Free Republic

Concerned that its top academic schools are not racially and economically diverse enough, Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman is proposing major changes in how students are admitted to them. The plan would take admissions decisions away from principals and their committees, and select students for magnet and citywide-admissions schools centrally, using a computerized system, according to a "draft" obtained by The Inquirer. District officials suggested a 1,000-point system, 600 points of which would be based on test scores and grades, according to the draft that was distributed to high school principals. Other factors would include behavior and attendance, and, for...

Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at the region's most prestigious public magnet school this fall, a milestone reached as the number of African Americans and Hispanics has remained low and the Fairfax County School Board prepares to review the school's admission policy. The rising concentration of Asian Americans at T.J. mirrors demographic trends in other elite math and science magnet schools. In New York, the selective and specialized Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School have Asian American majorities, although about 10 percent of...

June 25, 2007 -- A Brooklyn mother and father got the shock of their lives when school officials informed them their brilliant 11-year-old girl was denied admission to an elite public school - solely because she's of Indian descent. "I feel bad because I would have gotten in if I was white," Nikita Rau lamented over her failed bid to attend the Mark Twain School, IS 239, in Coney Island, a magnet school for gifted students. It turns out Mark Twain - unlike all but one other city public school - admits students according to racial quotas established in 1974...

The Caddo Parish School Board has voted to ask a federal appeals court in New Orleans to reconsider its ruling that the school district has been using unconstitutional racial quotas in some of its magnet school admissions. Last week, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a suit brought by a Shreveport couple, Julie Ann and Kevin Cavalier. The Cavaliers, who are white, said their son scored higher than other students but was denied admission to Caddo Middle Magnet because of racial quotas. Two of the three judges on the appeals court panel agreed and...

CALL IT THE NEW white flight. Traditional white flight abandoned urban schools in the wake of integration or in the face of influxes of immigrants. The new white flight is different. Parents are seeking private schools or searching for magnet programs in schools other than their attendance zones not because they think their school is deteriorating or dangerous. They're worried their children can't compete. They're not fleeing the "worst" schools, but the "best." Welcome to the world of the 10 percent rule. That's the alternative to affirmative action at Texas universities backed by then-Gov. George W. Bush. Instead of achieving...

Question No. 9 in the ``word meanings" section of the practice test for admission to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology reads: ``Apparently he `instigated' the argument. ``Which means, he A) incited, B) ignored C) enjoyed or D) settled, the argument." The correct answer, of course, is ``A," for ``incited." While Fairfax County School Board members may not be instigating any arguments, some are discouraged that only three blacks and 13 Hispanics were admitted to this year's 450-student freshman class at the school. Some School Board members such as Robert E. Frye, at large, are not satisfied with...

As you might expect, New York City has high schools that cater to students with special talents and interests. One is the Bronx High School of Science. Since its founding in 1938, it has produced five Nobel Prize winners in physics and countless other scientists and physicians. Another is the La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts. Its graduates include many actors and performers, including Adrien Brody, who won this year's Oscar for Best Actor. This fall, a new special interest high school will be added to the list, but its purpose isn't nearly as noble as the others'....