Lowell High School in San Francisco has seen a record grade decline after it removed their merit-based entry system for being too “racist.”
The San Francisco high school, one of the top performing public schools in the country, saw 152 students (24.4%) of their 620 student 2021 freshman intake receive at least one D or F grade in the fall semester, tripling from the 2020 figure of 51 (7.9%), according to figures obtained by the SF Chronicle.
The rapid grade decline comes in the first year that the supposedly “racist” entry system to the elite school was removed, and replaced with a new lottery based system, finally putting itself on par for entry methods with the rest of San Francisco. This freshman class as a result was “the most diverse in decades, with more Black and Latino students,” the SF Chronicle wrote.
In a meeting of the city’s Board of Education in October 2020, Commissioner Alison Collins said that the “meritocracy” that Lowell High School promoted was nothing more than “racist,” especially given the fact that it was based on standardised testing:
“If you’re going to say that merit is fair, it’s the antithesis of fair, and it’s the antithesis of just. You can’t use equity, or you can’t talk about social justice, and then say you want to have a selective school that keeps certain kids out from the neighborhoods that you think are dangerous. That’s all kind of Trumpian language.”
At the heart of these debates is the question of what constitutes fair admissions criteria.
On Oct. 13, 2020, Commissioner Alison Collins said that merit is racist and the "antithesis of fair." (3/7) pic.twitter.com/GrQHDo9pqA
— Sophie Bearman (@stbearman) February 2, 2021
Joe Ryan Dominguez, the principal of Lowel High School, tried to explain to the San Francisco Chronicle in an email that “there are way too many variables” that contributed to the huge grade decline seen in 2021.
“Over a year of distance learning, half of our student body new to in-person instruction at the high school level and absences among students/staff for COVID all explain this dip in performance,” he argued. “It is important not to insinuate a cause on such a sensitive topic at the risk of shaming our students and teachers who have worked very hard in a difficult year.”
However, the percentage of students in grades 10 through 12, who were admitted under the previous merit-based system, only saw a “slight” grade decline. The first full semester of remote learning in 2020 only saw an overall 0.2% drop since the 2019 fall semester.
In fact, not only did other schools across San Francisco not see the same grade drop in 2021, but the plummet in grades seen at Lowell now has brought their freshman class in line with the results from all other city schools.
Both supporters and opponents of the merit-based system said that the newly released data proves them right. Kate Lazarus, the president of the Lowell Alumni Association, said the new policy was “not in the best interest of SFUSD students,” with her organisation pushing the school to reinstate the previous system.
Virginia Marshall, the former president of the San Francisco Alliance of Black Educators, instead argued that this was all the school’s fault for not assisting new students. “I can see that perhaps the grades may not be what they should be, and that means that Lowell needs to do some intervention, particularly to students of color coming in,” she said.
The Education Board has already seen a major backlash from parents at Lowell, whose students are over 50% Asian-American. In February, three Democrats on the board, including Collins, and Board President Gabriela Lopez, who led the introduction of the lottery system, were ousted by almost 80% of the votes in a recall election.
Students at Lowell are also concerned, with one junior calling the change “crazy.” Teagan Robinson, 16, said that the new lottery system puts the new kids “in a worse situation,” and that it was diluting the tough academic nature of the school.
“If the lottery system continues, Lowell classes will definitely get easier because students won’t be able to handle how it is now,” Lana Wallace, 17, told the SF Chronicle.
