Affirmative Action for HCHS?

I believe that affirmative action is a double-edged sword, either way someone's going to get hurt. Not pareto efficient at all... there must be a smarter way about approaching this issue.

An excerpt of a recent NYTimes article involving my high school:

Diversity Debate Convulses Elite High School
By SHARON OTTERMAN

With one of its alumnae, Elena Kagan, poised for confirmation as a justice on the United States Supreme Court, it should be a triumphant season for Hunter College High School, a New York City public school for the intellectually gifted.

But instead, the school is in turmoil, with much of the faculty in an uproar over the resignation of a popular principal, the third in five years. In her departure speech to teachers in late June, the principal cited several reasons for her decision, including tensions over a lack of diversity at the school, which had been the subject of a controversial graduation address the day before by one of the school’s few African-American students.

Hours after the principal’s address, a committee of Hunter High teachers that included Ms. Kagan’s brother, Irving, read aloud a notice of no confidence to the president of Hunter College, who ultimately oversees the high school, one of the most prestigious public schools in the nation.

The events fanned a long-standing disagreement between much of the high school faculty and the administration of Hunter College over the use of a single, teacher-written test for admission to the school, which has grades 7 through 12. Faculty committees have recommended broadening the admissions process to include criteria like interviews, observations or portfolios of student work, in part to increase minority enrollment and blunt the impact of the professional test preparation undertaken by many prospective students.

Eliminating the test, which has remained essentially unchanged for decades, is not on the table, said John Rose, the dean for diversity at Hunter College. The test, he said, is an integral part of the success of the school, which has a stellar college admissions profile — about 25 percent of graduates are admitted to Ivy League schools — and outstanding alumni like Ms. Kagan and Ruby Dee.

“Parents, faculty members and alumni feel very strongly that the test is very valuable in terms of preserving the kind of specialness and uniqueness that the school has,” Mr. Rose said.

As has happened at other prestigious city high schools that use only a test for admission, the black and Hispanic population at Hunter has fallen in recent years. In 1995, the entering seventh-grade class was 12 percent black and 6 percent Hispanic, according to state data. This past year, it was 3 percent black and 1 percent Hispanic; the balance was 47 percent Asian and 41 percent white, with the other 8 percent of students identifying themselves as multiracial. The public school system as a whole is 70 percent black and Hispanic.

When Justin Hudson, 18, stood up in his purple robes to address his classmates in the auditorium of Hunter College, those numbers were on his mind. He opened his remarks by praising the school and explaining how appreciative he was to have made it to that moment.

Then he shocked his audience. “More than anything else, I feel guilty,” Mr. Hudson, who is black and Hispanic, told his 183 fellow graduates. “I don’t deserve any of this. And neither do you.”

They had been labeled “gifted,” he told them, based on a test they passed “due to luck and circumstance.” Beneficiaries of advantages, they were disproportionately from middle-class Asian and white neighborhoods known for good schools and the prevalence of tutoring.

“If you truly believe that the demographics of Hunter represent the distribution of intelligence in this city,” he said, “then you must believe that the Upper West Side, Bayside and Flushing are intrinsically more intelligent than the South Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Washington Heights. And I refuse to accept that.”

It goes on about tensions between Hunter College, the Hunter College High School (HCHS) faculty, and some members of the student population on how to diversify the student body and whether the traditional entrance exam should be reshaped. Thanks to our distinguished alumnae Elena Kagan, newly appointed Supreme Court Justice (who spoke at my high school graduation!!!), this age-old HCHS drama is now brought out into the media spotlight.

I think to address this issue, the first thing that people need to pinpoint is the definition of an excellent education. The whole purpose of HCHS is to provide this service to the children of New York City, and anything that dilutes this should essentially disqualify it from being implemented.

Diversity, especially in America, is a celebrated component in our society. We (correctly) believe that in order to become well-rounded individuals, we must understand each others' cultures and backgrounds. An open mind is key to flexibility and mobility in the present day world, and I think that it'd be a shame for diversity not to be emphasized, especially in a school located in New York City, and especially in a school that aspires to groom future world leaders. Whereas we learn social studies, calculus, and other sorts of forgettable "useful" subjects in high school from our teachers, we learn the most from our fellow students. Through the bubble that is high school, teenagers in their formative years are equipped to identify and deal with a medley of situations, people, and circumstances. This is an invaluable experience, and a critical part of what an "excellent education" entails.

On the same argument, in high school and in any academic environ, usually a student's friends set the educational standard for that particular child. Being competitive by nature, I can't stress enough how much my friends pushed me to be a better, smarter, faster person. Each one of us strove to outdo one another, not only because we needed to differentiate ourselves for the dreaded college application process, but also because we knew that by passing the gauntlet in the very beginning (the Hunter College High School entrance exam), we were all unequivocally... peers. What I mean by "peers" is that every one of my fellow students were also on a similar intellectual level. I don't think it'd be an exaggeration to say that the students I met at Hunter are rather special. That only made me feel like I had to work hard to prove that I belonged to such an unique peer group.

The fact that we all went through the exact same test to get into this Hunter meant that we were all supposed to be on the same playing field. Their achievements became my goals, for if they could reach the stars, then why couldn't I? I remember working so hard just to not fall behind, and now looking back I may have left my own trail of stars as well.

All students accepted into Hunter bring something different and valuable to the table, no two students are alike... even if they've been mainly drawn from the "Upper West Side, Bayside, and Flushing". For Justin Hudson and various faculty members to distill the entire problem into a (mostly, if not entirely) racial one is extremely short-sighted. Yes, it's true that the Asian minority (47%) is actually a majority (white population at 41%) , but stripping away all racial identities, does Hunter not already fulfill its mission to "educate intellectually and academically gifted students"? Thanks to the rigorous Hunter entrance exam, it does. Now we must solve the diversity issue... one that I agree is an urgent matter.

If the HCHS administration wishes to diversify its student body, it cannot do it at the cost of the academic quality of its population. We need to address the ROOT of the problem. Why do more Asians and Whites perform better in the exam than Blacks and Hispanics? Is it because of test-taking habits? Is it because there's a lack of Blacks and Hispanics taking the test in the first place? The administration needs to focus on bringing Blacks and Hispanic students up, and not employ methods that bring Asian and White students down.

It should step up its recruiting efforts in under-represented ethnic groups. Go to schools located in "South Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Washington Heights" at an early stage, work together with these elementary schools in potentially feeding talented students into their system so that these children have the tools to become true peers for the other "intellectually and academically students" at Hunter. HCHS should encourage non-profits to provide possible tutoring programs in Math, English, and essay writing for these children... or even have the PTA and other interested parent/student groups start these programs themselves. It should give out practice problems, hold information sessions, help these students accustom themselves to the format of their test...

...but the LAST thing that HCHS should do is punish other ethnic groups (Asians, whites, or other "overachiever" groups) for being proactive about the education of their children. Can you really blame them for testing well? For excelling on the state exam? For knowing how to write a basic introduction-body-conclusion essay? If you blame these ethnic groups for working hard, for sending their children to prep schools, then you're also shunning meritocracy. Meritocracy is not only the basis of a public school system (that HCHS belongs to), but the American Dream as well. The test is in black and white, and what each child receives in return is a color-blind number.

Pointing fingers is an inefficient and dramatic way to address the problem. I assure you, if you were to introduce interviews and portfolio work along with the HCHS entrance exam, who's to say that those kids from "UWS, Bayside, and Flushing" wouldn't ace it with flying colors? I predict that soon after bringing in interviews, all 12 year old Asians will be experts in the 2-minute introduction. Well then, what are you going to do once that happens? Are you still going to choose the incoherent, stammering, but ethnically under-represented child over Chinese Cronkite? If yes, then this dishonorable selection is blatant racism cloaked under the name of diversity, and HCHS... you will have lost my alumni donation.

Let's be smart not and make this an endless rehashing of affirmative action. It doesn't have to be a zero sum game between talent and diversity. If we approach this the right way, we can eventually have our cake and eat it too.

If you want to hear a snarkier point of view, visit my friend's take on it @ Spaceships.