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I propose that it is easier to give unfair advantages to minorities at the college level than it is to fix the unfair disadvantages before that level. This is w
by Crake 14y ago
I propose that it is easier to give unfair advantages to minorities at the college level than it is to fix the unfair disadvantages before that level. This is why I support affirmative action.
This is interesting, because it really does get down to the core of the argument: how do we improve the academic success of minorities?
Unfortunately, letting someone who can't do calculus into, say, Stanford, is not going to fix the fact that they will be WAY behind their peers. The psychological damage from this alone is tremendous. In fact, I believe there are some interesting studies done on this "mismatch" phenomenon, since racial minorities actually have a higher interest level in STEM careers, but are put at a disadvantage and become less likely to graduate as one due to being AA-ed into a student body where their capabilities are WAY below the mean of their classmates. This leads to an extremely high dropout rate which could have been avoided if they'd gone to a school that better suited their abilities. Instead, thanks to AA, the dropout rate for minorities in STEM departments is ridiculously high, and talented people who maybe just needed a less intense curriculum to adjust to instead end up becoming history or gender or racial studies majors or whatever major you can 4.0 in just for having a pulse.
Personally, whether it's harder or easier to do it at the pre-college level, I think it far wiser to leave the college admissions race-blind (to prevent discrimination) and focus on fixing the broken infrastructure that is failing our socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
That kid going to Stanford will do much better if he has AP calculus available at his high school, instead of just getting AA-ed in with an inferior skillset (which may or may not be their fault). We want people to be able to succeed, not set them up for failure. As a bonus, most people are fine with the idea of giving others an equal shot, but not so fine with the idea of race based discrimination. AA makes other groups resentful and suspicious of the AA-ed party, but helping people have equal access to preparation for college? Who's going to argue against that?
The best way to end discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.
- sopooneo 14y agoThe problem sometimes just gets pushed back in time by funneling unprepared high school kids into AP Calc classes. They don't have the algebra for it. I've seen this first-hand and while there are sometimes one or two kids for whom it is a godsend (and it's possible the benefit to them alone justifies having the rest of their classmates in an inappropriate class), the rest of tend to flounder. AP! AP! AP! the cry goes. How can our kids succeed without the AP classes the suburbs have? But then you are really just renaming trig as "AP Calc" and with very few (but again important) exceptions, no one scores above a one.
- Crake 14y agoThen we go back and make sure they get adequate algebra education. We have to trace the problem back and fix it before the trajectory becomes irreparably set in stone. Math takes time and lots of practice to learn. Trying to cram it all in at the college level via AA is just Not Going To Work. As a side note, I really wish we'd had AP Calc at my high school. We only had two english APs, alas. (got 5s on 'em, though)
- aidenn0 14y agoThe question isn't if the dropout rate of minorities is higher, the question is, do more minorities graduate than if there wasn't AA? If so, then AA is having some positive effect. I'm all for fixing problems at the local level, but the problems are huge. On a micro level, within school districts there are issues of gerrymandering and even absent gerrymandering there is a terrible positive feedback loop where properties within the boundaries of good schools increase in value, putting them out-of-reach of lower income families. Also, consider the range of things the child of an engineer is exposed to regularly by the age of 7 to the range of things the child of someone working 60 hours a week in a non-skilled service industry job. The obviously wrong on so many levels solution would be to shuffle all children to random parents in. That would give you true equality of opportunity. Things like big brother/sister and other mentorship programs fix this in a more sane manner, and I can recommend those to anyone on HN who wants to make a difference.
- Crake 14y agoThe question isn't if the dropout rate of minorities is higher, the question is, do more minorities graduate than if there wasn't AA? If so, then AA is having some positive effect. Actually, this is something that can be studied in the form of California's college system, which banned race based discrimination a while ago. Minority enrollment at selective colleges decreased, but overall enrollment and graduation rates for minorities greatly increased. Funding schools via property taxes is a TERRIBLE idea and whoever came up with it ought to be shot. Schools should be distributed funds more equally. I really want to help via mentoring or tutoring someday. Life circumstances won't permit it right now, but I really do believe that helping kids learn algebra when they are young is a critical step for achieving success in science at all of the later stages.
- aidenn0 14y agoIt's not just a matter of funding; in the town where I live there are, for example, around 10 public elementary schools, all funded from the same pool. There is a $150k premium on houses in the best vs. worst school district; this means that any time the lines are adjusted, there are huge incentives to draw them "creatively" Furthermore, there is de-facto segregation. Schools are either 80%+ latino or 80%+ white/asian. I grew up in Virginia, and if schools were that racially split there, then there would be forced cross-town busing.