Racial, ethnic makeup shifts at Lowell High
Fast-tracked admission policy based on lottery, not merit, still faces suit
Gabrielle Grice, a junior at San Francisco’s elite Lowell High School, often struggles being the only Black student in a classroom. Group projects are a sore spot because she can rarely find students who look like her.
“It’s really lonely,” she said.
Black and Hispanic students at Lowell say they often feel isolated, historically making up a very small portion of the student body. But this year, Lowell is seeing a shift in its racial and ethnic makeup after it suspended merit-based admission for its ninthgrade class, with more diversity than in recent memory, if not ever.
This year’s ninth-grade class will have more Black and Hispanic students combined than at any time in at least 25 years — according to available state data on race and ethnicity that goes back to 1993.
The data bolsters arguments made by supporters that getting rid of the competitive admissions process would boost diversity in what has long been considered an academically elite public high school — and
“Lowell needs a lot of diversity, which it doesn’t have.” Ashley Perez, junior
one embattled by racist incidents.
After more than a century of using academic-based admissions — most recently an entrance exam and grades — the school board permanently stripped the high school of its academic-based admissions process in February in a controversial fast-tracked proposal. Admission to Lowell is now primarily a lottery that takes into account school preferences by students as well as other factors.
The decision to change admissions came as the country grappled with a racial reckoning and the school board pledged to address symbolic and systemic issues of inequity, including a bumbled effort to rename 44 schools.
But the switch left the city divided given Lowell’s reputation as an academically rigorous school for students with Ivy League dreams.
While the Lowell decision continues to face a legal challenge, school board members lauded the results.
“We believe this likely encouraged more students from a range of backgrounds to select Lowell on their application,” said board President Gabriela López. “I know communities across the city are happy to see that Lowell has welcomed its most diverse student population arguably ever.”
Of the 644 enrolled freshmen, nearly 25% are Hispanic and 5% are Black, according to district data, up from 14% and less than 2% respectively, last school year.
White students make up 16%, down from 21% in 2020 and Asian Americans constitute 42% of the freshman class, down from 50%.
The remaining 14% of freshmen include those of two or more races, those whose race or ethnicity was unknown, and one Pacific Islander freshman. The numbers are based on students who enrolled before the start of school. Final numbers for the freshman class based on attendance won’t be available for several weeks.
Irene Lo, assistant professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, said the shift at Lowell can be completely attributed to the new admissions policy.
Lo, who worked with San Francisco education officials to create a new and more equitable assignment system
SFUSD has created a “false narrative that merit-based education cannot be equitable education.”
for all schools in the district, said “academic performance is often correlated with other measures of being well-resourced. ” She explained that the lottery system “ostensibly gives everyone an equal chance.”
Supporters of the change — including school board members — agree with Lo that the new system is fairer.
But opponents argue the move is hurting Asian American students and taking away a springboard to achievement for low-income families. Opponents also charge that it was done without proper public input and that the
school was already diverse.
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, a critic of the new admissions policy, noted that before the change Lowell’s student body was 82% non-white.
The board’s problem is not underrepresentation, it is “a perceived over-representation of a community of color the Board disfavors — Asian Americans,” she wrote in a 14-page letter to the board after its decision in March.
Other opponents of the move, who filed a lawsuit over it in April, said the board’s February vote violated the state’s open meetings law by fast-tracking the issue and failing to gain proper public input.
They also argued that instead of ensuring that all students were qualified to attend and welcome at Lowell, they took away a point of pride in the city, one of the top-performing public schools in the country, which has perennially churned out prominent figures in politics, entertainment, literature and science.
“They failed the underrepresented students,” said attorney Christine Linnenbach, who represents the opponents, adding that the district has created a “false narrative that merit-based education cannot be equitable education.”
Linnenbach represents the Friends of Lowell Foundation, the Lowell Alumni Association, the San Francisco Taxpayers Association and the Asian American Legal Foundation, along with former San Francisco supervisor, former state senator and retired judge Quentin Kopp and others.
While the lawsuit goes through the courts, some Black and Hispanic students at Lowell are celebrating the shift.
Junior Ashley Perez praised the change, arguing that “Lowell needs a lot of diversity,
Christine Linnenbach, lawyer for opponents of the new policy
which it doesn’t have.”
Several Black and Hispanic Lowell students did not think the change in admissions systems would have much of an impact on the academic caliber of students who attend Lowell. Gabrielle said students know Lowell is a rigorous and competitive school and will only list it as their top choice if they want to be challenged.
“Lowell isn’t going to change. The teachers are going to remain the same; the criteria is going to remain the same. It’s not like it’s going to be easier for the upcoming classes,” Ashley said. “Lowell guides you into being successful.”