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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There was an update at our PTA meeting on changes to the GT center admissions. This struck me as a perfect example of a worthy social goal that would blow up due to poor execution. It also struck me as an example of how policy and institutional action -even if well meaning- incites the racial divide and pits people against each other.

The GT liaison announced that the county in response to a study that some demographics were under represented and some demographics were over represented at GT centers was changing the program. The centers will be expanded to offer more spaces and parents will not longer be able to apply. Instead teachers will be trained to identify students that should be selected. The outcome will be a more diverse population in the GT centers.

This is exactly the type of thing that will send white and asian voters over to a lunatic like Trump. It is a problem that african american and hispanic students are under represented at GT centers. [b]The answer isn't to remove an admissions process based on merit [/b]and performance with internal selection based on meeting county demographic goals.

The county could have chosen to expand the admissions process to include both parent applications and teacher nominations. This would address minority students whose parents do not respond or understand enough to fill out the application. The admissions for the combined pool should still be based on merit and testing.

If not enough minority students score high enough to compete with the asian students then the county could put in place programs to balance the opportunity gap through after school programs. Many students are achieving not because of a high IQ but because of cultural focus on academics which includes high quality tutoring and study after school. Give the minority students this same tutoring that their own parents can not afford or are unable to provide and you will get more minority students scoring high enough to get in.

I'm a firm believer that education is about equal opportunity and education is the best way to push social progressive improvements. It needs to be executed in a manner though that is not zero sum, pitting groups against each other or throwing our merit as measurement.[/quote]

Unless you think that parents know their kids' academic qualifications better than a teacher, I don't see anything here that suggests that selection won't be based on merit. The problem is that more educated/affluent families (who tend to be white and Asian) self-refer their slightly-above-average children, while the children of less educated/affluent/non-English speaking parents don't get referred, no matter how gifted they are. That tends to leave them out and under-represented.

If teachers are doing the selection, all children will be chosen based on their merits, not on the education/advocacy skills of their parents.[/quote]

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