Opinion ID: 201118
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Boston's Exam School Assignment System and Related Reverse Discrimination Lawsuits

Text: 9 In June 1999, the first four of what ultimately became ten individual plaintiffs, along with Boston's Children First, 5 filed this lawsuit, prompted in part by the successful reverse discrimination lawsuits brought by the families of two white children who were denied admission to their choice of one of BPS's three competitive exam schools. See McLaughlin v. Boston School Comm., 938 F.Supp. 1001 (D.Mass. 1996); Wessmann v. Gittens, 160 F.3d 790 (1st Cir.1998). These exam schools admit students using a different system than that used by the other schools in the BPS system. At the time Julia McLaughlin applied to Boston Latin School, admissions were based on a combination of an applicant's grade point average and standardized test scores (collectively called the z-score), subject to a 35% minority set-aside previously imposed by the federal desegregation order and still in effect at that time. After McLaughlin filed suit and obtained a preliminary injunction admitting her to Boston Latin, BPS voluntarily discontinued use of the 35% quota, admitted students similarly situated to McLaughlin, and commissioned a consulting company to devise a new admissions policy. 10 The replacement exam school admission policy eventually adopted by BPS defined the qualified applicant pool for each exam school as the 50% of students with z-scores above the mean in any given year. Then, BPS filled half of each exam school's seats based on the students' expressed preferences for each school and their rank order z-scores. The remainder of the seats were also allocated by students' school preferences and rank order z-scores, subject to mirroring the racial composition of the remaining qualified applicant pool not yet admitted. Sarah Wessmann was denied admission to Boston Latin under the new exam school admission system, sued, and ultimately prevailed on appeal. We found the admission system unconstitutional because its use of racial classifications was not narrowly tailored to meet a compelling state interest. See Wessmann, 160 F.3d at 807-09.