Alison Collins, the Vice President of the San Francisco Board of Education, has declared meritocracy to be racist even in the selection of students at advanced or gifted programs. As we have previously discussed, this has been a building campaign in academia as educators and others denounce selection based on academic performance through testing. At issue in San Francisco is Lowell High School where top students were selected through testing and grades. Most cities have such gifted programs or institutions, though we have discussed calls for the elimination of all gifted and talented programs in cities like New York. Lowell had a majority of white and Asian students and only two percent of its student body were African-Americans. Collins and other board members want to abolish the merit-based selection in favor of a blind lottery system.
Collins’ remarks from a San Francisco Board of Education public meeting in October 13, 2020 were only recently posted by Sophie Bearman of San Francisco’s online publication Here/Say Media. In the meeting, she declared “When we talk about merit, meritocracy and especially meritocracy based on standardized testing…those are racist systems.… You can’t talk about social justice, and then say you want to have a selective school that keeps certain kids out from the neighborhoods that you think are dangerous.”
Collins made the statement in support of a resolution, entitled “In Response to Ongoing, Pervasive Systemic Racism at Lowell High School,” authored by Collins, Board President Gabriela Lopez, Commissioner Matt Alexander, and Student Delegates Shavonne Hines-Foster and Kathya Correa Almanza.
Newsweek quotes at least one Lowell teacher who objects to the elimination of the school as a place for top performing students and said that the system is blind on race and designed to reward “the hardest working kids in terms of academics.”
Gifted programs and elite academic schools are designed to allow students to reach their full academic potential with other students performing at the highest level of math and other disciplines. It is often difficult for such students to reach that potential in conventional settings. Teachers have to keep their classes as a whole moving forward in subject areas. That often means that academically gifted children are held back by conventional curricula or lesson plans. Those students can actually underperform due to boredom or the lack of challenging material. Many simply leave the public school system. Moreover, students tend to perform better with students progressing at their similar level. Teachers can then focus on a lesson plan and discussions that are tailored to students at a similar performance level.
Moving to a lottery system at Lowell would obviously convert the school into a conventional academic program. We can debate the value of having such schools to cater to the most advanced students. I believe such schools are important components to public education. We not only reward students for their considerable academic achievement but guarantee all students that they can progress as far as their interests and capabilities will take them. These schools are the source of pride in many cities in showing the full potential of high school students in science and other fields.
I do not agree that meritocracy is inherently racist. Students of all races benefit from such schools. While there is clearly less diversity at Lowell, the best solution is not to eliminate such programs but to work harder in the earlier grades to allow minority students to excel (and ultimately gain admission to such programs).
There is a need for meritocracy in academia and society at large. Indeed, such scores offer race-neutral systems for advancement. While subjects like math have been declared racist (and a University of Rhode Island professor recently declared all of science, statistics, and technology to be “inherently racist”), these are fields that allowed many intellectuals of color to advance.
We have to have systems of objective comparison in the ability and performance of students in academia. We use such tests and scores for the selection of students admissions to college and society uses such systems for business and professional advancement. The world is becoming a far more competitive place. Other countries are not abandoning meritocracy. They are pushing their most most talented students to achieve even more in specialized programs and advanced courses. We need to do the same if we are going to remain competitive as a nation. Eliminating elite programs like Lowell removes an opportunity not just for these students but our society as a whole. These are some of the best developing minds in our country and they should be allowed to reach their full potential through special schools and programs.
I have been a huge supporter of public schools my whole life. While my parents could afford private schools, they helped form a group to keep white families in the public school system in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. They wanted their kids to be part of a diverse school environment. I also sent my kids to public schools for the same reason. I view our public schools as important parts of our society as we shape future citizens.
This efforts in San Francisco and New York will only encourage more families to leave our public school systems and potentially increase rather than reduce problems of diversity in our student bodies. The need to achieve greater diversity in top public high schools is real and needs to be addressed. However, the solution is to create better educational opportunities for younger students to lift them up rather than lower (or eliminate) entry standards at these schools. That is certainly harder than just imposing a lottery system for all schools but it preserves the opportunity for high advancement for students of all races.
Meritocracy racist? Let’s have a pact that we will not give a platform to facially stupid ideas. You can only believe this if you’ve been surgically lobotomized or politically lobotomized. Either way you end up a leftist.
Leftist you say?
____________
“The goal of Socialism is Communism.”
– Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
A mind is a terrible thing to waste–unless you’re woke.
The Supreme Court is finally considering hearing all these election fraud cases after the fact…to little to late…because they said it will not change the 2020 results…haha…fair elections for all citizens will never exist again…if the supreme court can be bought and paid for then us private folks have no hope of a fair trial…and BTW the only law I ever broke was speeding in my car…I just called my attorney…paid him 100$ and done…I did not go to court…actually one close friend did it for free…he just laughed and said that’s how this small town makes a lot of money…finally JT without fair elections and fair courts and judges what kind of country do we have…can every person be bought…even the supreme court…what example does this set for the young generation?…no wonder so many young folks see no hope…depressed…on drugs…committing suicide…deciding to never have children…losing their religion…very sad to see the US go down in flames.
The courts are not investigative bodies – particularly appeals courts.
This is one of the errors the left makes in citing all these decisons.
They were not decisions on the merits. There were proimarly decisions regarding whether Trump was sufficiently likely to prove fraud to stop certification. That was an enormously high bar.
The cases that merely sought discovery and to allow each side to present evidence are for the most part ongoing.
Twitter grabbed a tiger by the tail when it banned Trump and many other Americans and now the tiger has turned and begun to chew.
The Indian government and Twitter are in a row.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-twitter/playing-with-fire-twitters-india-snub-sparks-debate-on-compliance-free-speech-idUSKBN2A60DO
That follows Uganda banning twitter during elections. https://nypost.com/2021/01/12/uganda-bans-all-social-media-ahead-of-election/
Suddenly Twitter pretends to be a champion of open and free speech–in other countries.
Most countries don’t object to censorship such as Twitter engages in. They just want to be the ones doing it rather than some beaded hippie in San Francisco.
Oddly, in the US Twitter has been cancelling the very people who are most earnest in having open and free speech–conservatives and those with classical liberal values.
Now Twitter is no friend of anyone. And it certainly it is no friend of free speech and open discourse.
I hope India fines them a few hundred billion dollars and puts out an arrest warrant for the bearded hippie.
The left’s choice to buy into censorship is harmful to the entire world.
Until recently the US has been the bastion of free speech in the world.
Now we have no leverage and no credibility.
We will see more and more countries step in and compell Big Tech to censor content based on THEIR criteria.
Google pioneered the techniques that it is using in the US over in China – helping the Chinese censor their own people
What ever ha ppened to Googles pledge to not be evil ?
The left is immoral and dangerous.
John: “The left is immoral and dangerous.”
***
Always. Maybe some of the States can slow the decay they bring.
The right is immoral and dangerous.
FIFY.
Then you can demonstrate how ?
I will be happy to hold the right accountable for any effort to restrict the actual liberty of individuals.
Will you hold the left acountable for the same ?
Here is the heart of the problem in one graph.
https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Black_vs_White_IQ_scores.html
Mental retardation starts at 75 and goes down.
This data is more recent. The problem is still present but the median IQ of US blacks is atleast 5pts higher
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/WAIS-IV_FSIQ_Scores_by_Race_and_Ethnicity.png
Thanks John,
On the graph I found the black IQ average appeared to be low and it is still low on yours but appears to be close to the 85 I cited earlier.
Whatever the case, there isn’t any measure in any country that places blacks anywhere but at the bottom when compared to other people.
Putting IQ aside, one can look at cultural achievements. Everyone but sub-Saharan Africans has independently invented writing, mathematics, and civilization. If average black IQ were the same as that of Asians their historic lack of accomplishment would be a puzzle, As it is, the actual IQ explains a lot.
The inventor of the transistor and the co-discoverer of DNA have both come to similar conclusions.
I may be wrong on the independent invention of mathematics and writing in sub-Saharan Africa and if I am I would appreciate having anyone disabuse me with actual facts rather than the usual invective. I actually looked for it hoping to find it, but without success. Perhaps someone else has done better than I have done.
And don’t try to tell me that Cleopatra [actually Greek] and Ancient Egyptians were black. They weren’t. Neither was Jesus.
Young,
This is likely a significant factor, since it could easily morph into a positive feedback loop of sorts:
“Poor nutrition, characterized by zinc, iron, vitamin B and protein deficiencies, leads to low IQ, which leads to later antisocial behavior,” he said. “These are all nutrients linked to brain development.”
Researchers also found that the more indicators of malnutrition there were, the greater the antisocial behavior.
The findings have implications for the United States, Raine said, where 7 percent of toddlers suffer from iron deficiency, a number that jumps to between 9 percent and 16 percent in adolescent and female groups.
Iron deficiency is between 19 percent and 22 percent in black and Mexican American females, he said.
“This is a problem in America. It’s not just a problem in the far-away Indian Ocean,” Raine said. “If it’s causal, there’s an intervention implication there. At a societal level, should parents be thinking more about what kids are eating?””
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041117005027.htm
Approximately 50% of kids at the poverty line are obese and obesity is associated with quite a few micronutrient deficiencies.
There likely a large number of factors – but Race itself is still one of those.
The relative IQ performance by race gets slightly worse with higher income.
Absolutely nutritional issues may be a factor in the IQ’s of poor blacks. But it is also a factor in poor whites and they stuill outperform blacks by 0.6 std dev.
Regardless, we should be looking for explanations.
But it is taboo to do so.
“obesity is associated with quite a few micronutrient deficiencies.”
****
And with eating far too much.
I have difficulty describing a fat kid as malnourished.
Fat kids aren’t overeating spinach, broccoli, carrots, blueberries, and steak which are micronutrient-dense. They’re eating mostly empty calories or nutrient-poor food. Then, on top of it, they often aren’t getting enough sunshine.
Except for steak most kids avoid eating that crap.
My kids had a smoothie this morning with blueberries, strawberries, kale, and a bit of maple syrup and cocoa powder. Roasting veggies makes them taste much better, too. My youngest asked for sauteed spinach and mushrooms yesterday. Getting kids to enjoy vegetables can be done.
Sounds like you are a great cook! Usually when I have seen veggies they have been cooked until they look like snot.
The oven does all the work. 🙂 Yeah, the ole boil ’em til they’re glop method would make anyone avoid veggies.
i discovered a simple method recently for getting that tooth-irritating mouth feel out of raw spinach
You just microwave the spinach and it reduces the moisture content. Just put a stack on the plate and mic it a little bit
The resulting flat mass of drier spinach can be added to a lot of dishes more effectively than putting in the raw spinach with the spinach-water inside it
I find this is far more palatable and I enjoy spinach every day now
Cabbage is another versatile and under-rated vegetable
I thought my “mediterranean diet” used a lot of garlic and then I started eating regularly home-made Chinese food. wow! Talk about “taking it to another level”
Saloth Sar
Prairie, there is no doubt that nutrition plays a part in early development, but we do see borderline nourished children that do quite well. Solving the problem of zinc deficiency etc. can be done with vitamin and mineral supplementation though a good diet is best. If this is an existing problem it should be easy to remediate at least in part.
S. Meyer,
I agree. However, doctors either can’t test for micronutrient insufficiencies (because of insurance company restrictions) or they do not think to do so because the kids aren’t presenting with symptoms of a frank deficiency. Also, many pediatricians seem to think that most kids have a varied diet replete with nutrient-dense foods when even for middle-class kids that isn’t even always the case. The Standard American Diet, composed of a high percentage of processed foods, is called ‘standard’ for a reason.
Many packaged foods are enriched with vitamins and minerals so that the daily recommended dose is obtained. It’s not the fault of society that some parents shopping for food load up the cart with Coke, candy and all sorts of poor food choices that are eaten right out of the package. It is also not the fault of society that parents take their kids to McDonalds. At some point the individuals have to take care of their own needs and recognize the tradeoffs.
Food is relatively inexpensive in the US. For the most part nutrition problems in children are due to the parents lack of care. When we blame society for everything we find that people don’t do the jobs they are supposed to be doing such as taking care of their children.
We do not know exactly what is going on.
I am personally suspicious that it has to do with the synchronicity between environmental factors of intelligence and heritability.
Essentially that many minorities are more genetically adapted to more primitive societies. I suspect that we will also find there is a geographic component – that races that existed for millenia in geographic regions that created less incentives for improvement are behind in terms of intellectual evolution. Elsewhere there is a map of median IQ by region and there are clear geographical patterns that seem to be more than race.
That we do not know what is going on does not mean that we should deny the facts.
I would further note that racial variations in median IQ are significantly less than those between randomly selected individuals.
The fact that Asians have higher IQ’s and blacks have lower ones does not mean that if you have a black, an asian, and a white in a room that you can blindly order them by IQ
John: “The fact that Asians have higher IQ’s and blacks have lower ones does not mean that if you have a black, an asian, and a white in a room that you can blindly order them by IQ”
***
No, and I didn’t say that one could. In the Bell Curve they remind us it is a bell curve and there are many blacks who have higher IQs than most whites. They also say that knowing an individual’s IQ tells one little about him.
However as a statistical group one can say much. It is clearly not correct always to conclude that because one group on average doesn’t do as well as another it must be because of racism for which the rest of us must be whipped.
I think this intense focus on IQ and race for the general population is artificial. There may be differences, but I would prefer to take those with the right attitude over those with the wrong one. Early in the 20th century, the eastern European Jews, as a group had low IQs. Today Jews as a whole have higher IQs than average. Maybe they do, or they don’t, but there are many different types of abilities not measured by the IQ test.
What do we know? We know that those with a good family structure and strive for upward mobility have a higher value for education and a superior work ethic. I think we focus too much on race and not enough on the family and individual liberty.
The government got into the act. It made things worse, not better. It tried to micro-manage and pile money on top of the problem. The government didn’t guarantee success. It guaranteed failure.
Well said, S. Meyer. Family structure, work ethic, and a high value on learning, knowledge, and education goes a long way.
Whether it be a collapse of family values, poor nutrition, or stupider genes or some combination of those it is long past time for us to climb down from the cross of racism the left nailed us to.
Amen.
There are myriads of factors that impact our futiure – whether we are black or white, rich or poor.
Racism is near the bottom in actual impact or significance.
IQ is a proxy for myriads of conflicts with the left.
IQ is an excellent proxy because the data is well established, the benefits of a high IQ are well known.
But we must pretend that what we know to be fact is not – because it is ideologically inconvenient.
There was an excellent series on the history of Math on Netflix some time ago – I do not know if it is still there.
It follows the development across the world.
We should all remember that the epicenter of human acheivement has moved all over the world at different times.
Its locus in the west is relatively recent. There is no reason to believe it will stay there.
However there is good reason to beleive that advancement will be greatest where people are most free.
Thanks for the tip. I will look for that series.
They went to San Fran Cisco where it’s two to one.
All the folks are stupid but they’re having fun.