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San Francisco's 'Sleeping Giant' Awakes
School Policy Spurs Asian-American Activism
 Listen to Holly Kernan's report.
Web Exclusive: Reporter Holly Kernan offers more background on the controversy
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San Francisco's bustling Irving Street neighborhood forms the heart of the Sunset District's Asian-American community.
Photo: Holly Kernan |
Aug. 10, 2002 -- The historic heart of San Francisco's Chinese community is still found on the hilly streets of Chinatown. But another Chinese-American neighborhood has grown in the western Sunset district. As Holly Kernan of New California Media reports for All Things Considered, the neighborhood's busy Asian marketplace is centered on Irving Street. Historically Irish, the area is now more than 50 percent Asian, with many new residents arriving from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong over the past decade.
"As the rest of the city is struggling with the bust of the dot-com economy, Irving Street is thriving," says David Lee, director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, which monitors demographic and political trends. New residents, he says, are attracted by both the relatively low cost of housing and the good neighborhood schools -- including Abraham Lincoln High.
The three-story building was erected in 1940, but it wasn't until the late 1990s that it became one of the city's top academic performers.
Parents "work two jobs, they work long hours, they will find tutors," to make sure their kids get a good education, says Julie Wang, a Lincoln parent and activist. "Education in our culture is the No. 1 priority, so it's something that cannot be compromised."
But some Asian-American parents feel their children's education is, in fact, being compromised by district policy. Students in San Francisco are not automatically assigned to their neighborhood schools, but can apply to attend any public school in the city. This is part of the school district's strategy to comply with a 20-year-old court order to integrate the schools. But as a result of a 1999 lawsuit filed by Chinese-American parents, the district is also under a court order not to use race as a factor in assigning students to schools.
"So we have to provide diversity but not use race as an indicator, and that's what the diversity index achieves," says district spokeswoman Jackie Wright.
The halls of Lincoln High School will be more crowded next year.
Photo: Holly Kernan |
The diversity index is a controversial formula introduced earlier this year. It uses half-a-dozen criteria to assign the district's nearly 60,000 students to a school in an attempt to keep the schools integrated. But when it was implemented, a computer glitch left hundreds of students shut out of their preferred schools, assigned to no school, or assigned to schools separate from their siblings'.
Many of those affected were Asian-American students whose parents complained that their children were being used to create diversity at lower performing schools. They wanted their kids in neighborhood schools.
One local politician representing the Sunset neighborhood suggested splitting the school district in half, east and west, to bolster local control. Hearings on the matter created lots of drama -- "if I cannot get into Lincoln, I'd rather kill myself," one parent testified -- but it's unlikely the proposal will go through. Still, the issue galvanized the community, and most of the problems with school assignments have been resolved.
The hallways at Lincoln will be a little more crowded next year as enrollment grows to accommodate both the diversity index and neighborhood requests for school assignments. Even with a neighborhood placement system, the school wouldn't have space for everyone, says principal Ronald Pang.
District spokeswoman Wright says that, ironically, more students across the district will be going to the school of their choice this year than last year. "But the improvement is not something we're resting on," she says. "We're not ignoring the cries of the parents."
To make sure of that, the newly formed Citizens for School Reform, which grew out of this year's problems with the school system, is collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would allow for neighborhood election of school board members. Currently, members are elected at large.
"We believe everything local makes better sense," says group spokeswoman Julie Wang. "Because if everyone takes care of their own backyard, the whole city will be in good shape."
Lee, the trend-watcher, says this is the most activism he's seen in the city's Asian-American community in the past 10 years. "Perhaps this issue of their children's education is an issue that can awake the sleeping giant."
Previous Coverage
NPR's Margot Adler talks with Angelo Ancheta of Harvard about what he says is an increase in school segregation.
Commentator Andrew Lam describes the trans-Pacific sensibility of San Francisco.
Other Resources
A recent five-part series in the San Francisco Examiner on the city's schools.
The school district's explanation of its diversity index.
A Washington Post report on integrating San Francisco's schools.
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