<p>Why do most people assume that students who attend urban public schools are below average intelligence or something? It happens with us all the time. I go to an INNER-CITY(gasp), PUBLIC(double gasp) school. Get this. The student body is 90% AFRICAN AMERICAN(faints)! And the area the school is in isn't the best either! And because of that everyone seems to think we're like all dummies or drug addicts or gangbangers or something, when all of us are far from it. We're a very COMPETITIVE school, but apparently to people these capitalized words could never go together in the same sentence. </p>
<p>Just last year we sent two kids to Yale, one to MIT, three to Michigan, one to Northwestern and another to Oberlin. The year before that we sent 2 to Harvard and 1 to Columbia and one to Stanford and another to UNC. This year (well so far that I know of) we're sending one to Chicago, another one to Northwestern, one to Cornell, a couple to NYU, one to UCLA and we have another two who applied to Harvard. Of the two who applied to Harvard I know for a fact one scored a 33 ACT in ONE sitting and he even from what I heard took it again. Yes, they are both AFRICAN AMERICAN. 99% of us attend universities on average and last year all students went directly to universities. </p>
<p>Our state test scores are even higher than those of the regional suburban flagship high school that all the affluent families attend. That school is supposedly ranked in the top 2% of high schools by Newsweek and is a so-called feeder school for the top schools, that school also offers the only IB classes in our county. </p>
<p>We're just as good as any other high school, but it irritates me at how ignorant people are. I list the city and the zip code of my school for jobs, organizations, regional programs and people automatically assume I'm under qualified, or I'm going to be a "problem" and I don't have the skills necessary for something and sometimes I have to struggle to prove myself to these people. Why is there this predominate notion that inner-city kids are of a lesser quality than others? You can be of a lesser or better quality in any location!</p>
<p>I know exactly what you mean. If I had not moved, I would’ve gone to an urban inner-city school with a 70% black population. And yet last year they sent people to Brown, Princeton, Harvard, etc. They have award-winning magazines, debate teams, football. The valedictorian @ my school is going to Rice. Hardly a bad school, but not Ivy League.</p>
<p>^^^ It’s quite weird. Usually the suburban affluent schools do better. That’s how my school is and we send at least 10 people to the ivy league a year.</p>
<p>99% Go to a 4 year college. Not everything is how it seems but, if you aggregate the data, the suburbs tend to do better than the city kids.</p>
<p>I think it’s just a lot of stereotyping. The only time most people get to see inner-city schools is one TV or in movies, which usually don’t show them in a very positive light. Your inner-city school sounds loads better than my suburban high school.</p>
<p>Anyways. It’s just stereotyping, trust me. One of our inner-city public school here is one of the top schools in the country and sends out kids to top schools every single year like it’s nothing. Yet my school is “supposed” to be a good school because we have the IB program, which is *****<strong><em>. Most students here talk *</em></strong> about the inner-city schools, yet our school is complete garbage.</p>
<p>I think that it’s much, much easier to do a mediocre job in a typical suburban public school. In innercity schools there are often tons of opportunities, but I think, typically, less focus on individual students. So if you’re driven, you can achieve, and yes, go to Harvard, Yale, MIT.</p>
<p>I’d guess that the top 15% of innercity grads are much better educated than the top 15% of suburban grads, but that the middle 50% of innercity grads are not as well educated as the middle 50% of suburban grads.</p>
<p>Ehmm… Try coming from an entire state where everyone thinks you’re dumb… or region.</p>
<p>People assume that if you’re in the deep south, then you have no intelligence.</p>
<p>And as for the case of intercity schools… I don’t go to my local intercity school, because it sucks. (In many aspects… I don’t think in terms of just academics) It’s 70% black and 30% white. The only people in the AP/Honors courses are white plus a few blacks here and there. Now that’s just plain sad. And even with as high as 80% AP pass rate, this school still isn’t sending kids to the ivy leagues, and that’s mostly to do with the stigma that it’s a southern school.</p>
<p>And in my mother’s case, that stereotype was very true. She went to a school that was 97% black, huge poverty population. It was featured on national news a few years ago for being the worst school district in the country.</p>
<p>And… Oh lordy, if you open your mouth outside the south, people just think you are the dumbest little thing they ever saw.</p>
<p>I believe you. I once visited a diverse HISD magnet high school and was amazed. (A fine arts magnet. There was mass creativity, such an alien place…) Of course, it was a magnet and lots of HISD schools are terrible, definitely more of them than the outstanding ones. However, I go to a new suburban school in a decent area with many wealthy pockets, but it doesn’t do well. It’s probably because the high school where most of our students (including me) were transferred from is the worst school in the district besides the alternative school. There are drugs, gang fights, low state test passing rates, etc. I can’t fathom why; a couple schools serving almost the same area/population do a lot better. Also, despite being very suburban, the high schools in my area are mostly not white. At mine, we’re 60% Latino, 20% black, and 20% white.</p>
<p>Lol, yeah CaliAdVitam, as far as Islanders go I barely find any at all around here, I’m in the midwest haha. I know it’s more often that not I guess for inner-city schools to be mediocre and that’s where the stereotype prevails, but the region I live doesn’t see it as a stereotype, but more so as like a commandment! We do pretty well and hold our own against the other schools but we just fly under the radar. People either don’t know about us or assume “inner-city trash” and the kids from the suburban schools automatically think we’re dumb. Once, the supervisor for one of my outside of school EC’s told me “You’re such a bright and talented kid, you would do so well in a good school!” Newsflash: I already go to one! Also once, I gave a girl from the big bad suburban school in the area some background info on my school, and I overheard her tell some of her friends that “I’m trying too hard to make myself seem smarter than what I am”. Around here it’s a little too easy to tell what’s a stereotype and what people actually believe for face value. It’d be different but everyone literally REFUSES to give us a chance. </p>
<p>I guess a question I’m trying to ask is should inner-city schools in general be held in context to a lesser competitive standard? It looks like they are most of the time. Is this an advantage/disadvantage? Or do you think they should be held at the same competitive standard as some of their peer suburban schools, since even kids on this thread are showing that even some suburban schools don’t have this rep of untouchable quality everyone thinks they do. Seriously, the worst suburban school in our area will most likely still be viewed as better than anything in the inner-city, even when the state report cards prove otherwise.</p>
<p>Whoa, that was long, feel free to skim? lol</p>
<p>@Kironide: Good Lord, I smell affirmative action in the air. So grades and extracurricular activities played NO part in it, right? Not even a smidgen? -__-</p>
<p>The thing is in a majority of inner city schools have more minority students, the quality of the education isn’t very good, the students don’t care as much about school (as evidenced by the abysmally low graduation rates). The schools overall aren’t very good so why would they be viewed in a positive light?</p>