"I can't say what the intention was"
I can, because the policy is clear. The exemption is intended to make room for children who have been disadvantaged, not for children whose families have voluntarily given them an extra tool in their academic toolkit. It was specifically put in place based on recommendations, available publicly, that the school district was not providing allowances for children of disadvantaged (poor, migrant, ELL) backgrounds. It is NOT for bilingual children who attended private school, or whose parents have been in the United States for 15 years on a highly qualified work visa and who have had the child in English-language high-quality pre-schools for three years.
"Ethnicity is irrelevant."
Ethnicity is not irrelevant because segregation based on know-how that gets passed down from generation to generation affects us all. There are clearly different cultural beliefs and different knowledge among social groups that are leading to a segregated system within the schools.
I would like to emphasize that this is actually an issue that is being debated and addressed actively by the school district. So while you may see no problem with segregating people by race based on cultural differences that lead to people taking advantage of different services, our school district has a problem with it. They just haven't solved it yet.
When there are rules and regulations that only some people are exploiting, we can choose to be part of the abuse of loopholes, or choose the honest route. Many people stop trying in society because they believe that they are shut out from achievement due to unfair advantages for other groups. That is where we get vicious cycles of racism. When the path to achievement is fair, more people (not all, but more) will participate and we all benefit from added talent, stability, etc.
"The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself." - Jane Addams
I'm not religious but this pretty much sums it up for me. I'm not going to make an exception for myself or my family.
I have no desire to discuss abuse of loopholes intended for poor migrants and new immigrants to my own advantage. I won't do it. My child will get her education and I will do it though hard work, dedication, and creativity. If that leads to participation in a gifted program, great. But abusing loopholes is not an option.
Let's just assume for the sake of argument that the school district's policy is that only children of two non-native speakers, who have been in the country for fewer than three years, can apply for the linguistic exemption, since I believe that in the near future that's what they'll be implementing, anyway, due to the fact that they are working extremely hard to make this a program for children who have special needs, and not for children who have special privileges.
Supposing that were the case, does anyone have any advice on multiple testing?
