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发表于 2022-6-24 07:48
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Following Recall, San Francisco School Board Reverses Course
& k! `6 S- L$ L; xThe board voted this week to switch elite Lowell High School back to a merit-based admissions system.
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( Y( ]& i' Q, N; V: M6 A! A- C4 ]June 24, 2022, 8:42 a.m. ET
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0 b2 M$ M" c" c7 t5 ]5 e! m5 VSan Francisco voters in February ousted three school board members in a landslide election that proponents hoped would reshape the city’s education policy and politics., {4 r- s2 Q( p8 h# n, k3 O, Q0 g& [
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Just four months later, the impacts of that vote are emerging in a big way.
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- y+ N* {, T7 r, w6 a5 h4 ~% ?: qThe recall effort was driven in part by disagreement over how to handle admissions at Lowell High School, an elite public school that for decades accepted students primarily based on high test scores and grades. (Lowell’s long list of notable alumni includes Justice Stephen G. Breyer and former Gov. Pat Brown.)
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4 B7 A6 u4 ^6 }* EIn October 2020, the San Francisco school board voted to install a lottery-based admissions system in hopes of diversifying the student body and expanding access as social justice changes gained momentum in California. The board made that policy permanent in early 2021.
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& E6 t+ X6 U( X2 h% |8 cBut the moves angered many city parents, particularly Asian Americans, who felt it unfairly limited their children’s long-sought entry into one of the nation’s top-performing schools.
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So on Wednesday evening, the newly constituted school board, with three members appointed by Mayor London Breed, took up the issue. And in a marked shift, it voted 4-3 to reinstate merit-based admissions at Lowell for fall 2023.; @7 h. G/ @9 m( _
, C. P0 y3 [; i. Q“It speaks to the urgency that this new majority on the board felt to distance itself from the previous board,” said David Lee, a political science lecturer at San Francisco State University. “I think they wanted to show to voters that they heard loud and clear in the February vote.”; ^2 Y" H. w- q8 M, `/ y& H
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All three new board members voted in favor of the return to selective admissions. They were joined by the board president, Jenny Lam — who was initially a 2019 Breed appointee — to form a narrow majority.
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' |6 p$ o4 w& W# T4 qAnd, further repudiating the policies of their predecessors, the board on Wednesday also rescinded another previous board decision to cover up a controversial mural at a high school.: A! _" Y$ s/ f, M
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In Lee’s eyes, Wednesday’s decisions reveal that board members are taking seriously the political forces that put them in office, particularly the Asian American voters and volunteers that fueled the recall. The three new members are all up for re-election in November.
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/ e% i8 r0 q( B k3 b+ H" }The Lowell student body is predominantly Asian — roughly 48 percent, compared with 35 percent across S.F. Unified schools, according to district data — and for many immigrant families the school was seen as “a well-worn and cherished pathway to the middle class, to social mobility,” Lee told me.
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The change in admissions policy felt like a particularly brutal blow after families endured some of the nation’s longest pandemic school closures through spring 2021. Separately, families were also concerned about anti-Asian hate crimes. The school board recall became an energizing force for Asian American voters, particularly Chinese Americans, who are by far the largest group, making up 23 percent of the city’s population.$ D: \# j O) W. B# b H. L' `
, @3 \3 s$ W9 f2 Q“The Chinese community is celebrating today because it is really the first time in a long time where Chinese voters flexed their political muscle and saw an immediate result,” Lee told me. “It’s a wake-up call for the political establishment of San Francisco, that this is an emerging political force.”% K" | _. U1 R) T
' s4 a0 T( \+ A2 e( A& BBut the vote on Wednesday was a disappointing outcome for those who supported the lottery approach.9 j+ O: c G D1 z0 a. K( k
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They fear that the system leaves behind Black and Latino students who have lower test scores. They also cite racism and harassment of Black and brown students at Lowell. The introduction of the lottery system has reduced the number of Asian and white ninth graders by around one-quarter and increased Black and Latino ninth graders by more than 40 percent.
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“The lottery system means Lowell is diverse,” said Virginia Marshall, president of the San Francisco Alliance of Black Educators and a representative of the N.A.A.C.P., according to The San Francisco Chronicle. “It is not just for one ethnic group. It’s for all students who choose to make Lowell their home.”
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/ B+ a% Y" T& r: O4 @: khttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/ ... o-school-board.html- g& I& y3 {1 x, Z) {8 ]: Q
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