Reply to What is the real reason MCPS uses Lottery for Middle School Magnet Program

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]So if Asians, Whites, Blacks and Latino kids performance is at par, are you saying that MCPS had a racist policy of selecting Asians and Whites kids over Blacks and Latino kids? Can you site any evidence of this?[/quote]

MCPS is now on its third iteration of magnet admissions in my kids' time in the system and the first iteration (two iterations ago) really was pretty biased. It included a lot of elements that have been demonstrated to have racial or SES bias, including:

1) The MS admissions test was offered on a Saturday at only a select number of schools, so if your parents worked or were otherwise unavailable to drive you, too bad.

2) As might be suggested by #1, the test was not universal. You had to either be referred or opt in. This was a system that dramatically favored people who were "in the know" as well as those with extra time to track school goings on

3) Teacher recommendations are demonstrably problematic. At the ES level, most teachers are white women, and data shows that white women are terrible at identifying gifted kids of color. The things they are looking for (compliance, extroversion) are not present in ALL gifted kids

4) At-home essays were being written/heavily edited by parents, which gave a HUGE advantage to kids whose parents were highly educated native or near-native English speakers

[/quote]

The issues you sited are logistic in nature. I do not think that the admission was based on one test.. consistent academic performance matter.  Your 2nd point is just a speculation at the best and we can ignore that. I do not believe Teacher recommendations are problemetic as they are based on the observations backed by the grades and test scores. I do understand that some who did not get recomendation might think otherwise. It looks like your 4th point is also a speculation at best.[/quote]

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