Principal Pursues "Equity" Fails to Tell Students of Honors

This particular story pisses me off to no end. The principal of the top-ranked high school in the country, Fairfax County, Virginia's Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, decided to do her part for "equity." What did she do? She failed to tell students at her school who had won letters of commendation from the National Merit Scholarship. Apparently she did this specifically to prevent the students from noting this on their college applications.

Quote:

An intrepid Thomas Jefferson parent, Shawna Yashar, a lawyer, uncovered the withholding of National Merit awards. Since starting as a freshman at the school in September 2019, her son, who is part Arab American, studied statistical analysis, literature reviews, and college-level science late into the night. This workload was necessary to keep him up to speed with the advanced studies at TJ, which U.S. News & World Report ranks as America’s top school. Last fall, along with about 1.5 million U.S. high school juniors, the Yashar teen took the PSAT, which determines whether a student qualifies as a prestigious National Merit scholar. When it came time to submit his college applications this fall, he didn’t have a National Merit honor to report—but it wasn’t because he hadn’t earned the award. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit based in Evanston, Illinois, had recognized him as a Commended Student in the top 3 percent nationwide—one of about 50,000 students earning that distinction. Principals usually celebrate National Merit scholars with special breakfasts, award ceremonies, YouTube videos, press releases, and social media announcements.

And it wasn't by accident; apparently they've been doing this for years:

Quote:

In a call with Yashar, Kosatka admitted that the decision to withhold the information from parents and inform the students in a low-key way was intentional. “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements,” he told her, claiming that he and the principal didn’t want to “hurt” the feelings of students who didn’t get the award.

The students most affected by this appear to be minority students, unfortunately the wrong minority--Asians.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/5jTdYtn