Our Exam Schools Have Done Nothing Wrong

I'm sure everyone wants me to talk about the ongoing social media censorship of the NY Post's little October surprise (which I'm going to link because you can't stop the signal). And yes -- said censorship does set a dangerous precedent, reinforces the continuing double standard in re: the treatment of Trump versus the treatment of his opponents, and is yet. one. more indication that our blue check elites are execrable sports who are totally in the tank for Biden and will go to any lengths to protect that sad figurehead from the consequences of his own corruption. But the thing is -- I don't think I have anything unique to say on that matter. So in lieu of bitching about the sins of Jack Dorsey, I'm going to continue to obsess about the ongoing, nationwide threat to exam schools like Lowell High School in San Francisco or Thomas Jefferson in suburban DC.

As I mentioned last week, "anti-racist" activists are working hard to destroy or dilute the entrance standards for exam schools because the demographic breakdowns of their incoming classes don't "represent" the demographics of their service areas. For example, Fairfax County in Virginia - from which the lion's share of TJ's students are selected - is roughly 61% white, 19.3% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 9.7% black -- but 73% of the students admitted to TJ's Class of 2024 were Asian. Yeah. You see the problem for people who assume, erroneously, that all sub-groups in society behave in exactly the same way, that all should therefore accrue the same end results, and that any violation of this is therefore proof positive of "systemic discrimination"?

But TJ's own stats reveal that different groups aren't behaving identically. Asian students not only were admitted to TJ in numbers out of proportion to their presence in the Northern Virginia population but also applied in numbers out of proportion to their presence in said population. Doesn't that matter? TJ can't enroll the invisible. It can only work with the student profiles it does see. And interest level isn't the only relevant variable in play. There's also the fact that Asian applicants to TJ, on average, have higher GPA's -- that, in fact, their credentials are simply better than those of their competitors (including their peers in the white majority, who are also radically under-represented in the class of 2024 at this supposedly "white supremacist" school).

So then the question we need to ask is: why? Why are Asian students more engaged in the TJ admissions process, and why are they performing better overall? The activists would have us believe that these students are simply buying their way into TJ with expensive test prep. One such activist recently compared Asian students to athletes who cheat in sports via performance enhancing drugs. But this is a crap argument - and vicious slander - for several reasons. Number one, if you are concerned about the uneven availability of test prep, the logical solution would be to expand free and/or discounted test prep options in the region for students who can demonstrate financial hardship -- not to drop the standards by jettisoning the test entirely. Number two, studying is not cheating! Studying can be made accessible to all, leads to genuine learning, and should come with real rewards. But most importantly, test prep doesn't really have that much of an effect. I have worked in test prep for fifteen years now (and may be risking my job here in sharing trade secrets), and while I personally have accomplished some relatively impressive score improvements with my students after hours and hours of focused skills remediation, I have never been able to get a student into a top school like TJ who wasn't already demonstrating far-above-grade-level academic mastery in other ways. NEVER. So even if these Asian kids are prepping, that doesn't mean they aren't in fact as gifted as they appear on record.

Of course, the next retreat of the enemies of these exam schools is to claim that tests don't show merit for their favored groups -- usually because said tests are "racist". But sorry, cupcakes -- you're tangling with someone who, once again, has fifteen years of experience with standardized tests like the SHSAT, SAT, ACT, etc. I know how those tests are written. I know how these psychometricians twist themselves into pretzels trying to avoid cultural bias. I know how their questions are field-tested to ensure they are appropriate. These tests obviously are not the be-all and end-all of merit (which is why they're not considered in isolation at TJ or most anywhere else), but according to meta-analyses, they do nonetheless show something real and relevant to school admissions -- something that becomes apparent the instant you have a student who scored a 1250 on the SAT in the same class with a student who scored a 1450. So if Asians are doing extraordinarily well on the TJ admissions test and whites and blacks are doing less well, it is more likely this reflects the actual skills each group of students brings to the table and not some inherent "racist" quality of the test itself.

So no: don't shoot the messenger, you idiots. Think carefully about what the message might mean. As I stressed last time, it might mean that certain feeder schools are doing a piss-poor job educating their pupils -- which would be the fault of those schools and the leaders in charge of their district, not the top schools at the end of the pipeline. And I hate to say it, but it might also mean that certain families are doing a better job emphasizing the importance of education to their children than others. You are instantly called a bigot for even suggesting such a thing, but I can't ignore the evidence of my lying eyes. I'm not super expensive as a tutor (and in point of fact, my outfit offers financial aid). Most students around here can probably afford my rates. Yet there are definite racial trends in who shows up to ask for my help (Asians, West Indians, and African immigrants) and who simply doesn't (American blacks, whites, and Hispanics). If I can't even voice that out loud without being shouted down as a Nazi, then we have a serious, serious problem.

You can't keep treating certain people like children and expect to make any real progress when it comes to the so-called "diversity" of exam schools. You have to be frank. You have to tell all comers that getting into an exam school is not an entitlement. It requires hard work and an excellent grade-school education. And yes, you will need to make sacrifices in time and, yes, some money in order to earn your spot no matter who you are. As I keep saying, the local government should act to ensure that the opportunity to succeed academically is as evenly distributed as humanly possible, but when all is said and done, sitting around and waiting for the government to rescue you with set-asides because "muh oppression" and "representation" is the path of the loser and, if I may be so bold, the true cheat.

I understand why people want to get into places like TJ. They want the prestige. They want access to TJ's labs, internships, and excellent, unusual courses. And they think all of that will continue to exist even if TJ starts admitting students who are objectively less prepared for its strenuous curriculum. But the purpose of TJ is to serve students with documented high ability in science and math who would likely be bored at a base high school -- not to make people feel good about their secondary credentials or to make life superficially "fair". Forcing yourself into TJ through not-so-stealth quota games without earning your right to be there is essentially stealing from special ed kids (because high-ability kids are, in many ways, special ed). Better, instead, to work toward making sure instructional quality is excellent across your district -- for both high-ability and average students alike.