What does fair look like at America’s elite public schools?
Vishal Krishnaiah, a rising senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco, finished the last of his seven Advanced Placement exams earlier in June. He loves his public school for its academic rigor, “amazing” teachers, and wide array of opportunities. He could have gone to a private high school, but he wanted Lowell. Fortunately, he had the grades – and the entrance exam score – to get in.
But that’s changed now. As with several other high-profile selective schools around the country, the local school board has dropped the entrance exam to Lowell, which graduated a Supreme Court justice and a Nobel Prize winner, among notables. A temporary measure begun under the pandemic – selection by lottery with no exam or grade requirement – has become permanent, fueled by the board’s concerns about racism and too few Black and Latino students.
Vishal says he understands the reasoning. “The school is overwhelmingly Asian and white and doesn’t exactly represent the population of our school district,” he says. But he worries about the effect of a lottery on the quality of the school and on students. It “breaks my heart” that some teachers are leaving or retiring, worried that without entrance requirements, Lowell will become like any other school.
“If we eliminate merit in schools, how does that set students up in the future?” he says. “If you grow up, and everything’s random, and you don’t have to work harder, what will students’ perception be of the real world?”
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