Reply to To what extent is race a factor in HGC admissions?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For what it's worth, my understanding is the MCPS does use FARMS status and FARMS students tend to be mostly black or Hispanic. That seems reasonable given that there are tons of tests that show bias towards students with lower incomes or of certain races.[/quote]

I think you may be confusing two different types of magnet programs.  The "choice" magnet programs in Middle School like Loiderman, Argyle, etc. do take FARMS into account.  I believe that the different HS programs in the Down County Consortium also take FARMS rates into account when placing kids at different high school programs (but I'm not sure about that).

The "competitive" magnets do not take FARMS into account as part of the application.  They are supposed to be merit-based.  I believe that the choice to admit a child is based largely on the HGC test scores.  If a child scored above the mean on all three segments and didn't get admitted, I would file an appeal and ask to see the data.  Other data points include -- whether the child is in above grade level instruction in reading and math, the parent recommendation and the teacher recommendation.  As a parent, you have a right under FERPA to view all these pieces of data as well as any other records related to the HGC admission process.  You may have to come to a central location to view and you may have to sign a non-disclosure form, but you have a right to see it.   Anecdotally, I have heard of a poor teacher recommendation sinking an applicant with good test scores, but that's only anecdotal.

Race is never a permitted consideration for admission to any programs.  This was decided a long time ago in the Eisenstat case.  Nonetheless, the way  the HGC system is set up, somewhat accounts for race by placing different HGCs by high school cluster.  Since the racial makeup of neighborhood high schools varies, the racial make up of the HGCs will likely vary somewhat also.  This is speculative on my part though, because I am not aware of any data released by MCPS to show the racial makeup of the HGCs.  Actually, there's no data released about successful applicants other than what comes in your decision letter.  This could all be released if an enterprising parent made a FOIA request.

Having said that, I have no doubt that some racial groups are over-represented in the HGC and some under-represented when compared to overall population rates.  To me, that is a serious problem.  I had a child in an HGC and there were only a few non-white kids in the class.  I don't consider that a healthy educational environment and such lack of diversity is not conducive the best learning, IMO.  This is probably due to a complicated mixture of racism and differential preparation.  Even though the county tries to "go by the numbers" there are still parts of the HGC application packet that are going to result in under-representation of minorities.  For example, I'm pretty sure that a non-native English speaker will not do as well as a native English speaker on the language testing.  The parent and teacher questionnaires are subject to racial and cultural bias as well. 
  [/quote]

+1  Thanks for this post.[/quote]

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