Growing up, i had alway valued the idea that all people are given equal opportunity to move up in the world and some simply take better advantage of it then others. as i grew up i realized this was far from true, as my eyes were opened to the rampant discrimination and inequality in educational opportunities. “All educational credentials have not been created equal, nor do all citizens have equal access to educational opportunities. Race, gender, ethnicity, social class, and other background factors remain important in the process of attaining educational credentials” claims Floyd M. Hammack in his article Paths to Legislation or Litigation for Educational Privilege: New York and San Fransisco Compared. This reading agrees with a lot of class discussions we have had on the nature of the opportunity gap for minorities and provides additional insight into the issue by comparing New York City which has been the focus of this course with San Fransisco which we have heard little about before this.
How this article discusses the long history of elite high school acceptance has changed over the years in both New York City and San Fransisco also seems to just add to all we have learned about the history of unequal opportunity caused by discriminatory practices intended to have white christian families and their children monopolize good education. even up to the modern day, the article points out many issues such as how certain races must score much higher than others to be considered for exclusive high schools, which, while meaning to be accommodating to races typically disenfranchised and with less opportunity to learn, has negatively impacted individuals of races that typically already performed well such as Asians and whites by raising the threshold for them. it almost seems like people are trying to fix the problem at the wrong end of it: rather than ensuring everyone has equal tools to have equal possibility of scoring well on the shsat and thus getting into their high school of choice, races are given different threshold that makes it easier for them to into these selective schools and equality/representation is created almost artificially at the highschool level.
Thanks for this Demian. But please note that the racialized entry requirements for access to a specialized high school existed only in San Francisco – New York has never tried this, although as Hammack points out, there was a program devoted to increasing diversity through a small set-aside in NYC.