Francisco school board voted to install a lottery-based admissions system in hopes of diversifying the student body and expanding access as social justice changes gained momentum in California. The board made that policy permanent in early 2021.

: Y# K3 c0 A9 b, c  X7 _( kBut the moves angered many city parents, particularly Asian Americans, who felt it unfairly limited their children’s long-sought entry into one of the nation’s top-performing schools.

. N- q4 w$ n* B" l) ESo on Wednesday evening, the newly constituted school board, with three members appointed by Mayor London Breed, took up the issue. And in a marked shift, it voted 4-3 to reinstate merit-based admissions at Lowell for fall 2023.

“It speaks to the urgency that this new majority on the board felt to distance itself from the previous board,” said David Lee, a political science lecturer at San Francisco State University. “I think they wanted to show to voters that they heard loud and clear in the February vote.”

) F" z- m) i5 J* D6 oAll three new board members voted in favor of the return to selective admissions. They were joined by the board president, Jenny Lam — who was initially a 2019 Breed appointee — to form a narrow majority.

, Z$ G4 m& O. z  Y/ R, i  h. K% `And, further repudiating the policies of their predecessors, the board on Wednesday also rescinded another previous board decision to cover up a controversial mural at a high school.

In Lee’s eyes, Wednesday’s decisions reveal that board members are taking seriously the political forces that put them in office, particularly the Asian American voters and volunteers that fueled the recall. The three new members are all up for re-election in November.
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# W; h8 l, ]9 Z9 I  J4 CThe Lowell student body is predominantly Asian — roughly 48 percent, compared with 35 percent across S.F. Unified schools, according to district data — and for many immigrant families the school was seen as “a well-worn and cherished pathway to the middle class, to social mobility,” Lee told me.

The change in admissions policy felt like a particularly brutal blow after families endured some of the nation’s longest pandemic school closures through spring 2021. Separately, families were also concerned about anti-Asian hate crimes. The school board recall became an energizing force for Asian American voters, particularly Chinese Americans, who are by far the largest group, making up 23 percent of the city’s population.
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“The Chinese community is celebrating today because it is really the first time in a long time where Chinese voters flexed their political muscle and saw an immediate result,” Lee told me. “It’s a wake-up call for the political establishment of San Francisco, that this is an emerging political force.”

But the vote on Wednesday was a disappointing outcome for those who supported the lottery approach.

They fear that the system leaves behind Black and Latino students who have lower test scores. They also cite racism and harassment of Black and brown students at Lowell. The introduction of the lottery system has reduced the number of Asian and white ninth graders by around one-quarter and increased Black and Latino ninth graders by more than 40 percent.

- G2 U/ x: {$ ]% n. i) }“The lottery system means Lowell is diverse,” said Virginia Marshall, president of the San Francisco Alliance of Black Educators and a representative of the N.A.A.C.P., according to The San Francisco Chronicle. “It is not just for one ethnic group. It’s for all students who choose to make Lowell their home.”

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maky

的确如此，其实中小学和大学的很多项目、规划的实施都是校董会决策的，家长们如果积极参加校董会的活动，积极发声，具有非常积极的作用，包括对孩子们的影响。