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
Of course, the real solution is more schools. But the real-estate tax supported public school system without an opt out option (where they get part of the money back) has kept the competition at essentially zero (in the middle class market segment where it matters most).
Oh, well.
With the dems coming back to the presidency with a democratic congress, goodbye school choice. Poor and smart kids: tough; better luck in the next birth!
I agree. As much as I identify with progressives, they got it plain wrong on public schools. They need to reform it. For me, the frustrating thing about Hillary is she knows what it takes to reform schools judging by the Clintons early efforts in Arkansas, but over time they sold out to the teachers unions. I know some racists and religious fundamentalists want school choice to get out of their “evil integrated secular” schools. But I actually think the lack of school choice leads to more segregation with the neighborhood school concept which dominates public school education in the U.S. Progressives could have it both ways. Encourage school vouchers for private schools that have close to a general population ratio of races. This will help the liberals and the conservatives achieve their respective goals. Private schools will deliver better education while there is a good deal amount of diversity in the class to help students grow socially and not in some homogeneous cocoon. There is no perfect system, but school choice will help a poor black family escape from the tyranny of their local school board which they are powerless to reform by the time their kids finish a phase of their education.
How many times have we heard Indian parents talk about ” oh there are blacks in that school, I need to find a house in a school system with no blacks.” While I understand that some of them mean they really want a better publc school, and it’s not personal against blacks, I do see many Indian parents who outright dismiss even exploring the school system. Well if we have vouchers rewarding private schools that are not segregated, it will be interesting that the same silly parents will end up sending their kids to schools with blacks because Indians really value education over race when it comes down to it.
No offense, but many of Levitt’s arguments in Freakonomics are bunk. Chicago schools had a different financing scheme and equalization initiative going throughthe 1980s-90s, a feature (and funding) that many other urban schools across the country did not have access to. If you look outside of the Chicago context, there are many schools in which “talented” or “gifted” students are not afforded the same opportunity to succeed because classrooms are overcrowded, college preparatory classes are not offered, or the coursework is not sufficiently challenging.
Why?
Camille, i meant for many kids who hail from bad school districts and their only option would be to move to another neighborhood, usually one that is either more expensive, or very inconvenient for their daily life, or both. If you can let private schools that are not segregated use vouchers, then you can get the best of both worlds, as long as one can live with the fact that there is rarely a perfect educational system, if there is one.
Pravin, why are you calling democrats “progressives” ?
I agree with Camille’s statement above, at least with respect to magnet schools. Dubner and Levitt (of Freakonomics) recently issued an article in which they defined what characteristics make a star (actually their review of another author, Ericcson’s, work). In the end, they argued it wasn’t talent but rather focused repetitive practice. Thus, seemingly, contradicting their own work in Freakonomics.
I quote:
Their work [Ericcson’s], compiled in the “Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance,” a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Students should be taught to follow their interests earlier in their schooling, the better to build up their skills and acquire meaningful feedback. (end quote)
I’ve experienced the difference between a magnet school in NYC and a “regular” public school. The difference can be night and day. Magnet schools have less students and therefore, teachers have a better opportunity to give more attention to individual students and provide that necessary feedback. More that that, as Camille eluded to, the course work tends to be more rigorous. Additionally, the magnet schools are generally safer places than regular public schools, which, in my experience, was probably the most important component.
Lastly, for everyone forced into a desi profession (doctor or lawyer), they make this conclusion:
Ericsson’s research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don’t love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don’t like to do things they aren’t “good” at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don’t possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.
The article is at the NYTimes.
I don’t get this new fashion in economics. They can’t event predict the direction of change, for heaven’s sake, and now that they have completely botched their chosen profession for everyone to see, they go and tell others how to run their business. Extreme case of physics envy, methinks.
To provide some background, the C.I. or Coney, (Coney Island) has for the greater part of the last 30 years been a tough place to live. (Maybe not as tough as Brownsville, Bklyn but anyplace called Browns-ville would inherently be tougher. 😉 Seriously, Brownsville is scary dangerous.) It’s only been recently in the last 10+ years that, Coney, has seen a bit of an economic resurgence. The resurgence is partly due to the investment in the Coney Island amusement area and in part, to the arrival of new immigrant groups. I don’t know IS 239, but, the fact that it has 1200 students would worry the heck out of me as a parent, for many reasons (see my post upthread). I would assume most people would try and get their child to a school that would offer them the maximum in security and education.
If I did, it may be out of habit. I do draw a distinction between real progressives and “progressives” in the Democratic party. I think the two sets share many of the same goals, but real progressives will not be wedded to a certain way of achieving the result they desire. The result should be better education. Now if they can find a way to improve public school education regardless of the neighborhood you live in, I will be on board with that. But I find it funny that progressives in the Democratic Party want the government to subsidize healthcare choice to all citizens, but get pissy when you suggest school choice.
Since whites seem to have a lower average bringing their cutoff to 77, and the girl scored a 79, you gotta wonder if she would actually get into the school if they just opened up admissions to everyone. Wouldn’t the cutoff be somewhere between 77 and 84(the cutoff for the minorities)? It would be interesting if that cutoff was actually above 79 rendering the case moot. You would think there were quite a few minorities rejected who got between 79 and 84.
Or if she had used Fair and Lovely.
A great application of convexity!
Pravin, What is a “real progressive” ? To me progressive means someone who either supports progress, or tries to achive progress; as a greneral goal. Depending on the circumstances, this might or might not be the right thing. The way I understand it, a progressive is not the same as one who supports individual liberty. Case in point, (I don’t know how well versed you are with indian goings on), Singur. A progressive might conceivably support the government’s action of taking away farmers’ land ( footnotes apply, courtesy local leftist politics ) in the name of promised potential development and “greater good”; but that would go straight against the tenet of individual liberty.
To me liberty seems to be the correct goal to pursue.
The photo is heartbreaking- you read the full weight of that ‘harvard-stanford-yale’ line right there.
It has been said that the course of true love is never smooth. This can be said often enough of the course of true achievement. I think Nikita can find her way to it, once she discovers her real interests and is determined to develop them, though its course may or may not lie through Harvard or Yale or Princeton. And I would not underestimate the difference between genuine and conventional achievement.
So Nikita didn’t get admission,so what? Both the parents are in a financially privileged position, I’m assuming. Put her in another school. Her father is being silly. Why make a federal case of it.
Which is why I differentiated a real progressive from the Democratic Party progressive. A real progressive would factor in liberty because liberty is also an essential quality of life for many citizens. But at the same time we do live in a society and we have made a lot of compromises in other areas. So there will be some compromises. The trick is to minimize such compromises. This is why my comments here seem to be from both ends of the spectrum. I understand the need to use public education money in getting kids to interact in a diverse environment because that is part of an education, not just getting the top scores like in Indian schools. At the same time, you got to give underprivileged kids an opportunity to escape the tyranny of a local school board which has no urgency in reforming the local school. This is where I support school choice.
66 · bulbul said
14th ammendment, equal protection clause.
when I read this post I think that Aamir Khan wasted his time and money by making TZP. Desi parents just push and push their kids so much. This poor kid now has her picture on the internet, getting unnecessary attention from people.
Has the father asked this girl her opinion abt getting into that school or Harvard? This is the classic example of parents trying to achieve their own unfulfilled dreams through their kids.
If the father thinks his daughter is gifted, then does it matter which school she goes to? If she is gifted then she will be successful in life in spite of which school she attends.
A real progressive would factor in liberty because liberty is also an essential quality of life for many citizens
Dude, you and I might agree on the voucher issue; but I read what you wrote above as “individual liberty is to be tolerated so long it suits ‘greater good’ and is a ‘quality-of-life issue’ “. Don’t bother seeking my vote if you run for election
Which is why I differentiated a real progressive from the Democratic Party progressive
Also, I thought I made it quite clear that being a progressive (going by dictionary meaning) and being a supporter of individual liberty are at best orthogonal, and at worse antagonistic.
That line about “real xyz” is something I have heard so often from Bengali communists that it is sickening. (CPI(M) is not a “real” communist party, that’s why you see so much corruption / Bengal is backward ).
And the Bengali communists are not real “progressives”, so there is no need to use that as a yardstick for measuring social justice.
And the Bengali communists are not real “progressives”, so there is no need to use that as a yardstick for measuring social justice.
Comment wasn’t about social justice. It was entirely about linguistic quirks that reveal a penchant for selective oversight. Pl give yourself brownie points for selective quotes.
This again?!!
When I came to America, I was under the impression that people would be treated as individuals in all walks of life, not as members of this race, that religion or that ethnicity.
I usually not wrong.
M. Nam
Will do. Although I take serious offence at your encroachment of my individual liberty by telling me what I should do.
Whatever gave you that idea? Systematic privilege has always been extended to white protestant males at the expense of all others. That’s been the basis of politics in this country since it began. Even restrictions against Catholic and Jewish white males voting weren’t lifted until the 1830s and 1840s. White women didn’t get the franchise until 1920, and African Americans didn’t get effective suffrage across America until the 1960s.
Sorry, that should be restrictions against Jewish and Catholic white male franchise weren’t dropped until the 1820s and 1830s.
Woah. CorporateSerf. If I consider individual liberty as something to nourish as part of a progressive agenda, why should they be mutually exclusive? Freedom of speech, freedom to take pot and then use those tax revenues to fund rehab centers lessening the burden on society while giving the individual the freedom to do what he wants. I dont even know how one brings up a comparison to Indian Communists. I am talking from an American perspective. One country’s liberal can be another country’s conservative.
Moornam, you are right.
Good job by CIR. A victory for individual rights.
What is CIR? Is that like ACLU, but for WASPs?
If I consider individual liberty as something to nourish as part of a progressive agenda, why should they be mutually exclusive?
Dude, calm down and read what I said.
You are talking about “progressive” as it is used in the US, which does not seem to have an exact definition but is a mish mash of views from the left. Thus economic protectionism is considered progressive by this definition. I am talking about a “progressive” who encourages/supports progress. Under this, one can be a progressive and support restriction of individual liberty, even when the exercise of that liberty does not directly restrict anyone else’s liberty. The prime example of this is Singur, where all (“real”) progressives tend to support land acquisition for industrial development by private parties.
I did not compare your political beliefs to those of Indian communists. I drew attention to the similarity of a linguistic construction that you used, (and persist in using) to phrases used by communist sympathizers when arguing for the essential justice and efficiency of a communist dictatorship. It should be clear that you are not making that argument. You are using the same phraseology. Incidentally, I have heard similar phrases from libertarians (such-and-such is not a real libertarian because … ). In all instances, I believe the speakers were earnest and well-meaning, as you surely are. They were also wrong.
Reading comprehension standards need to improve. Time for school vouchers.
Will do. Although I take serious offence at your encroachment of my individual liberty by telling me what I should do
🙂
I know a place where you can buy cheap outrage. Just mention my name and you will get plenty
81 · Rahul said
if WASP stands for Wheatish Asian SAT Powermonger, Yes.
I would love to see this father’s indignation when he realizes colleges like Harvard use many factors for admissions, test scores not being the sole determining factors. I know more than a few colleges weigh geographic diversity. He may need a family lawyer.
This thread is so painful to read…
All of the comments saying something along the lines of, ‘The father is just being silly. He should learn to deal with it!’ – you do realize that you’re suggesting the most model minority-esque thing of all, to just sit back and take things as they’re dealt to you, don’t you? When desis are suing the system for something they feel should be theirs, then we’ve arrived, baby. As for whether she would get in even without the racial quotas, I can’t quite figure it out, but the Asian/White ratio at other public gifted programs in the city usually ends up at 50/50 or 60/40, when there are no racial quotas or preferences of any kind. I still support their lawsuit though, because I think racial quotas at public secondary schools are freaking insane.
1200 students in three grades actually doesn’t seem like a lot to me. Ok, that’s a giveaway that I went to NYC public schools. 🙂 But seriously, I’d say that the kids are a lot safer in that school regardless of overcrowding since it’s a nerd school.
Dammit! My parents were right…
regrding the update, i do not see where the ruling is applied to the class to which this girl belongs to. It seemed to indicate that it will be applied to the next batch of applicants. And even if it were to be applied this year, I do not see anything in that article which points out that Nikita will qualify based on a 79 unless all the minorities who scored between 79 and 84 have no desire to reapply.
Just because he’s suing over a racial QUOTA system in a public school doesn’t necessarily mean that he will sue Harvard, a private university that’s not explicit about how it factors race in, if she doesn’t get in, though he may be unnecessarily bitter. Jeez, people, give him a break. If this happened to someone I know I’d be pretty pissed too.
No, it is not a question of “just dealing with it”. It means that if you believe in principles of social justice, it should trump parochial loyalties – this is also why I am not on board the train of logic that says you should vote for presidential candidate X or Y because (s)he will be good for Indians.
89 · Rahul said
where did mr. rau or his lawyers make the “good for indians” argument? i thought they rested their argument on equal protection under the law.
Rahul,
A father should give up the loyalty towards his child’s future because of some vague, non-deterministic principles of social justice that someone else drafted for him?
The more pertinent question is: Should you NOT vote for a candidate X or Y because (s)he will be indirectly bad for you as an individual because the person is bad for Indians (and you are one)?
M. Nam
‘Social justice’? In other cases it might be more buy-able, but in this case? Oh no, those poor little white kids! It’s laughable.
The problem with ‘social justice’ is that it’s rarely enacted in the way it was meant to be. I support schools giving extra consideration to students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds (like Hunter) or providing summer programs for students from racially underrepresented groups to prep for the admissions test (like Stuy), but frankly I think racial quotas are just freaking insane and indefensible. It’s unfortunate that the gifted public schools/programs in NYC aren’t more ‘diverse,’ but I don’t think such challenging schools should lower their standards for anyone who can’t make the cut [without racial preferences].
I don’t know the economic/racial of this specific community, and I fully agree with you that a purely race based system is bad policy. I don’t understand tje details of school district policies and their interaction with demographics (the Seattle case details are too foggy in my memory now) well enough to comment more, so I will just wait to be educated on this issue by folks here 🙂
Based on my knowledge of the demographics of the other public school gifted programs in the city, I’d say most of the white kids are probably children of Russian/Eastern European immigrants, and heavily Jewish (especially since it’s in Coney Island). And most of the non-whites are probably children of East & South Asian immigrants. All the wealthy residents of Park Slope are probably sending their children to hippie private schools.
It has explicitly given admission to clearly unqualified candidates like Rahul Gandhi in the past and will do so in the future to other unqualified candidates. So are you saying that it is preferable if the school system made it very vague the criteria under which they factor in test scores versus diversity?
This is not a girl who scored a 79. Tests are meant to be a measure of achievement, but are not precise indicators. She could have just as easly scored a 76. Who knows. The thing is I am not going to feel sorry for a girl who is on the borderline regardless of the racial preferences. If she or her father is intent on getting her into a college she wants, then they better be prepared to score well above a rough cutoff because there are going to be other non test related factors that colleges will look at and there is no guarantee.
By the way, I do not mean to defend that specific 60-40 ratio. It looks like it was some old outdated ratio. Also I am not sure if this ratio was meant as affirmative action or to create an integrated environment. If it’s an integrated environment, I would not dismiss it as out of bounds since social interaction is part of the educational experience. Otherwise one could suggest students telecommute part of the time and free up classrooms to include more students. Hey, I didn’t need to be in a classroom for most of my high school if you just go by learning what was assigned to us.
I’m saying I don’t give a shit what criteria Harvard uses. What I care about is public secondary schools not using a quota system such that one group of students is, by rule of law, granted admission into gifted programs even if it has a lower score than another group of students, simply on the basis of race. Like I said, it’s freaking insane, and like Manju said, it’s simply unconstitutional.
Uh, she did score a 79… if she were white, she would’ve gotten in, for sure. When the only criterion used for admission is the test, doesn’t that strike you as patently unfair? As for the test not being a ‘precise indicator’–in this case, it was supposed to be a precise indicator of achievement, i.e. if you scored above a certain cutoff score, you were given admission, but the problem is that there were different cutoff scores for people of different races. Again, I don’t give a shit about how tests factor or don’t factor into her college chances, what I care about is this particular case.
Diversity is overrated. Nerds are nerds, what they’ll have a problem dealing with in the real world is being a nerd among normal people.
And it was meant to create an integrated environment for black and white students. Here’s some more info I found:
(link)
This is the racial make-up of the school: Ethnicity %: 55 W 12 B 6 H 29 A
Now I wonder how people would feel if it were a black or Hispanic student that scored borderline and didn’t get in.
Oh, look at that! It does admit students on the basis of non-academic ‘talents’ like Roger suggested upthread. I wonder if that’s how they maintain some racial ‘diversity.’
Nala,
Don’t sleep on nerds. First, I imagine a good portion of them probably are viewing and commenting on this site. So be wary! Second, the nerds of today are the silicon valley kings of tomm. (feel free to insert your own stereotypical desi profession). Third, have you ever been hit with a T-square or stabbed with a compass, or shanked with a jagged edge of a protractor. Let me tell you, Nerds don’t play fair.
Didn’t you know… your parents are always right even when they’re wrong.
Hahaha! It’s ok, I can say it, I’m a nerd too.
And when we were younger, I would annoy my brother by poking him with pencils, and he would actually hit me with his T-square. 😀