Competitive Advantage vs Social Values

I’m working with Steven and Kash to look at the differences between New Dorp High School and Staten Island Technical High School. The articles “School Choice” and “Is Demography Still Destiny?” both relate to our school profiles. Staten Island Technical High School has a very competitive color-blind admissions test, but is very racially segregated compared to New Dorp High School, which is not competitive and whose student body is more reflective of the surrounding community.

“School Choice Policies and Racial Segregation: Where White Parents’ Good Intentions, Anxiety, and Privilege Collide” is a study of a diversely populated school district with very pronounced segregation despite colorblind school choice policies. The colorblind admissions benefitted white upper-class students because of parent social connections and money. Allison Rosa and Amy Stuart Wells interviewed white parents in the district about how they decided where to enroll their children. They found that, despite an increasing trend of desiring diverse schools, white parents with economic means still were drawn to mostly white “good” schools and gifted and talented programs. Their study pertained to kindergarten enrollments, but the same principle is relevant to specialized high school applications. Segregation is a major issue in specialized high schools, but white parents still encourage their children to apply. Both sets of parents fear that their children would fall behind in the high-stakes education system, so they chose “good” schools despite desiring more diversity.

This reading reminded me of a prior class reading by Nikole Hannah-Jones titled “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City,” which was a first-hand account by a Black mother who wants to fix the segregated public-school system but also hopes her daughter can get ahead. According to “School Choice,” white upper-class parents struggled between wanting diverse schools and deciding how to best benefit their children. Both show parents trying to navigate an unfair system of power. Margaret Anderson wrote that having white parents “unlearn” racism will not dismantle a racist system. This supports a broader argument to make structural changes in the school system, so that parents aren’t forced to make decisions under these constraints.

“Is Demography Still Destiny?” outlines the problems with the current school choice system, and the former article also builds on that. The Bloomberg administration’s restructuring of schools to focus on school choice still allows white economically-advantaged students to have more options and obtain their first choice, as also mentioned by Rosa and Stuart. When we look at Staten Island Tech and other specialized high schools’ admissions policies, we find that the “color-blind” admissions test benefits white, economically well-off students. Specialized high schools are not as accessible a choice for economically disadvantaged students and students of color as they are for white economically advantaged students.