New Admissions Policy Sought for S.F. School

By Joanna Richardson

San Francisco's schools superintendent has proposed modifying the criteria for entrance to the city's prestigious Lowell High School in hopes of ending a bitter debate over its race-based admissions policy.

The plan released this month by Superintendent Waldemar Rojas would admit 80 percent of the school's students through a traditional point system based on academic achievement. All those students, regardless of race or ethnicity, would have to meet the same cutoff point for a combination of grade-point average and test scores.

The other 20 percent would be admitted to Lowell based on other criteria that would expand the pool of eligible applicants and enhance diversity in the school's enrollment, said Gail Kaufman, the spokeswoman...