NYT: Louisiana School Made Headlines for Sending Black Kids to Elite Colleges. Here’s the Reality. (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Sparkle]

Not sure if everyone saw the Youtube videos going around from this school, featuring kids getting accepted into Ivy League and other elite schools. They made it into national news stories. This is just brutal.

BREAUX BRIDGE, La. — Bryson Sassau’s application would inspire any college admissions officer.

A founder of T.M. Landry College Preparatory School described him as a “bright, energetic, compassionate and genuinely well-rounded” student whose alcoholic father had beaten him and his mother and had denied them money for food and shelter. His transcript “speaks for itself,” the founder, Tracey Landry, wrote, but Mr. Sassau should also be lauded for founding a community service program, the Dry House, to help the children of abusive and alcoholic parents. He took four years of honors English, the application said, was a baseball M.V.P. and earned high honors in the “Mathematics Olympiad.”

The narrative earned Mr. Sassau acceptance to St. John’s University in New York. There was one problem: None of it was true.
“I was just a small piece in a whole fathom of lies,” Mr. Sassau said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/us/tm-landry-college-prep-black-students.html

 

[WhoDatPhan78]

I saw a story about this school on CNN I believe. I was dubious about it. The kids in the videos seemed to just be playing around, and I couldn't imagine much learning actually being accomplished. It's one think to have a loose structure, but there didn't seem to be any structure at all.

I guess it is easy to get accepted to a college if the school sets that is it's primary objective. Make up accolades, give good grades. On paper a student can look elite if the school is in on it.

Charter schools = $$$ , anytime you have $$$ you're going to get people only in it for the $$$ take advantage of the system.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

I saw a story about this school on CNN I believe. I was dubious about it. The kids in the videos seemed to just be playing around, and I couldn't imagine much learning actually being accomplished. It's one think to have a loose structure, but there didn't seem to be any structure at all.

I guess it is easy to get accepted to a college if the school sets that is it's primary objective. Make up accolades, give good grades. On paper a student can look elite if the school is in on it.

Charter schools = $$$ , anytime you have $$$ you're going to get people only in it for the $$$ take advantage of the system.

Just to be clear this isn't a charter school - its not accredited by the state of Louisiana, which should've been a red flag for parents and universities alike.

This looks more like a straight up scam.

 

[WhoDatPhan78]

Just to be clear this isn't a charter school - its not accredited by the state of Louisiana, which should've been a red flag for parents and universities alike.

This looks more like a straight up scam.

Maybe this one isn't a charter school, but there needs to be more oversight for charter schools too because this is the type of fraud that appears too often with charters. Some charter schools are great, but too often people take advantage of the law to run scams.

http://populardemocracy.org/news/system-failure-louisianas-broken-charter-school-law

There needs to be more oversight of any school that is allowed to award a diploma. This case is just another example of why.

 

[JimEverett]

How elite universities could have fallen for it really says something about the state of those of schools and their stereotypical views of blacks.

 

[You]

I don’t see this as an indictment of charter schools.
It’s an indictment on the universities for accepting kids with transcripts from an unaccredited school and a clear indictment of the Landry’s who are power hungry frauds. Reminds me of David Koresh type behavior.

Shame on them.

 

[MLU]

How elite universities could have fallen for it really says something about the state of those of schools and their stereotypical views of blacks.

This.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I don’t see this as an indictment of charter schools.
It’s an indictment on the universities for accepting kids with transcripts from an unaccredited school and a clear indictment of the Landry’s who are power hungry frauds. Reminds me of David Koresh type behavior.

Shame on them.

Correct
Charter schools can be indicted for many other reasons

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

How elite universities could have fallen for it really says something about the state of those of schools and their stereotypical views of blacks.

Were the narrative stories outliers?

 

[You]

Correct
Charter schools can be indicted for many other reasons

And so too can American public schools

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

And so too can American public schools

the notion of tying public schools to local tax bases would be the stronger indictment

 

[RazorSaint]

How elite universities could have fallen for it really says something about the state of those of schools and their stereotypical views of blacks.

More to do with pursuit of DIVERSITY.

That being said, reading this article about how a school lied about grades, defrauded parents out of tuition, emotionally abused kids, and sent unqualified kids to prestigious schools, the universities are definitely not first on my list of who is to blame.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

More to do with pursuit of DIVERSITY.

is homogeneity a better goal?

That being said, reading this article about how a school lied about grades, defrauded parents out of tuition, emotionally abused kids, and sent unqualified kids to prestigious schools, the universities are definitely not first on my list of who is to blame.

just looked it up, there are over 37,000 high schools (private & public)
there are 8 Ivy league schools
do we imagine that recruiters should have institutional knowledge about all of these?
if someone is willing/able to defraud so egregiously, it's not hard to imaging that they get away with it for awhile

 

[RazorSaint]

is homogeneity a better goal?


just looked it up, there are over 37,000 high schools (private & public)
there are 8 Ivy league schools
do we imagine that recruiters should have institutional knowledge about all of these?
if someone is willing/able to defraud so egregiously, it's not hard to imaging that they get away with it for awhile

The goal, especially for the most prestigious schools in the country, should be admitting students based on merit.

I agree with your second point. It's ridiculous to think that Harvard or any other school should investigate each applicant's primary school education.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

The goal, especially for the most prestigious schools in the country, should be admitting students based on merit.
.

1/2 rhetorical, 1/2 legit question
why do some UDFAs from unknown schools succeed in the NFL?