S.F. school board strips Lowell High of its merit-based admissions system

One of the top-performing public high schools in the country will no longer admit students based on academic performance, ending more than a century of merit-based admissions.

More than seven hours into a marathon meeting Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Education voted 5-2 to use the same lottery-based system to assign students to Lowell High as other district high schools instead of maintaining the previous system that used test scores and grades.

The vote was the latest in a string of controversial school board decisions focused on the country’s racial reckoning, including the renaming of 44 school sites affiliated with slavery, oppression and colonialism even as the district’s 52,000 students remain in distance learning, many struggling with academic and mental health issues.

District data shows students of color suffering greater learning loss than their white counterparts.

The board’s desire to confront thorny issues and take symbolic actions in the middle of a pandemic has riled parents, alarmed the mayor and landed the district in the national spotlight, facing broad scrutiny over its decision-making process and priorities.

“I don’t know what the San Francisco public school board is doing,” Wai Yip Tung, who has two children in the district, told The Chronicle this week. “I’ve lost trust in them. Are children the priority? I just don’t feel it’s a priority to them.”

The board circumvented its normal process to fast-track the Lowell decision, giving the public just one week to digest the proposal before a vote. Usually a policy change, especially a controversial one, would take at least two weeks and often much longer as it moved through committees, each offering the public a chance to comment.

The board members cited “pervasive systemic racism” and a lack of diversity at Lowell as the primary reason to end the merit-based admission process following an incident in which students were exposed to racist, pornographic and anti-Semitic images in an online school forum. The district continues to investigate the incident.

Board members insisted the change to the admissions system was urgently needed, even though it won’t go into effect until fall 2022. The board had already suspended merit-based admission for this year because of a lack of grades and test scores amid the pandemic.

“We must recognize the need for a culture shift in our schools and address racism,” said school board President Gabriela López. “This resolution comes after years of advocacy from students and community members.”

The issue, however, divided the city given Lowell’s reputation as an academically rigorous school for students with Ivy League dreams, similar to elite private schools at a public school price.

And the board’s focus on Lowell fanned the flames of a feud between the district and the mayor, city attorney and families who say school officials have focused on hot-button issues instead of reopening classrooms. Some parents and public officials circulated the possibility of a recall election or a permanent change to how board members are elected or if they should be appointed.

“People are engaged because they’re angry,” said parent Todd David, a longtime education advocate. “I would not be surprised if the question is put to voters whether an elected school board is truly serving the children of San Francisco.”

As was the case with the board’s last regular meeting, those waiting for district officials to address the topic of getting students back in classrooms had to sit through more than seven hours of other topics first.

López said Wednesday that she is looking to create a COVID response committee to focus solely on updates related to the pandemic and reopening, while also working on addressing the marathon format.

“These long meetings are clearly a result of (the online format) and an adjustment on all ends,” she said. “But I don’t think anyone would say nine-plus-hour meetings are engaging after a certain point.”

It was after 10 p.m. before the board voted on Lowell.

López, Alison Collins, Mark Sanchez, Faauuga Moliga and Matt Alexander voted for the change, while board members Jenny Lam and Kevine Boggess voted against it, citing a need for more community involvement.

Lowell has tried in the past to change its admission criteria to get a more diverse study body. In addition to relying on grades and test scores, it sets aside 30% of its spots for qualified students from underrepresented schools.

Still, Lowell, with nearly 2,900 students, currently enrolls less than 2% Black students compared with 8% districtwide and less than 12% Hispanic students compared with 32% in all schools. Asian American students represent 51% of enrollment at Lowell, compared with 29% districtwide.

But the upset over Lowell goes beyond demographics. Hundreds of students gathered at Lowell Friday to demand the school board take action to address what they said was a culture of racism at the school.

Several speakers at the meeting noted that racism isn’t an issue isolated to one school.

Last school year, 14% of 11th-graders across the district said they experienced harassment at school based on race, ethnicity or national origin at least once in the previous 12 months. In recent years, schools across the Bay Area have experienced incidents of racism, including swastika graffiti and slurs or anonymous racial harassment online.

San Francisco resident Sheryl Davis, who supported the change at Lowell, said during public comment that the district had failed in a “bigger way” to address racism.

“There’s racism everywhere,” she added.

Some who supported the measure still criticized the process, which excluded an in-depth community discussion or any research on what impact the decision will have on the school’s enrollment.

Though some board members said changing the admissions system would address the racism and a lack of diversity at the school, not every member agreed. Boggess said before the board meeting that he would oppose the measure because he believes it’s “beneficial to have a school that’s viewed as elite,” and that merit-based admissions aren’t inherently racist.

The Lowell proposal also includes the creation of a community coalition to oversee an “equity audit” and form a plan to address the “ongoing toxic racist abuse” that Black and other students of color have experienced at Lowell, which Boggess did support.

“Our real issue is around equity,” he said.

Some supporters said that pouring resources into Lowell meant other schools get less.

“Lowell is a public school and needs to be treated as such,” said parent Rionda Batiste, who supported the resolution. “Every public school needs to be brought up to the standards of Lowell.”

It’s unclear if the new primarily lottery system will diversify enrollment. Other district high schools that use the lottery system also lack diversity, including June Jordan, which is 66% Hispanic, and Washington, which is 56% Asian.

Parent Mihir Mehta, whose son is a junior at Lowell, said he disagrees with the vote. “I don’t agree a merit-based system is inherently racist,” he said.

He said he supported expanding the idea of merit to include a wide range of student attributes, adding there was little opportunity to advocate for that.

“What’s pissed me off more is the way the board has gone about doing this in a sneaky way, just springing it on the public without a dialogue,” he said. “There are lots of ways diversity can be improved or enhanced at Lowell without blowing up the admission process the way it’s being done.”

Lowell physics and geology teacher Scott Dickerman agreed.

“Effectively they’re telling the rest of us who are upset about all this to just shove it,” he said. “They don’t want an interactive process.”