Early preparation for Michigan Law School?

The Seattle Times reports that "Testing fails to diversify accelerated Seattle classes"

A test given this year to all first-graders in the Seattle School District failed to identify more racial and ethnic minorities for the district's advanced-learning programs, contrary to what officials had hoped.

Most top scorers on the Cognitive Abilities Test were either whites or Asians, already the two predominant groups in the district's advanced-learning programs.

The results mean the district will now consider other criteria to try to boost enrollment of underrepresented groups in those programs [emphasis added]

Results from two rounds of tests, given earlier this year, showed that of 315 first-graders who scored high enough to qualify for the Accelerated Progress Program (APP) or the second-tier Spectrum program, 91 percent, or 287, were whites or Asians. The rest were 10 African Americans [3.2%], 15 Latinos [4.8%], two Native Americans [0.6%] and one student whose ethnicity was not identified on the test form.

By way of comparison, the Seattle school district [pdf] is 40% white, 23% Asian, 23% African American 11% Latino and 3% Native American.

I see two possible reactions to the disparity between the ethnic composition of the student body and the outcome of the exam. The first is for the parents whose children did not pass the exam to try to learn from the parents whose children did pass and to find out what activities they might do with their children to bolster their academic skills. The second reaction would be to declare the test biased; to demand lower standards for the accelerated program; and to teach the children that academic excellence is not something to be earned through performance, but is instead a patronage-based entitlement for which one need only protest loudly enough.

I would like to think that more parents would choose option number one. But sadly, today's Supreme Court decision in the Michigan Law School case, and the intent of the Seattle school district to "consider other criteria" suggest that option number two is the status quo.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 23, 2003 09:56 PM