BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Supreme Court late Monday (25) rejected a lawsuit that blocked a top high school from implementing its latest admissions plan.
Previously, the admissions program was accused of discriminating against Asian Americans.
NBC reported on the 26th that Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, enjoys the reputation of "the nation's first public high school".
Two years ago, the school changed its admissions system to diversify its student body, and as a result removed the mandatory requirement for applicants to take three standardized tests, submit an essay, and submit a letter of recommendation from a teacher.
Instead, the new admissions system requires applicants to pass the heavy middle school curriculum with a higher grade point average.
In addition, the school conducts a "comprehensive review" of students' backgrounds, including the socioeconomic status of students' families, when recruiting students.
In the new assessment system, an applicant's race is not considered.
In the previous admissions process, Asian-American students made up at least 65 percent of the school's freshman population.
Under the new admissions policy, that percentage dropped to 54%.
At the same time, the percentage of black, Hispanic and even white students has increased.
As a result, many parents of Asian-American students filed lawsuits.
A federal judge later ruled that the school's new admissions system amounted to advancing racial balance, a move unconstitutional.
At the request of the district where Thomas Jefferson Tech is located, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals suspended the federal judge's initial ruling and allowed the high school to continue using the new admissions system while the case is on appeal.
Parent groups then appealed to the Supreme Court to have the original ruling come into effect to avoid "another year of harm for Asian-American students" - an admissions system where Asian-American students are being "deliberately discriminated against because of their race" Fight for the right to be educated in top high schools.
In response, the district said that under the new admissions program, the percentage of Asian-American students receiving offers of admission still exceeds the percentage of Asian-Americans in the district's total population.
The district told the Supreme Court that "the school has spent a great deal of time and energy processing thousands of applications for admission" and that forcing the school to revert to its old admissions system now would disrupt the admissions process.
In fact, the use of admissions policies by U.S. colleges and universities to achieve classroom diversity has been controversial.
The Supreme Court has also previously allowed schools to continue the practice.
However, the newly formed conservative-majority Supreme Court will revisit the cases in its next term, dealing with disputes over admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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