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Elite San Francisco High School Sees Grades Plummet After Dropping ‘Racist’ Merit-Based Entry System

Merit-based admissions were canned in 2021 as part of the nationwide effort to defeat racism

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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.”

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.

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Jack Hadfield
Written By

Jack Hadfield is the Associate Editor at Valiant News. An investigative reporter from the UK, and the director and presenter of "Destination Dover: Migrants in the Channel, his work has appeared in such sites as Breitbart and The Political Insider. You can follow him on Gab @JH, on Telegram @JackHadders, or see his other social media by visiting jackhadfield.co.uk.

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Avatar

    Harvey

    May 30, 2022 at 11:15 am

    You have the right to be stupid; but you do not have the right to force your stupidity onto others.

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  2. Avatar

    Vicko

    May 30, 2022 at 11:24 am

    The next measure should the percentage of the “lottery picks” actually graduate. That should be interesting.

    • Avatar

      ConservativeOne

      May 30, 2022 at 1:26 pm

      Since all of the freshman class are lottery picks that statistic after their graduation would have little, if any, significance. If the D and F students were required to find another school to enroll in and have a lottery pick of the students that had to be replaced that might be worthwhile.

  3. Avatar

    Russ

    May 30, 2022 at 11:36 am

    This “woke” bullshit is destroying our youth, our education system, our government and eventually will finish destroying the USA.

    • Avatar

      Angry 1

      May 30, 2022 at 3:11 pm

      @Russ: Agreed. The low IQ gni99ers and illegal-alien/non-English speaking spic’s ruin it for everyone. Whenever you let one of these idiots into school or college, it takes the education away from much smarter White and Asian students who really want to learn, and are capable of doing so.
      All these woke, racist, bigoted, diversity-SJW’s are pea brained, worthless, thieving parasites.
      “Lookit me, lookit me. I waz in Collodge an I gots da degreez in womens studiees. Wherz my exectutive job I beez owed??”

  4. Avatar

    Cajun

    May 30, 2022 at 1:20 pm

    This will be a test for the liberal elites who chose this school for their precious “snowflakes”. Will they send them back?

  5. Avatar

    Nick1

    May 30, 2022 at 1:23 pm

    Reminds one of what Blue Cities did to Police test requirements.

  6. Avatar

    stpaulchuck

    May 30, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    is the goal to destroy what is left of good education?? They seem to be succeeding.

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