Is meritocracy dead in Spokane?

A list of national merit scholarship semifinalists was announced recently for the class of 2021. To be a merit scholar, one must score in the top 1% of all PSAT test takers. Roughly 16,000 students nationwide qualified for this honor. The test for the class of 2021 was given in late 2019, before the pandemic.

As a group, the eight major, public high schools in the Spokane area (5 Spokane school district schools plus University, Mead, and West Valley) had no semifinalists for the class of 2021. The class of 2020 had 3 and the class of 2019 had 3. Total enrollment in these 8 schools is about 12,000 students so each class has around 3,000 students. Between 27% and 35% of each class nationwide take the test. Doing the math, one would predict, on average, that 8-10 students from these 8 schools combined, would be semifinalists each year.

Obviously, the schools must assume some responsibility for this showing but I think much of the responsibility rests with families. When reviewing the list for Washington state, one is struck by the large portion of students with Indian and Asian (mainly Chinese) surnames. Both immigrant groups are known for their emphasis on education.

Recently, there has been a movement to de-emphasize such tests (SAT, ACT, PSAT) since they supposedly discriminate against certain groups. Others think meritocracy is dead. What do you think?

Ron Dugan

Spokane