Bad News, Which Should be News to Nobody

 WBEZ has published 2 articles in the last 3 days about how selective school enrollment admission is largely rigged. Rigged might be too strong a word, so we will just say that the outcomes are largely pre-determined. The articles are well written but this should be a surprise to no one.

https://www.wbez.org/education/2024/07/09/chicagos-most-marginalized-students-have-almost-no-shot-of-getting-into-cps-elite-schools

https://www.wbez.org/education/2024/07/10/the-path-to-a-cps-test-in-high-school-often-begins-at-age-4-with-a-test-most-dont-know-exists

Basically, if you don't attend a fancy grammar school, you probably won't attend a fancy high school. Of course, if you don't attend a fancy high school, you probably won't attend a fancy university. Pretty grim stuff.

It's actually even worse than that.  A small number of black and brown kids do actually manage to beat the odds and get admitted to the fancy grammar school/high school/ university.  Happily, a small percentage of them somehow or another are extremely well prepared and confident, and they have a chance of surviving and ultimately thriving. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the students who do manage to get admitted will then have to deal with peers and faculty who view them as less or otherwise unworthy, and let them know it.  I have talked with these students, and they have sometimes told me that they partly wish they had just gone to their local school. Very depressing.