All too often, we hear demands for affirmative action to make institutions more diverse and inclusive, even at the cost of accepting less qualified or less prepared (which is not necessarily to say unqualified or unprepared) individuals in a program.

But now, in Chicago, they are discovering that students accepted at the elite college-prep magnet schools are trending 2-1 in favor of female applicants. There are discussions about how to make the ratio more balanced.

Judy Kleinfeld of the Boys Project, a not-for-profit group that deals with the male gender-gap, had this to say about the prospect of “gender weighting”.

"It will just do what affirmative action generally does. It will make everyone suspicious of the achievement of the group," Kleinfeld said. "What we need to do is teach boys better so they actually learn more."

An amazing concept – act to bring members of the underrepresented group up to the standard rather than lowering the standard. I applaud Kleinfeld for acknowledging that acting any other way hams not just those admitted under special programs, but every member of the favored group.