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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
It doesn't inherently help a basketball team to win games to have players from diverse perspectives. But it demonstrably and undeniably helps students to prepare to change the world to have students around them from diverse perspectives.[/quote]

Kind of.  I doubt Harvard looks for diversity when admitting kids to its math program.  Diverse perspectives are highly important for humanities and social studies, but kind of irrelevant in STEM fields.  If the main point of TJ is to be an elite STEM school, then I'm not sure that the diverse perspectives help much.  [/quote]

I would agree with you if the point of studying math were just to do math. But given that the point of it, and other STEM fields and of course in theory TJ, is to serve the best interests of humanity, diverse perspectives are a non-negotiable.[/quote]

Yes but the perspective of the Asian Americans is not taken into account so there is no diverse perspective and there is only the perspectives of the preferred minority groups or the perspectives of the groups with adequate political clout. It is not in the interest of humanity to have Asian Americans be subjected to blatant racial [b]discrimination[/b].  [/quote]

[b]It is a racial discrimination if the decision is based on race. [/b]

It's not actually discriminatory as much as it is profiling.  Asian Americans are by far the most represented in most STEM fields, irrespective of the school or program you're discussing.  So, you can't say that it meets the measure of being discriminatory.  But certainly many Asian Americans fall out of the student body based on racial profiling of the class and the desire to seek a more "diverse" class in the school or program.

To the same point on the McKinsey article's poster and the response, I agree that FCPS is trying to close the achievement gap and that there are two ways to go about it.  The immediate tool is by limiting or profiling the applicants to the AAP program and selecting a representative group of Hispanics/AA/White/Asians who may do very well in the Level IV program keeping in mind that it is not truly a gifted/talented program, but works more like an honors program.  If you were to think about an ideal class makeup for the Level IV, you could say that a "diverse" group may be White/Asians who fall between the +1 and +2 SD, while for Hispanic/AA it's kids who are in the +1 SD or better.  For the White/Asian kids who are clearly in the +2 - +3 SD, they are likely screened out for the service.  Is it fair?  The answer to that is "it depends."  For the White/Asians who are in that category and got rejected, it may not seem fair.  For the Hispanic/AA kids who were allowed into the program because the empty seat, they would see it as very fair.

I agree that it would help if FCPS were to provide a adequate summary of the "holistic" review.  Having worked in Admissions most of my career, I can tell you that "holistic" refers to a lot more than just scores on a test, GBRS, recommendations or work samples.  It certainly refers to a program's "holistic" demographic profile of students.  Most people are aware of this when it comes to college admissions because quotas are inherently understood by parents.  It seems though that FCPS parents are completely unaware that quotas could also be heavily in play at the elementary school level when program measures are evaluated for closing the achievement gap.  [/quote][/quote]

That's actually not true--you're not discriminating because a significant portion of Asian Americans/White get entry into the programs.  You're profiling the applicant pool to seek a more diverse class representation as suggested by the poster.  It's easy to think you were being discriminated against and hence you didn't get in, but when tons of White/Asians are getting in and your Asian/White child (along with some others) didn't get into the program, it's not only a matter of race.  This is why litigating reverse affirmative action doesn't work.  When the two largest represented groups in any Ivy League or STEM or gifted/talented or AAP program is always White and Asians, you will never win the "it's discrimination" argument just because your White or Asian child doesn't get in and you thought their scores support placement into a school or program. [b] You're likely correct.  Your child deserves a spot because he/she met the known threshold.[/b]  However, your White or Asian child didn't get in because compared to the many other White or Asian children who were accepted into the program, your child missed the mark somehow.  [/quote]

This is really important to understand. There are tons of kids every year who deserve a spot in tons of elite academic settings. The [b]fact[/b] - and I use that word intentionally - that diversity is important to both educational quality and branding isn't your fault or your child's fault. But a one-dimensional student body doesn't help anyone.[/quote]

No one is arguing against diversity.  But what do you tell that White or Asian child who is smart enough to be in AAP, but didn't get in due to race?  Too bad, you'll just have to stay in gen ed and not reach your potential?[/quote]

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