Board of Education announces potential changes to Lowell admissions for the 2021-22 school year
A plan to implement a lottery system for Class of 2025 admissions to Lowell High School is currently being discussed by the San Francisco Board of Education, according to an email sent to Lowell parents and teachers this afternoon from Assistant Superintendent Bill Sanderson and Educational Placement Center Executive Director Jeff Kang. In past years, admission to Lowell through the selective band system has been largely based on GPA and standardized test scores. However, due to the cancellation of SBAC testing and the alternate “Credit/No Credit” grading system last semester, the District is unable to use the current admissions system. Under this new proposal, Lowell applicants would not have to meet any academic admissions requirements and would go through the same assignment process used for the majority of the District and described by Board Policy 5101. In addition, Lowell would not accept any transfer students during the upcoming admissions cycle. “This policy is a response to the pandemic and the recommendation is that we do this [admissions system] for one year given current conditions,” Sanderson and Kang wrote in the official email announcement.
The Board of Education plans to discuss this policy during their Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 13 at 3 p.m. At this meeting, there will be an allotted time for the public to voice their opinion on the new policy. In a subsequent board meeting on Oct. 20, the Board will vote on the issue.
Many students are unsatisfied with the proposed policy. A junior, who wishes to remain anonymous, is concerned that this admissions system will lead to people who are unprepared for Lowell’s rigor to be accepted and ultimately attend. “Not everyone is capable of handling the stress [of Lowell], which is why there’s a testing or grading system to see which students are suitable for the standards and environment of Lowell,” the student said. “Lowell isn’t going to adapt to you. You adapt to Lowell, and if you can’t handle it, that’s on you.” Senior Supeng Wu also believes that the new admissions system will destroy Lowell’s “tradition of excellence.” In addition, he is disappointed that transfer students would not be considered. “As a transfer student myself, removing transfer admissions is definitely going to disappoint a lot of aspiring students,” he said.
Jay Li • Apr 22, 2023 at 10:22 pm
I agree with Supeng Wu’s thoughts, I think Lowell is a bad school that does not accept transfer students.
Stan Davis • Feb 26, 2021 at 4:57 pm
Let’s see. Harvard, MIT, Cal-Tech, and all the other elite schools should just change their admission to a lottery system.
Basketball team: equal numbers of Asians, Blacks, Browns, and Whites.
Football team: equal numbers of Asians, Blacks, Browns, and Whites.
Swimming team: equal numbers of Asians, Blacks, Browns, and Whites.
Baseball, soccer, gymnastics, and all other activities should have equal numbers of Asians, Blacks, Browns, and Whites.
The above list does not exist. Only the best athletes can get into the team. This is also true for people who are smart in academics. If you were smart, you deserved to get into the best school! A lottery system is an excuse for athletes or students who can’t get into a top school.
Daniel Chan • Feb 10, 2021 at 6:14 pm
J. Monty Worth is spot on.
J. Monty Worth • Oct 18, 2020 at 9:02 pm
In response to Hank Smith’s post. I disagree that it is condescending to say that lottery admissions would ruin Lowell’s tradition of excellence. While some of the students admitted to Lowell in a lottery would end up being the same as students admitted by competitive entry, quite a few, probably the majority would not. Today all students admitted were either at a very high academic level compared to their peers or very hardworking or both. With a lottery there would be a random mix of all students who chose Lowell. That would make the entering class similar to that at the comprehensive high schools on the West side of SF, Washington and Lincoln. Hank Smith says they would still get a (hopefully excellent) Lowell education. I disagree. Part of an education is the quality of the teachers, but a more important element is the nature of one’s peers. I think that the latter is a greater factor than the former at Lowell. As you have probably noticed, there are both good and bad teachers at Lowell. I am not convinced that they are better than teachers at other schools. The teachers didn’t have to compete to get to Lowell (or at least they haven’t for the last twenty years). The students however did, so they are not the same as students at other schools. When you concentrate high level academic kids together, it changes things. It creates a different atmosphere, more academic competition, more sharing of ideas and comraderie among academic kids. I think that is the largest factor in what makes Lowell excellent. Imagine if you replaced all of the teachers at Lowell (including me). Would it still be Lowell? Yes. But if you ended competitive admissions, it would not be the same school. Teachers would find many more (if not most) students at a much lower academic level than they are currently. They would have to drop the amount and difficulty of their assignments. The students capable of more would not be pushed as far. I have taught at other schools and I had to aim at the median level of the class. When I came to Lowell I learned to raise the bar of expectations, because students are capable of much more. Some suggest that teachers can teach to all different parts of the class, but that is unrealistic. Teachers only have so much time. If Lowell becomes a comprehensive high school the most academic kids in SF will no longer have a place, so they will go to whatever high school is closest to them and they will be really bored and not sufficiently challenged for four years and they will be far less prepared for university. As they say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
That is why I think ending competitive admissions would be a big mistake, even for one year. I also think that this has nothing to do with Covid. Several members of the school board who are very ideological have wanted to end all competitive admissions in San Francisco. They are using the excuse of the pandemic to make the change for one year, knowing it will be much easier to keep it that way once that year is over.
Corn • Oct 15, 2020 at 10:06 pm
There is no such thing as the “cream of the crop”. Treat people like they have value and they will respond accordingly.
Anonymous • Oct 11, 2020 at 10:07 pm
Agree that banning transfer students is unfair. Can see both sides, but don’t think the lottery system is the way to go as a permanent solution. We have schools specialized in the arts; why is it wrong to have specialized schools for STEM or schools like Lowell? While I agree that the overall admission process can be improved to help those with less means, it isn’t right to tear one minority down to bring others up. Everyone cares about education. Keep the test and norm it within socio-economic groups, not ethnicities (what SATs did contrary to public belief, now phased out/ banned).
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/us/university-california-sat-act.html
https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/underreview/sttf-report.pdf
Unfortunately, Lowell High did have condescending admissions standards in the past. It was in an honest effort to help diversify the students, but I do not think it was the right message to send. “By 1993, Chinese-American applicants to the school were being required to score a 66 on a 69-point scale designed to weigh their grades and test scores, meaning their recent report cards had to have almost all A’s. Whites and other Asians, on the other hand, got in with a 59–which allowed for a few C’s–and blacks and Hispanics were being admitted with scores of 56, or even lower if they were deemed to have high potential.”
Also, this district had an infamous Asian quota/cap…“Under the 1983 consent decree, the school system designated children as belonging to one of nine racial or ethnic groups: Hispanic, other white, black, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, American Indian, and other non-white. The district’s enrollment guidelines stipulated that no group shall account for more than 45 percent of the enrollment at a regular school or 40 percent at an alternative school such as Lowell.”
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1995/04/05/28lowell.h14.html
Ho vs. SFUSD ended this discrimination.
http://www.asianamericanlegal.com/the-ho-v-sfusd-case-the-battle-to-end-racial-discrimination-in-san-francisco-schools/
Check out what’s going on with other high schools:
New York Specialized Schools: Plans to decrease Asians from 50% to 30%
https://www.schools.nyc.gov/docs/default-source/default-document-library/specialized-high-schools-proposal
*Discovery Programs purposefully exclude schools with large Asian demographic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/nyc-plan-to-diversify-elite-high-schools-challenged-in-court/2018/12/13/37810eb6-ff20-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Class of 2024: Plans to decrease Asians from 73% to 54%
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BTGKX652F413/$file/TJHSST%20Admissions%20Merit%20Lottery%20Proposal.pdf
TJ Student Krushi Bhaswith “Suresh began a website to help students who are preparing to take the test, and he feels initiatives, such as his, taken by the school system would better help achieve the goal of a more diverse school community…Suresh said that while he opposes the lottery system, he does support Brabrand’s call for a $100 application fee to become a thing of the past.”
https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2020/09/student-at-thomas-jefferson-high-school-for-science-and-technology-speaks-out-again-lottery-based-admission-proposal/
Petition: https://www.change.org/p/ralph-s-northam-keep-merit-based-admissions-at-tjhsst
Asra Nomani, single mom, and TJ students placed their voices out there: https://twitter.com/asranomani?lang=en
(Be careful of Twitter, topic is a really difficult one… Both sides are arguing for what they believe to be the right thing to do)
Patrick I. Emelife, M.D. • Oct 10, 2020 at 11:46 am
Unfortunately, meritocracy—which most people define as good grades and good test scores—is woefully incomplete. All it does is select for students who perform well on exams. Additionally, many students of low socioeconomic status do not have the same resources as their wealthier peers. Moreover, these exams just perpetuate the cultural capital of the people in power. Additionally, data shows that these great test takers are not necessarily the people who become the best professionals or leaders in the world. As a Black graduate of Lowell, who also graduated from CCSF before transferring to Stanford University, I know that minorities also deserve to be admitted to Lowell. They, too, would benefit from being around bright students and awesome teachers. As a physician who sat on the admissions committee for medical school, plastic surgery residency, and anesthesiology residency, I can assure you that the merits of students of low socioeconomic status are NOT captured in most applications. How do you measure grit, perseverance, honesty, integrity, respect, or management skills—in which many students of low SES excel due to their unique circumstances? These students also offer new ideas and diverse perspectives to the classroom and work environment. The admissions process can be greatly improved. Meritocracy, solely based on grades and test scores, is not an adequate way to assess which students are the “cream of the crop.” Also, please read the following article, which show the real life consequences of skewed admissions: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/35/21194
Hank Smith • Oct 10, 2020 at 12:21 am
While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, implying that a lottery system would ruin Lowell’s “tradition of excellence” is extremely condescending. Whether pupils are admitted via a lottery, or an admissions process, if they are attending Lowell, they will receive a “Lowell education”.