Lowell High School in San Francisco was a top performing school that admitted students based on test scores and grades, until the city decided that merit-based admissions didn’t comport with ‘equity’ standards.
Against the objections of parents, they switched to admissions based on lottery and now it’s no longer a top school. Who could have predicted such a thing would happen?
As we noted back in February, this change played a major role in the school board recall elections.
Now the obvious is coming to pass.
NextShark reports:
Top SF high school sees record spike in failing grades after dropping merit-based admission systemSan Francisco’s Lowell High School, regarded as one of the best in the nation, is seeing a record spike in Ds and Fs among its first batch of students admitted in fall 2021 through a new lottery system instead of its decades-long merit-based admissions.Of the 620 first-year students admitted through the lottery, nearly one in four (24.4%) received at least one letter grade of D or F in the said semester, according to internal records obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. This marks a triple increase from 7.9% in fall 2020 and 7.7% in fall 2019.Principal Joe Ryan Dominguez attributed the rise in failing grades to “too many variables.” Last month, Dominguez announced his resignation from the school district, citing a lack of “well organized systems, fiscal responsibility and sound instructional practices as the path towards equity.”
The Daily Caller has more:
Elite High School Ended Merit-Based Admissions. It Was A Complete DisasterStudents at San Francisco’s Lowell High School received significantly more failing grades at the end of the fall 2021 semester following the school board’s decision to end merit-based admissions.The San Francisco Board of Education voted to end merit-based admissions in February 2021 and switched to a lottery-based admission system at the beginning of the fall 2021 semester. Lowell High freshmen admitted through the lottery program received three times the amount of Ds and Fs than those of the previous two years, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.Nearly 25% of Lowell High’s 620 freshmen students received a D or an F in the fall 2021 semester, according to The Chronicle. Only 7.9% of freshmen in Fall 2020 and 7.7% of freshmen in Fall 2019 received a D or an F.
Of course, the biggest losers here are the students who might have benefited from the merit-based system.
A sad but entirely predictable situation.
Featured image via YouTube.
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