[中文版本]

At this conference, I wasn’t able to get interviews with the people I prepared for, however, I did have a few talks with conference speakers that had experiences or perspectives that I thought were interesting. I had a brief exchange with Asra Nomani, who has had experience fighting for meritocracy at Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia, which I felt was related to a personal situation of mine. I also had a brief exchange with Paul Lott, who I thought had a very interesting take on improving equality in K-12 education, that quality teachers weren't enough, and change needs to occur in the household.

In the “Asian Community Grassroots Movement in Defending Equal Education Rights and Meritocracy” at the conference panel, Nomani recounted her experience of defending meritocracy. The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia is one of the nation's best high schools, ranked #14 nationally. 

In 2020, the school changed its admissions policy, adding a “holistic review process” that considered the students’ eligibility for free school lunch, whether they attended a historically underrepresented middle school, etc. Although admissions don’t consider applicants’ name, race, ethnicity, or sex, the change in admission policy is believed by some parents to be against Asian American student enrollment. Nomani recounted her experience trying to fight this change as a parent, explaining how the students who were able to get in through this policy change often dropped out because it was too difficult. Nomani explained that this artificial boosting of diversity wasn’t helping either side.

I thought that this was interesting because it resembled what was happening at the middle school I attended. Takoma Park Middle School is a school with a magnet program that had a change in admission policy, similar to Thomas Jefferson. The school changed from a merit-based admission system to a lottery-based admission system that was more inclusive. This previous school year (2023-2024) was the first year in which all the students were admitted through this policy, and the effects were obvious. 

Although diversity was boosted by this change, the performance of students has decreased significantly. A good indication of this is the Mathcounts math competition, wherein students from Takoma Park usually dominate the leaderboard. However, of the 2023-2024 Takoma students, not a single one placed in the top 16, making the Countdown Round, whereas previously nearly all the students from Takoma would enter the top 16. This is deeply unsettling to me and all the other Takoma alumni, but we weren’t so sure what to do about it. Hearing that other schools have had similar situations has motivated me to try to do something about it.

At the conference, one of the issues that was discussed was equality in K-12 education. The goal of equal K-12 education across the country is to make college admissions more equal for all, whilst keeping admissions based on merit. One way to promote equal K-12 education that was discussed was to bring quality teachers to schools in lower-income areas. The idea is that good teachers create good students.

However, Paul Lott rejected that claim, saying that the culture of the community mattered much more in creating good students. Lott is an education advocate, author, and founder of the National Society for the Advancement of Black Americans (NSABA). He is the inventor of the “Parent Method,” which helps parents teach effective learning skills to their children for independent study. Lott claims that to create good students, the most important aspect is not teacher quality, nor school facility quality, but rather the parents of the student, and their beliefs about education.

For example, if the parents of a student don’t believe in education and the education system, maybe because of their own experiences with the system in the past, then the student will almost certainly share that perspective on education. If the students don’t believe in the educational system, they aren’t willing to learn from it, and this results in poor performance. 

On the other hand, families that greatly valued education had students who were much more willing to learn and were more successful. A study done by Lott showed that students and families with generational school excellence from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, i.e. several generations of the family attending these top schools, had a consistent common factor that accounted for that generational excellence. That common factor was the culture of education, their habits, and so on, which was unconsciously passed from generation to generation. The study showed these inherited good habits were more important for success than other factors, such as IQ. Lott claims that this shows why schools cannot fix the quality of students in an area, rather it's up to the parents to instill the value of education into their children. Lott’s study showed that once the family’s culture had this focus on education, each generation would be more successful than the previous.

I thought this perspective on improving the quality of students in struggling areas was interesting, and makes quite a lot of sense. However, this also does make the issue much more difficult. Instead of just inserting good teachers, it becomes necessary that the entire culture of the community must change.

(Contributed by the CAPA-MC Junior Reporter Club)

By

Daniel Li 翻译 (Translation) 2024-08-03

[中文版本]

On June 29th, 2024, the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) hosted its 2nd National Conference for Equal Education Rights to celebrate the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard which ended the college admissions practice of affirmative action: the evaluation of race as a factor in the admissions process to improve the accepted student class's diversity. Among the various speaker presentations and panel discussions, the conference focused on promoting equal education rights and meritocracy.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the affirmative action admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional, violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

AACE Founder and President Yukong Zhao considers this lawsuit to be a major victory in the movement for equal education rights. However, there is much more that he hopes to achieve. One of his next goals is to bring attention to standardized testing, which can be used to measure students’ academic qualifications. Many colleges are making standardized tests optional but he believes that “standardized testing should not be the only criterion, but should be one major criterion because it is standard for everybody and objective.”

Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, believes that supervision of colleges to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling is a critical task following the decision. In particular, he wants to ensure that colleges don't "cheat” by using another similar criterion in place of race to achieve the same effect.

While achieving diversity in the classroom is an admirable goal, Zhao does not believe in diversity at the cost of sacrificing equal education rights. While some argue that the Supreme Court ruling will make it difficult for elite colleges to admit more Black and Hispanic students, Zhao disagrees. “We passionately support improving the education for Black and Hispanic students," he said. "But we need to do it in the right way, the constitutional way. Doing it the wrong way will jeopardize the meritocracy, and will jeopardize equal opportunities. Using discrimination, that is the wrong way.”

Zhao affirms that the proper way to fix the K-12 education system isn't to use affirmative action at the very end of the process to influence college admissions but rather to fix the root causes. In particular, he and Gonzalez both emphasized the importance of a stable, supportive familial environment on students’ education and future. For the young people who sat in the conference, Gonzalez advised them to “follow the success sequence: graduate first, get a job, get married, and then have kids.” 

Gonzalez also disliked the idea of using numeric proportions as a standard for diversity. “We shouldn’t expect every part of American society to reflect the underneath makeup population," he said. Instead, he believes diversity should flow from the process of pursuing merit.

(Contributed by the CAPA-MC Junior Reporter Club)

By

蒋晨煜 翻译 (Translation) 2024-08-03

[中文版本]

Spring has arrived, and the little animals are gradually waking up. The flowers are starting to show their faces, and the trees are slowly budding. Everything is fresh. The once-quiet forest is now bustling with activity.

Spring has arrived, and the dandelion seeds are carried away by their parachutes, floating with the wind in all directions. Some head east, some west—of course, some also go south and north. The children flying through the sky bid farewell to their mother. Not only are the dandelions spreading their offspring, but the cherry blossoms are also propagating their next generation. Bees collect pollen from cherry blossoms, and when they fly to another cherry blossom to collect pollen, the pollen from the first flower sticks to the second one, spreading the cherry blossom’s offspring!

Spring has arrived, and bare trees begin to sprout tender green buds. Suddenly, a gust of wind blows, and the tender green leaves sway with the wind. But then, rumble, rumble! It starts to rain, and the raindrops fall uncontrollably for a long time before the rain stops. The sky clears, the sun comes out, and a rainbow stretches across the sky. The sparrows in the trees begin to chirp.

Spring has arrived, and hibernating animals slowly awaken. Some animals stretch, some yawn, some rub their eyes, and some are already filling their empty stomachs with delicious food. The little bears reach their paws into beehives to steal honey, squirrels scurry around looking for nuts, and birds return, chirping non-stop in all directions. The entire animal world is noisy and bustling with activity.

Spring has arrived, and people cheer, for the cold winter has passed, and there’s no more shivering. The villagers plan to hold a spring party, and everyone is invited. The party bustles, with music playing, people dancing, eating, and playing chess. It’s brimming with excitement. The children's faces are beaming with joy!

Spring has truly arrived!

Mentor: Dan Tian, Xiaofang Diao

By

刁宜茗 翻译 (Translation) 2024-07-06

[中文版本]

In an interview at the AACE 2024 Conference on Equal Education Rights, keynote speaker Gail Heriot, who is a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, stated that there was a concerning lack of meritocracy within U.S. college admissions. Her position as a current professor of law at the University of San Diego has shown her that the college admissions process has “a lot of discrimination going on” and that it is not only negatively affecting the people who were rejected, but the people who were accepted as well. 

Heriot explains “I think it's important that students go to a school where they're going to learn the most. And in that respect, it's not simply a question of getting into the most prestigious school.” She believes that when colleges admit applicants to bolster diversity within the student body, it impacts the performance of those applicants because they are participating in a school or program that they may not be academically prepared for.

Additionally, in 1996, Heriot co-chaired the campaign to pass Proposition 209 in the state of California, which amended the state Constitution to say that the state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin for public employment or services. Then, in both 2020 and 2024, Heriot was part of the opposition to efforts to repeal Proposition 209. She attributes these attempts to repeal Proposition 209 as the result of the misguided thought that “[many people are] doing a good thing to give preferential treatment, for example to African Americans to a lesser extent Hispanics. And they think that this is going to make the country better.” Heriot ties this back to her belief that students should go to a school or college “where [their] academic credentials put [them] in the ballpark with other students”. 

She states that it is “educationally unsound to have big gaps in academic credentials between some students based on race.” Professor Richard Sander at UCLA, another speaker at the AACE Conference, revealed that there would be more African American attorneys graduating from law school if there was no preferential treatment, compared to the current situation. “African American students are not being given a favor, by being admitted to a school where their academic credentials will put them at the bottom of the class,” Heriot says.

On the topic of the recent Supreme Court SFFA (Students for Fair Admissions) vs. Harvard ruling that race-based college admissions policies are unconstitutional, Heriot believes that oversight from a third party, as well as strict enforcement and implementation of the new decision, will be necessary for colleges to change their admissions process. “As a lawyer, the law will only take you so far… this has become a very ideological thing, some people insist that they are doing the right thing and they’re going to try and do it under the radar,” she says. She suggests that state legislators should conduct oversight over their state universities to ensure that the Supreme Court ruling is being complied with, with enforcement by the federal government as well.

As for the future of equal education rights, Heriot remarks that many things still need to be accomplished. “One thing is that we have to make sure the public understands what is going on because when the public understands it, they’re on our side.” She says that a large majority of the public believes “what they were told, which is that there isn’t any preferential treatment going on, or that if there is preferential treatment going on, it's just a featherweight in favor of underrepresented minorities.” Heriot also expressed concern about the process by which governors will appoint people to oversee the college admissions changes, stating “we want to make sure that it’s not just friends of the governor that the governor wants to give a nice part-time job to.” She believes that lawsuits or congressional action will be needed to remove certain incentives that the federal government has used to encourage colleges and universities to discriminate or grant preferential treatment.

An example Heriot provided was the Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) which grants large sums of money to universities with a total percentage of Hispanic or Latino students higher than 25%. Heriot criticizes the HSI, stating “Not 25% needy students, not 25% students who struggle with the English language, but just purely a matter of ethnicity. And that’s pretty clearly unconstitutional.”

Outside of the AACE Conference, Gail Heriot continues to champion equal education rights by fighting against unjust or discriminatory policies, whether that is with federal or state governments or local opposition.

(Contributed by the CAPA-MC Junior Reporter Club)

By

戴焱 翻译 (Translation) 2024-08-03

[中文版本]

During the Dragon Boat Festival, my mother's friend brought us many zongzi.

The zongzi are wrapped in bamboo leaves, which are harvested from the riverside. The leaves are yellow-green, tied with thin white strings. The shapes of the zongzi vary; some are irregular cones, square at the bottom and pointed at the top, while others are flat and long, about the size of my fist.

First, I untie the string and pull the thread out in circles. The long bamboo leaf easily unfolds. Inside, I see sticky glutinous rice, and a piece of sausage peeks out with its adorable little head. I really want to gobble it up right away. Alas! There’s also a hidden salted egg yolk that I don’t really like.

The zongzi is so delicious! The glutinous rice tastes sweet and sticky; the sausage, my favorite part, is salty and flavorful. However, the egg yolk is not tasty, so I gave it to my mom because she likes it. My mom said, "The egg yolk is very nutritious and eating it is healthy." I ended up eating two zongzi in a row.

Mom explained, "We eat zongzi every year now to commemorate Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet from the state of Chu during the Warring States period."

I love eating zongzi! I also love celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival!

Mentor: Lin Cheng

By

冯新民 翻译 (Translation) 2024-07-06

[中文版本]

Once upon a time, there was a short and plump frog living in a pond, lazily basking in the sun on a lotus leaf every day. One morning, while the frog was sunbathing, it saw a crow flying over to drink water. The crow mysteriously said to the frog, "Do you know there is a well by the village with a treasure hidden inside?" 

Curiously, the frog asked, "What treasure?" 

The crow replied, "There is a big, bright pearl in the well!"

The frog doubted and said, "Really?" 

The crow firmly assured, "Of course! I wouldn't lie. If you don't believe me, go see for yourself!" 

The frog thought to itself: If I get such a big pearl, I will have a high status, and other animals won't laugh at me anymore! So, the frog asked the crow, "If I get the pearl, how do I get out?" 

The crow quickly said, "Don't worry, I'll pull you up." 

So, the frog and the crow went to the well. The crow pointed at the well and said, "The pearl is in the well water; just jump in and you can get it!" The frog, believing the crow, really jumped into the well with a "plop." However, it was disappointed to find that there was no pearl at all, and the crow did not pull it out. It turned out the crow was a deceiver.

This story teaches us not to easily trust strangers and not to seek something for nothing.

Mentor: Dan Tian

By

王澍宇 翻译 (Translation) 2024-07-06

[中文版本]

On June 29th, the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) held a conference on the topic of equality in education. The event hosted a large audience and several guest speakers from different groups and organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, AACE itself, and many others. It was not only an opportunity for discussion and debate forums, but also served as a celebration for the one-year anniversary of the landmark SFFA v. Harvard/UNC Supreme Court decision.

For 46 years, the Supreme Court had allowed colleges and universities to consider an applicant’s race among other factors in their admissions decisions, primarily to promote educational diversity. However, SFFA (Students For Fair Admissions) argued that Harvard and UNC's admission practices resulted in lower admission rates for Asian American applicants despite their stronger academic credentials compared to other racial groups. SFFA stated that these types of admissions practices were causing unjust discrimination, and asked the Supreme Court to disallow universities from taking race into account as a factor in future admissions policies and applications. Instead, SFFA suggested that colleges should be mandated to change their processes to one where admissions officials would not know the race or ethnicity of the applicant they were reviewing.

The AACE, organizers of the conference, hosted the event at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. The audience included employees of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and lawyers from legal foundations. 

Also attending the conference were keynote speakers Mr. Patrick Strawbridge, lead lawyer in the SFFA case, and Prof. Gail Heriot, U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner. Their speeches referred to recent legal battles in shaping admissions policies and promoting fairness in college admissions, as well as the need for strict implementation and oversight to ensure that these rulings would be integrated adequately. Several people expressed doubt that colleges would adhere to these new standards or change their admissions policies without oversight from a third party.

Following the speeches was a debate panel on the effectiveness of standardized testing in college admissions. Many speakers and even audience members called attention to disparities in test preparation and access, highlighting concerns that standardized testing exacerbates inequalities rather than easing them. Additionally, several speakers pointed out that standardized testing preparation depends heavily on how closely educators are following the standard curriculum, or in essence, teaching what will be on the standardized testing instead of what students need to know.

The conference also dedicated a large portion of its time to discussions on improving K-12 educational outcomes for underperforming minority students. Speakers, including education policy experts such as Dr. Richard Sander from UCLA, emphasized the need for targeted interventions and equitable resource allocation to address systemic barriers to academic success. A recurring topic was the focus on how several top colleges across the US were found to be guilty of rejecting students with stronger applications to safeguard their diverse student body, as in the aforementioned SFFA v. Harvard case.

After the conclusion of all three debate panels and several speeches by guest speakers, everyone, including most of the audience, left the Hyatt and walked a few minutes to the nearby Supreme Court building. They then gathered on the white marble steps in front for a memorable group photo.

(Contributed by the CAPA-MC Junior Reporter Club)

By

戴焱 翻译 (Translation) 2024-08-03

[中文版本]

From the quiet and orderly neighborhood, students jump out of school buses and private cars, arriving at school. They quickly make their way to the hallways and sit down.

"Ding, ding, ding," the school bell rings in everyone's ears. Class begins, and we start quietly doing our assignments. Some students finish early and start drawing, others read their favorite books, and some lie on their desks to nap. At this time, the weather is sunny and warm, with sunlight shining on everyone. The birds start chirping happily, making the students very cheerful.

During recess, some students rush to grab the balls, others play foursquare and gaga, while some play basketball and soccer. This is our beloved school, an ordinary yet joyful place.

Mentor: Dan Tian

By

王树宽 翻译 (Translation) 2024-07-06

[中文版本]

At five o'clock in the afternoon, my mom starts cooking, and it's usually ready by six. I can smell the delicious food. As my mom calls me, my sister, and my dad to come eat, I run quickly from the living room to the dining room. I also make sure to call my dad because sometimes he's outside in the yard or in the basement. The whole family sits by the dining table and starts eating. We talk together while we eat. Everyone shares what happened during their day, sharing happy or unhappy things and showing care for each other.

My mom can cook many different things. Sometimes she makes dumplings, and other times she makes fried rice. We eat with ceramic bowls and metal forks, spoons, and chopsticks. Sometimes I don't like the food, like if it's too spicy, but sometimes it's very delicious. We spend about thirty to forty minutes eating dinner each day, and we eat until we are full and satisfied. Every day before dinner, I put cat food in the ceramic dishes for my cats. Then, my two cats start eating from their bowls.

I'm always very happy when I eat dinner because I'm really hungry when I come home from school. My sister isn't as excited as I am, but she also likes to come and eat. Our dinner time is always happy. After dinner, I go to the living room to do my homework. My dad washes the dishes, my mom goes to dance and do yoga, and my sister goes to do her homework.

I believe everyone deserves a good dinner. My sister is very funny; she always tells me amusing stories. My mom is very capable and affectionate; she always asks me what I did at school and if I'm happy. My dad is very hardworking; he's always the last one to come to the dining room to eat because he's always busy. I'm also very capable; I take care of my own things and look after my two cats.

I love my family dinners. We eat until we're full to keep our bodies healthy and so that we won't be hungry at night. I love my family, and they all love me. We are a happy and joyful family, and every day we enjoy having family dinner together.

By

任聚豪 翻译 (Translation) 2024-07-06

[中文版本]

On June 29, 2024, the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) held the 2nd National Conference on Equal Education Rights, celebrating the one year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on SFFA v. Harvard and UNC cases. Among the speakers were Patrick Strawbridge, the lawyer in the SFFA case, and Erin Wilcox, an attorney a part of the Pacific Legal Foundation.

The main job that Wilcox does with the Pacific Legal Foundation is to help litigate equal protection cases pertaining to K-12 schools. She described how the Supreme Court ruled in the SFFA v. Harvard and UNC cases help in her cases related towards K-12 schools. “[The Supreme Court cases] solidified in what instances schools can use race as a factor,” Wilcox said.

Lawyer Patrick Strawbridge, describes the prior precedent of allowing affirmative action as “a fig leaf behind which universities could do whatever they wanted in terms of racial discrimination, and claim they were in compliance with the law.” Strawbridge and other members of the legal team had to delve into the behind-the-scenes of Harvard and UNC admissions processes, in which they discovered “how badly they were disadvantaging students of Asian-American descent.”

Based on his personal beliefs on the concept of affirmative action, Strawbridge elaborates, “I think it’s a matter of fairness that we do not treat individuals as representative of their skin color or ethnic background. I think American history has shown that there is no such thing as an appropriate or minor use of race, as race is an inherently pernicious category.”

Wilcox believes that the Supreme Court ruling on the case had a significant impact in the fight for equal education rights. “It’s a really big deal because it solidified in what instances the government can use race as a factor. The decision last year said, ‘Hey wait a minute, this is too important, you don’t just get to treat people differently based on race,” Wilcox said. She also believes that not only did the decision have an impact on colleges, but it also had a big impact on schools and employment. 

However, Strawbridge notes that the results and impacts of the ruling are still uncertain: “What’s going to happen in college admissions remains to be seen, as we don’t have all the statistics on how admissions processes will change.” 

JRC members are grateful to have heard legal perspectives from both of these notable figures, as well as their stories and personal beliefs on the proper road towards equal education. 

(Contributed by the CAPA-MC Junior Reporter Club)

By

张悦，贾盈盈 翻译 (Translation) 2024-08-03