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Multiracial Pupils To Be Counted In New Groups
Washington Post ^ | March 22, 2009

Posted on 03/22/2009 8:55:19 PM PDT by Steelfish

Multiracial Pupils to Be Counted in New Groups

By Michael Alison Chandler and Maria Glod

Washington Post Staff Writers March 23, 2009

Public schools in the Washington region and elsewhere are abandoning their check-one-box approach to gathering information about race and ethnicity in an effort to develop a more accurate portrait of classrooms transformed by immigration and interracial marriage.

Next year, they will begin a separate count of students who are of more than one race.

For many families in the District, Montgomery and other local counties that have felt forced to deny a part of their children's heritage, the new way of counting, mandated by the federal government, represents a long-awaited acknowledgment of their identity:

Enrollment forms will allow students to identify as both white and American Indian, for example, or black and Asian.

But changing labels will make it harder to monitor progress of groups that have trailed in school, including black and Hispanic students.

Racial and ethnic information, collected when children register for school, can inform school board decisions on reading programs, discipline procedures or admissions policies for gifted classes.

The government looks at test scores of minority groups to help determine whether schools make the grade under the No Child Left Behind law.

In an increasingly data-driven culture, educators also scrutinize such test scores and enrollment figures to pick programs meant to narrow achievement gaps and equalize academic opportunity.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: biracial

1 posted on 03/22/2009 8:55:19 PM PDT by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

Aww, we’re going to lose track of who’s failing. That’s absolutely unthinkable.

How about we stop trying to square-hole people for the purposes of subsidization and instead let the chips fall where they may.

I know, stupid proposition. How dare I.


2 posted on 03/22/2009 8:58:24 PM PDT by TheZMan (Revolution.)
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To: TheZMan

That’s a stupid proposition. How dare you!...


3 posted on 03/22/2009 9:00:45 PM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 62 of our national holiday from reality.)
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To: Steelfish

“Racial and ethnic information, collected when children register for school, can inform school board decisions on reading programs, discipline procedures or admissions policies for gifted classes.”
~~~~~~~~~~

what the hell?


4 posted on 03/22/2009 9:02:41 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: TheZMan
Question is.........will they count these students as 2 or 3 students, instead of just one. With Acorn in charge of the census, who knows. Looks very suspect to me. Of course with these unscrupulous people running things, there is reason for suspicion.
5 posted on 03/22/2009 9:06:45 PM PDT by gidget7 (Duncan Hunter-Valley Forge Republican!)
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To: mamelukesabre

Just more liberal gobbledegook. It makes absolutely no sense, never does, regardless of what the issue they are trying to explain.


6 posted on 03/22/2009 9:08:00 PM PDT by gidget7 (Duncan Hunter-Valley Forge Republican!)
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To: Steelfish
But changing labels will make it harder to monitor progress of groups that have trailed in school, including black and Hispanic students.

And why was this important in the first place?

7 posted on 03/22/2009 9:14:35 PM PDT by umgud (I'm really happy I wasn't aborted)
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To: Steelfish

I’m going to start checking more than one box, too.


8 posted on 03/22/2009 9:15:49 PM PDT by donna (Sarah Palin: "...all of us, who consider ourselves progressive...")
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To: Steelfish
There should be only three TWO categories:

Citizen
Legal immigrant / student visa.
Illegal alien.

9 posted on 03/22/2009 9:17:23 PM PDT by LegendHasIt (Freepmail me if you want to join the Precious Metals ping list.)
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To: Steelfish
Why not just have the government decide the racial/ethnic makeup of every kid by looking in the Big Government Database and not have to ask? It's simple mathematics once you have everyone's parents in the Database!

Oh, right, a lot of these kids don't know who their father is...

10 posted on 03/22/2009 9:18:00 PM PDT by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: Steelfish

I was nonplussed when I got my son’s sheet — I put American


11 posted on 03/22/2009 9:18:55 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: yldstrk

I always scratch out everything else, and write American in large letters on any form that asks my “ethnicity”. I’ve never been called on it, either. I don’t think people know how to deal with it—LOL1


12 posted on 03/22/2009 9:38:38 PM PDT by basil ( It's time to eliminate all "Gun Free Zones")
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To: Steelfish

There is no such race/ethinic group as Hispanic. It was made up by the Dems in the 1970s so they could create another victim class and provide special privileges and benefits to whites. The Census Bureau has created another artificial category, i.e., non-Hispanic whites.


13 posted on 03/22/2009 9:50:03 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Steelfish

“But changing labels will make it harder to monitor progress of groups that have trailed in school, including black and Hispanic students.”

Head start already tries to cover for the number if black males and delays their being placed in programs that will help them. Uf it looks bad for black males we must cover up the problem. Then the schools get the blame, not the Feds.


14 posted on 03/22/2009 11:04:03 PM PDT by A Strict Constructionist (I'm studying Voodoo...curses cast daily. Landrieu be gone to the devil...)
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To: Steelfish

This ACTUALLY makes some sense!

When “MOM” is a natural blond, while Dad is Hispanic, on his father’s side... Why should the Department of Education & the NEA be able to class those Kids as NEEDING “English as a 2nd Language” assistance?


15 posted on 03/23/2009 12:02:28 AM PDT by PizzaDriver (an heinleinian/libertarian)
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