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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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]

So you want lottery as a solution to these problems you sited? Can you think of any other way to resolve these issues so that they can be addressed appropriately? a better way than a lottery?
Will you say the same about the sports and games team? Do you support MCPS to do a lottery for sports and games? 
[/quote]

Many of the issues I cited were addressed in the admissions reforms that happened about four years ago. They scrapped the teacher recommendations (biased) and the at home essays (rigged). They conducted universal screening for most 5th graders and conducted those screenings in the home schools during school hours, rather than having kids come into testing sites on a Saturday.

My biggest question is why MCPS moved so quickly away from that system, which actually addressed many of the problems with the earlier iteration. [/quote]

They saw pandemic as an opportunity to pull the rug[/quote]

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