Hi Bri, saying the “r” word on CC will lead to a lot of unhelpful responses.
Here’s is what happened to my son. We are a minority family.
In elementary, he was not marked for advanced classes even though he was obviously at least as intelligent as most of the kids in the class, and tested well enough on the placement test to be admitted. In elementary, most of the spots in the limited space were taken by children of the mothers in the PTA group who harassed the advanced teacher and principal to place their kids in that class. Nearly every PTA parent was a white housewife who did not work and was able to be a constant squeaky wheel.
In middle school, he was again not placed in advanced classes because in our district, that is mostly a carryover effect of elementary. Nevertheless, my son worked hard in middle school, earned great grades, and was recommended (a written recommendation) by his middle-school teachers/counselors to be placed in Honors/advanced classes when he started high school.
When he started high school, he was not placed in a single Honors/Advanced class. To add insult to injury, he was placed in remedial English, remedial Math, and remedial Science. When I went to the school to have this corrected, the counselor said nothing could be done and tried to end the conversation there. It took a long discussion before the counselor finally admitted my son should not be in remedial classes and should be in Honors classes.
Call it “R” or whatever. It definitely happens. And in my anectdotal experience, it happens a lot to minorities.
I would have recommended your father go to the school and speak with the counselor/teacher. Be polite, but do not accept “NO” for an answer. If you have the grades, you should be allowed correct placement.
Good luck and I am so sorry you had to go through this. Congratulations on successfully working against a sometimes unjust system. This was actually good practice for you – unfortunately, it’s very possible you’ll have to keep speaking up for yourself and your rights. Any time you fail to assert yourself, you’ll fall further behind where you want to be. Keep asserting yourself!