It’s fascinating how topsy-turvy this case is–
January 14, 2008 — A year after the city’s racial quotas kept their daughter out of an elite public school, an Indian couple from Brooklyn is filing a class-action lawsuit to make sure it doesn’t happen again to her or any child.
Barred by the color of her skin… And saddled with lofty expectations…
Did racial preferences prevent a high scoring Indian kid from getting into a school that other, lower scoring, kids did? Well yes, but this time around, the lower-scoring “others” were white –
For decades, the school has enforced racial double standards on its tests to maintain a 6-4 white-to-minority ratio to comply with a 1974 federal court desegregation order.…Officials said Nikita, who is considered a member of a minority group, had to score at least 84.4 score to be accepted. But white students needed to score only 77.
And young Nikita? She only pulled down a 79 – much to the delight, I’m sure, of the uber-competitive desi moms down the street. Her dad channels MLK for us –
“Children should be judged on the content of their character, not on the color of their skin,” said Dr. Anjan Rau, the girl’s dad, about the quotas at Mark Twain School in Coney Island.
In a different report, I loved how dad keeps his eye on the prize –
“It could hurt her chances of going to Harvard, Yale or Princeton.”
UPDATE: Case closed.
January 16, 2008…The Department of Education announced Monday that it’s asking a federal judge to lift a 1974 court order imposing a rigid quota system on Coney Island’s selective Mark Twain School.The announcement came just hours after the Center for Individual Rights filed suit against the DOE on behalf of Nikita Rau, the 11-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants whose application the school rejected because it had already reached its pre-designated allotment of non-white students.
Now young Nikita needs to start SAT-cramming
White kids should be made to ride the bus in bombay as part of the admission process.
This is ridiculous. Wasn’t the original desegregation court order meant to ensure that there wouldn’t be too many white students at the expense of non-white students?
Does this mean that non-Asian minorities also have to score higher than whites to get admission into the school? Wow.
These kinds of excuse-making parents give us hard charging South Asian achievers a bad name.
Why would you wish that on any child? Especially after the discussion going on over on the other thread?
There’s joking and then there’s hurting.
Ironically, now that they’ve dumbed down the SATs and given elite college admissions policies, she’s probably got a better shot going to a random bad public school than a magnet school–but, that’s her and her family’s call, not mine–hope they win!!
This is ridiculous. Wasn’t the original desegregation court order meant to ensure that there wouldn’t be too many white students at the expense of non-white students?
oops, it was the other way around- In 1972, the NAACP brought suit in Hart V. Community School Board 21 in the United States District Court, charging that Mark Twain Junior High School 239 was unconstitutionally segregated. The school is located in Coney Island, a predominantly African American and Hispanic section of the school district and in fact had about an 85% percent minority enrollment. Judge Weinstein found the plaintiffs were correct in that the school was unconstitutionally segregated. (here)
It’s funny how things work out. I wonder how the NAACP would react to this…
I’d say this thread is going to be a train wreck, but that would be doing a disservice to trains and wrecks everywhere…
Why?
I can understand colleges looking at race when it comes to admissions, but I don’t think racial quotas are really appropriate when it comes to admissions to middle and high schools. I understand that the playing field isn’t level even at that stage of education, but what’s ridiculous about this situation isn’t even that she didn’t get in because Asians are overrepresented but because of an arcane desegregation ruling. I wonder what the percentage of Black & Latino students at this school even is? Totally defeats the original purpose of the ruling.
Imagine what goes on at this school, the non-white kids saying to the white kids, ‘You only got in cuz you’re white.’
What do you guys think is the solution? Either bring down blacks and hispanics without the quotas for the sake of privalaged Indians or keep it the way it is. For the good of all society you would think to keep the quotas and if that means sacraficing a rich Indian, that will most likely go to another good school anyway, so be it. I think its called alturistic behavior or something, to sacrafice yourself for the good of the whole population, and if I remember freshmen ecologly correctly the fitness of alturistic populations are high.
Amardeep also blogged about Nikita earlier this summer.
much props SM Intern… I knew this story sounded a tad familiar…
Hmm.. so she is about 11 right now, and her father has already decided that she has to attend Harvard, Yale or Princeton! sigh
I’m extremely mixed about affirmative action, and I think it’s ridiculous that the HYP complex is being instilled in a child at such a young age. Overambitious parents make me want to shoot myself sometimes.
I KNOW! It is this kind of waffling that leads kids like Nikita to underachieve. The parents should have picked out a specific school to target by her tenth birthday!
If the playing field isn’t level, why is affirmative action inappropriate? The real problem is that desegregation has become a strange goal given how urban communities have evolved into ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. As for your point about Asians, I don’t know how minorities are counted, but I would be surprised and disappointed if all minorities were part of one coarse group with no discrimination between them. (I’d be interested in hearing more about how desegregation is actually implemented from people knowledgeable about the education system here on SM).
17 · Rahul said
Well, the REALLY pretentious ones pick out a good school for their kid before they’re born.
Hah! No way! Tenth b’day is too soon. It is better to wait till they become teenagers. Then the hormones start really kicking in, the self-doubts start arising etc. That is the time to provide some clarity. Like: get into H/Y/P or be a loser for life. That’s the kind of clarity that converts kids into winners.
How have they dumbed it down?
Anyway, IS 239 is supposed to be great (great principal and teachers) but it’s got 1200+ students in three grades. Gifted or not, I wouldn’t willingly send my child to a school that big. Not in those fragile early adolescent years.
Did you read the article? She’s not being kept out because there’s a higher bar for Asians, but because there’s a higher bar for non-whites (including blacks & latinos) than there is for whites. As for the ‘altruism’ argument in general, little Nikita sure seems privileged considering that her parents both go by Dr. Rau, but not every South Asian American comes from a similar background, nor are all blacks & latinos impoverished. I would favor SES-based affirmative action instead.
I just don’t think public secondary schools should use race-based quota systems. There’s been some controversy in NYC about the specialized high schools (like Stuy) not having enough black & Latino students, and while I understand the concern, I really don’t think a quota system is the solution. There are several programs that recruit students from low-SES backgrounds or racially underrepresented communities and prep them extra-hard to get into these schools (like Prep for Prep; and Stuy has its own summer program and actually lets in kids who were in the program who only score borderline on the admissions test, provided they go to summer school the year before they start there). Hunter (HCHS) has a lower cutoff on its admissions test for students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, which is something I can get behind. The problem isn’t desegregation itself–no one is surprised that the schools in Flushing are mostly Asian and that the schools in Bed-Stuy are mostly black–but that the ‘elite’ public schools/programs that require admissions tests have so few black & Latino students, and for many people, ‘too many’ Asians. I would sympathize more with this concern if it usually didn’t come with that latter addition, especially because it totally ignores the fact that not all Asian-American/South Asian-American kids come from privileged backgrounds, especially not in NYC.
The problem here is not the inherent rightness or wrongness of AA, that can be debated separately. Clearly some kids have REAL disadvantages and do deserve some special consideration. The problem is that affirmative action is no longer acting as a ‘leveler,’ but as means to social engineering here. What should happen is once a minority is sufficiently represented, that minority should no longer be classed as a ‘minority.’ Instead, as is done in other places, the term ‘underrepresented minorities,’ is a description of who actually should get some special help. Personally I am not completely against AA. I live in a district with a similar test-based public high school. Here we have a preponderance of Indian/Asian kids. These kids are shoved into expensive academies to prepare for the test….it is hardly a level playing field. However I think Affirmative Action can be replaced by a combination of non-raced based reforms which would improve the quality of the students at a particular school, and not promote the same social discord that AA does today.
What should happen is that the ‘testing’ component should be reduced in weight. A writing component and interview should be added. Special weight should be given to talented performers in non-academic fields. Finally a ‘score’ should be given for the individual childs socio-economic circumstance…parents education level, income, number of siblings etc. If you have a policy that admits kids on a broad-based non-racial platform, you will naturally get kids that range across the talent spectrum, and most probably get a ethnic distribution that mirrors the community at large.
Oh but this case doesn’t really have anything to do with what I talked about in #22. This particular desegregation ruling is just arcane, and I’d be surprised if the NAACP continued to support it now, especially if all non-whites are grouped together.
They took out a lot of the more difficult questions, so now there’s more clumping/differences are more due to random error. So, colleges get more “discretion” re: who to take, and I’m pretty sure that doesn’t help kids like Nikita.
I think that if one is serious about getting into an elite college, an overlooked strategy is going to a not-so-good high school, and being the “standout” there. That might be a lot better than being #10 at an “elite” high school. But your mileage may vary–I’m not saying it’s right for everyone, just on average, overlooked (esp. if you can learn well on your own).
So it’ll basically be like college admissions. But that’s the thing, I just don’t think secondary schools should have to do that if what they’re looking for are kids who are good at school in a typically nerdy way, nor do public school administrators probably have the time (especially if there are as many applicants as there are in NYC, which is what I’m familiar with). And this sounds like you’re saying that Asian/Indian kids wouldn’t have as much non-academic talent.
Whoa! Mark Twain JHS in Brooklyn was one of the schools that I had applied to when I was her age. I didn’t get in either, and neither did any of my desi friends. I guess this explains a lot for what we went through back then…
That kid as cute as a button. I don’t see why she couldn’t just study harder. Only scored a 79? And she calls herself Asian – pah! Next time she should worker harder at her maths.
[by the way, that whole para. is sarcastic]
Rahul, different districts interpret “minority” in different ways. In many areas Asian Americans are not included in this calculus (leading to the use of terms “underrepresented minority” vs. “minority”), or they are not disaggregated in a way that is useful re: diversity/representation (due in part to the aggregation that takes place by using U.S. Census markers for race). It’s late, but I’ll think more and see if I can remember anything from the recent Seattle case.
rob, I’ve actually met kids who tried this out, often with varying success (most often, very little). What many people don’t realize is that most elite colleges use an indexed system to gauge the “difficulty” of one’s high school program vis-a-vis their high school’s overall performance, which in turn affects your admissions score.
For example, let’s say schools are scored between 5 (low) to 10 (high). If I have a 3.0 from a 10 school, my index number might be 310 = 30. Conversely, if I had a 4.0 from a 5 school, I wouldn’t even break even despite my superior performance (4.05=20). And, for many students who are disserviced by inadequate preparatory education anyway, there isn’t much choice — whether by virtue of the local district, or by income constraints — or difference between schools. Instead there is hyper-competition for a few coveted spots at the few “performing” magnet schools within a public district.
nala, a growing number of colleges are adopting AA programs that pair SES and race to get at exactly those communities that are underserved by the current “umbrella” model — i.e., low-income communities of color (including Asian Americans / South Asian Americans).
With respect to diversity in K-12 education, I do think there’s an argument for the value of diversity in teaching cultural competency, etc., etc., that does not happen in mono-racial schools.
Wouldnt she be the dumbest minority there if she wore accepted anyway? The reason she needed to score that high is because other minorities scored at that level or beyond. Maybe next year she will only need to score a 50 because other minorites scored at that level, but whites might still need to score a 77 or what ever the number is?
So they can go back to their country right?
Exactly! Finally someone understands me.
So, you’re saying the kid isn’t cute, Camille? Wow, the poor child is going to be plagued by insecurites about her looks for the rest of her life.
Thanks, I do think race should be combined with a hefty weighting of SES for better decisions. The problem is being exacerbated these days with the emergence of techniques like genetic testing, which identify miniscule fractions of AA/Hispanic genes in people who are basically white in every aspect of their upbringing and opportunities, but allows them to claim minority status according to the letter of the law.
I agree. I went to an elite private high school and none of the minorities (African Americans) needed special admissions becuase they all had money and had the privilege of going to a good high school, but they did anyway. And you don’t need to go to an elite school to be admitted into a top school. Only two people from my high school class went to top schools, one was African American and the other was an athlete. Many of us ended up at state schools. And the kid is only 11!! Let her be a kid for goodness sake!
Radhika on January 15, 2008 09:48 PM · Direct link · “Quoteâ€(?)
17 · Rahul said
Well, the REALLY pretentious ones pick out a good school for their kid before they’re born.
My uncle infact did that before my cousin was born. Assured her admission to a popular south Mumbai school before birth 😉
Yikes, well–my gambit wouldn’t work then! I do think that most colleges want at least some students from less elite high schools, so wouldn’t want to rule out everyone with such a mechanical index, but I guess it’s complicated.
Does anyone know where the 6:4 ratio came from? Is it based on population patterns or plucked from thin air (as I suspect)?
37 · Bong Breaker said
From what I understand, the idea was to integrate white kids into a school in a primarily African American/Latin@ area. The incentive was that they’d build a good school. Nice, no? I’m reading through the case, but I haven’t gotten to the 6:4 ratio yet and I’m too tired.
If the kid is genuinely intelligent, it doesn’t really matter where the kid goes to school. Read Steve Levitt’s Freakonomics. It discusses how students who did not attend Chicago magnet schools did just as well at a local high school. The study was on the high-school level, but perhaps the same can be said on the middle school level.
Good point Kiddo. Why do “gifted” kids need special schools? Arent they just going to learn this stuff on thier own anyway?
If I am a gifted athelete then I dont need the $30,000 Jordan basketball camp. I just play in the backyard and I would still beat your ass up and down the court, even though you went to the camp, because you see I am gifted.
I agree. I went to an elite private high school and none of the minorities (African Americans) needed special admissions becuase they all had money and had the privilege of going to a good high school,
I’d argue that if any one of those students were in the wrong place and the wrong time, are equally likely to have a plunger up the ass.
Because ‘gifted’ kids waste away in classrooms where they’re unchallenged and in environments where they’re discouraged from being enthusiastic about learning.
A few observations 1) I do not think this is a case of pure affirmative action. It is to ensure a public school system where defacto segregation doesn’t take place. At least, that’s what I am getting from this article. Creating a good community takes precedence over pure merit at the pre college level. I am not saying that is my view, but it is a valid view held by some. 2) Seriously, while it is very possible she has some untapped genius as of now, from what she has accomplished, I think the news articles are jumping the gun by labeling her brilliant. She still did not score high enough to be part of the 40% of the school demographics;. She can still get into Harvard but not if she goes to this school and maintains the same kind of relative score. 3) Is the 6-4 ratio random or does it reflect the reality of the white to minority racial distribution in that area?
She scored a freaking 79, just two points over the 77 needed by a white person to qualify. And this dad is whining about her not getting into Harvard? Come on, that is statistically not very large. I wish the paper would tell us how many minorities scored above the 79 and less than the 84 needed to qualify.
This is why they should open up more of these kind of schools so a kid doesn’t have just two choices – either score enough to qualify for a magnet school or be a part of her local neighborhood school. The second choice is totally on luck – where you have limited say on the quality of your local school.
Seriously, this didn’t deserve a post on sepia guys. The kid didn’t make the cut – sucks to be her. But there’s a ton of other school where she can go. What’s the biggie? This place is turning into whine/moan/bitch central.
Get a perspective on life. There are a ton of kids in India who can’t even afford a decent meal. How about doing something about them.
This is pretty damn stupid, having racial quotas at all. In what way does this benefit society at all? Let the kids who deserve it get in. It’s should actually be more insulting to those admitted through AA that society thinks they’re racially prone to stupidity. Even in places where blacks and Latinos are admitted to fill quotas, it’s still a stupid system. Ideally, they should judge each student on his or her circumstances AND performance. If a black kid grows up in Compton, but manages to maintain a 3.6, he or she could and should be reasonably admitted to a school like say, UC Berkeley. If a black kid grows up in Manhattan and graduates with a 2.5, there really is no logically justifiable reason why he’d fall under the AA umbrella.
I have news for the whiny father who thinks his naturalized US Citizenship gives him some special powers(judging by his tone in the article). Harvard admitted mediocrities like Rahul Gandhi. Is he going to file a lawsuit against legacy or politcially connected admission when his precious kid doesn’t make it into Harvard?
I dont think it would be a priority. Hell, I know that some city in the midwest(was it KC?) that had to attract whites to some state of the art public school located in the city.
Look. this is not a case of affirmative action for whites even if it ends up being that. The following year, you could easily have a white needing an 85 to get into this school, even if it is not very likely. In a society where whites run away from neighborhoods at the sight of a colored person moving in, these measures were considered necessary at one time. As with any generic broad based public policy, you are going to come up with silly situations like this. But society in the US brought it on itself with its race based outlook. Obviously, this is not the perfect solution. But there was a reason for putting in ratios.
Pravin on January 16, 2008 04:54 AM · Direct link · “Quoteâ€(?) I have news for the whiny father who thinks his naturalized US Citizenship gives him some special powers(judging by his tone in the article). Harvard admitted mediocrities like Rahul Gandhi. Is he going to file a lawsuit against legacy or politcially connected admission when his precious kid doesn’t make it into Harvard?
You mean Harvard doesn’t admit kids on SAT scores? Aiyoooo you mean I spent years busting my balls for nothing? Now I don’t have any friends, weigh 90 lbs, suck at sports and my glasses are as thick as a soda bottle. Did I mention I am still a virgin? But I hav a 4.0 GPA and a 1600 on the SAT.
What do you guys think is the solution? Either bring down blacks and hispanics without the quotas for the sake of privalaged Indians or keep it the way it is. For the good of all society you would think to keep the quotas and if that means sacraficing a rich Indian, that will most likely go to another good school anyway, so be it. I think its called alturistic behavior or something, to sacrafice yourself for the good of the whole population, and if I remember freshmen ecologly correctly the fitness of alturistic populations are high.
We all know what the real solution is: classify asians as white for purposes of affirmative action 🙂