Facing challenges at school (AP classes are racist)

The Raleigh News-Observer ^ | 1/29/04 | Rick Martinez

[Phantom Lord]

Facing challenges at school

RALEIGH--Sometimes the elusive quest for equality gets in the way of meaningful progress for minorities. The latest example is the educational theory of "differentiation" as adopted by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district. Under differentiation, students of all abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds are taught in the same classroom in order to provide equal access to quality instruction for all. While that sounds great in theory, in practice differentiation has a dark side that impedes achievement and limits opportunity. Consider the scenario that's playing out now.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board voted to eliminate advanced language arts courses next year at two of its middle schools. This comes on top of dropping similar classes for sixth-graders this year, and plans to eventually eliminate all eighth-grade advanced language arts courses. Peculiar moves, given the district's history of being one of the best, if not the best, school systems in North Carolina.

Why is Chapel Hill eliminating highly desirable accelerated courses? District officials say advanced courses lead to "tracking," or grouping of students by academic ability, which can lead to high expectations and extra opportunities for gifted students. Conversely, they believe tracking can doom non-gifted pupils to low expectations and exclusion. So instead of teaching high-performing kids in accelerated courses, the board has adopted the one-class size fits all, equality-based theories behind differentiation.

Despite the board's best efforts to keep discussion about differentiation focused on academics, the debate has become centered on race. And no wonder. It's hard to miss that the overwhelming majority of students enrolled in advanced courses are white and Asian.

This lack of racial diversity caught the attention of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP. It helped convince the board that accelerated classes were creating separate and unequal education caste systems which deny minority students equal educational opportunity. That's a polite way of saying advanced classes are racist.

That theory may have been valid back in the bad old days, but this isn't the 1950s. If there's a significant disparity in the number of African-American and Hispanic kids in advanced classes, I'll bet the mortgage it's because of individual ability, accomplishment and preparation. Not race. Chapel Hill-Carrboro is hardly a hotbed of white supremacist ideology.

However well meaning, the school board has joined with the NAACP in a racial coverup. Differentiation is a not-so-subtle attempt to blur academic disparities between white and Asian students and their African-American and Hispanic classmates. So-called academic equality is achieved by holding gifted students back instead of lifting up low-performing students.

That's why the NAACP's opposition to advanced classes is so disappointing. It would be more courageous and beneficial to ask for a frank and honest assessment detailing why African-American and Hispanic kids are so underrepresented in gifted classes. Political correctness should not prevent the asking of hard questions.

For example, why is it our children have equal access to libraries, yet minority kids read fewer books than their white classmates? Why are minority kids among the highest consumers of television?

Minority leaders must have the courage to raise these issues within our community, not just push school boards to eliminate accelerated classes. That doesn't narrow the achievement gap. It only accommodates it. Differentiation doesn't provide equal educational opportunity. It just lowers the academic bar and limits our potential.

What the minority community needs now more than ever is a new breed of leadership that breaks away from the tired and increasingly irrelevant philosophy that depends on social institutions to solve our problems.

We need leaders with the guts to tell us that true affirmative action isn't a government program -- it's reading more to our children. It's taking them to Monticello. It's turning off the television. It's sitting down with teachers and asking what it's going to take to get our kids prepared for advanced courses.

Public policies such as differentiation, although well intentioned, ultimately limit minority children. Why should we settle for equality when we can be advanced?

Rick Martinez can be reached at rickjmartinez@mindspring.com

[pabianice]

Another plank for the Democratic Party: Substandard Education for All!

[McLynnan]

Good for you! How'd you do on your first AP exam? My daughter will be taking her first two AP exams in May, and hopefully three more a year from then. Does your school use a multiplier for class ranking to reflect the added difficulty of AP courses?

[Arrowhead1952]

Ask parents the benefits of AP classes when their child gets through in three years instead of four years. A lot easier on the pocket book. But then again, the school might like getting a fourth year of tuition out of the student. To label AP classes as racist is typically absurd, but consider the ignoramuses who are claiming it.

My daughter did all the AP classes in three years, and is taking several college classes this year. She scored 1380 on the SAT. For the most part, her entire class is above the Texas standard, and they are "fighting" for any and all scholarships they can.

The biggest problem with this article is that the actual "racists" are the one calling the AP classes racist.

I don't think we need to "dumb down" the education for our children. AP classes take a lot of HARD WORK, not spending time on the computer playing games or surfing the net.

[GiveEmDubya]

Question 1) My first AP was US History & Government, on which I got a 5 (perfect score for those who are unfamiliar with the point system). My school limits the number you can take per year, so anyone taking 3 or 4 APs has pretty much gone as far as one can go. My next two are AP Calculus AB and AP Spanish.

2) Yes, AP classes have a larger multiplier than Honors classes. Regents classes (general level) have none.

[RonF]

My kids' HS bumps AP classes: a C in an AP class is worth a B in an Honors Class and an A in a Prep class. They publish both weighted (as above) and unweighted (an A in a Prep class = an A in an AP class). They report both to the colleges, but the colleges know how to figure out what's going on. My daughter's college gave my daughter a semester's credit based on her scores on 4 AP tests. She's still spending 8 semesters there, but it lowered her stress level significantly and she got to take a couple more classes in her major and she got to lighten her load a couple of semesters.

[DeepDish]

"Overwhelming majority" means that a significant number of minority students are enrolled and qualified for these advanced placement courses. What will happen to the education of these minorities now. It is almost as if the KKK was running the show here saying "now there is just too much of this here minority educating going on". If I were a racist I would join the Libs because they have a really neat way of holding "those people" down. They pee down the backs of the gifted ones and tell them that it is raining. They shut off the chance to get a good education in a public school knowing that the burden will fall disproportionately upon the very students they claim to advance.

[Vinnie]

Under differentiation, students of all abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds are taught in the same classroom in order to provide equal access to quality instruction for all.

Recall the recent school board decision to relocate 10,000 Wake Co. students?

'Racial balance' was only part of the reason. The other reason was 'differentation'.

Thank goodness my kids are grown. If I had kids today, they would NOT be in public schools.

[Dan Evans]

What is more racist -- Assuming that blacks aren't in AP classes because they are lazy or assuming that blacks aren't in AP classes because they don't have the ability?

[Future Snake Eater]

Unbelievable. People take AP classes to get college credit and get above the chaff that is the remaining student body, not to "get away from the darkies" or whatever other nonsense the NAACP thinks is going on. Excelling in classes will soon be illegal at this rate.

[tamu95_mom]

They tried this when I was in middle school about 15 years ago. Instead of being in honors history, we were all mixed together in regular history classes. The experiment failed miserably and I didn't learn anything (they did this only the one year).

Other then the fact that all we did in class was memorize things to recite back for tests, some of us were quickly identified as being bored in class and were sent (unescorted) to the library for "independent studies". It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that we rarely made it to the library and when we did, we just goofed off there. While it was fun to be able to blow the class off, it took me until college to learn to value and appreciate history!

[Eva]

The school district went about the problem in a totally backward way, instead of opening up advanced classes to anyone who was interested they decided to simply close them to everyone. The problem would have been easily solved by open enrollment. School districts do a disservice to students when they set arbitrary standards for admission to advanced classes. High achievers who do not qualify are often denied access, while low achieving high IQs are admitted.

[mykdsmom]

I heard a little bit of Jerry's show while he was talking about this today. My boys go to year round school. The students are all there because their parents want them to be there. I had to apply and basically win the lotto to get them in. One of my main motivations for doing this was that the test scores were significantly higher than our base school.

Wake county is getting ready to go through the biggest re-assignment (bussing makeover) in it's history and this year for the first time they are forcing kids to go to year round schools. Year rounds are taking the brunt of the shuffling this year because the WCPSS dimbulbs see that we don't have enough "diversity" in our school so by God they will give us some.

Basically what this all boils down to is that the public school systems in this state won't stop until they achieve mediocrity for all. Heaven forbid some should do better than others be it d/t natural ability or parents that give a *&%# or just plain luck. Never fear they will find a way to stop this outrage.

MKM

[Howlin]

Under differentiation, students of all abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds are taught in the same classroom in order to provide equal access to quality instruction for all.

What that means is racially, socio-economically, and gender QUOTAS; and you can believe they do it by class; I saw it done in Greensboro when Drew was in K through 3 at a traditional school; the superintendent literally DREW names out of boxes. He'd say, "Okay, I need a black male from the southwest side of town."

Shorly thereafter, I sent Drew to parochial schools and, after the 8th grade, Greensboro Day School.

What is *really* means is that they teach to the common denominator in a classroom. So the AP kids are bored stiff and the lowest ranks STILL don't get it.

IMO, if they are going to do this, they should teach the course and everybody gets the grade they earn. A's get A's and F's get F's.

You and I will be dead before that ever happens.

[McLynnan]

The multiplier in my daughter's school is 1.15. I don't know how that compares to other areas, but in her school nobody will graduate in the top 10% who isn't in AP courses because of the multiplier. She should finish with 5 college credits. This year she's doing AP Spanish and AP Calculus. Next year as a senior she will do AP Physics, AP Biology, and AP History. She's really looking forward to the AP Biology course. Like you, Ron, she and I view this as a way to remove some of the stress in college, rather than a way to reduce time in college, and she will do 8 semesters. Also, she's been bored to death in all her general ed classes so these courses kept her on her toes, although she claims they aren't very difficult. I think the curriculum has been dumbed down to the point that our schools are doing the bright kids a huge disservice.

[Howlin]

The school district went about the problem in a totally backward way, instead of opening up advanced classes to anyone who was interested they decided to simply close them to everyone.

Chapel Hill. An entirely contained area of nothing but out of control freaking liberals.

This is the place where a guy with MD walked down the center of the street in broad daylight with a shotgun, wouding many and killing at least one (that I can remember) and GOT off because he had stopped taking his meds.

As soon as he got off, he sued the doctor he didn't even go to anymore for not FORCING him, a college student, to take his meds. Do I even have to tell you how that case turned out?

That place is PC heaven.

[SauronOfMordor]

The elites want to gut the public school system as a means for poor-but-gifted kids to get an education. They do not want competition for their own kids, who go to exclusive private schools where academic achievement is emphasized.

It has nothing to do with "racial fairness", and everything to do with the desire of the current elites to cement their position

[Robert A Cook PE]

So, actual performance is now meaningless?

[Robert A Cook PE]

And my daughter graduated HS at age 16 with 45 college credit hours BECAUSE she chose to take the advanced language classes and math classes in MS (the courses that NC are dropping!) ...

And then used the dual enrollment her last two "years" of HS -> Attended the college full time, taking college classes INSTEAD of taking HS classes and AP classes.

She said it was easier to take college classes and get full credit for them, rather than worry about getting through the AP test and "maybe" getting partial credit for "some" of the college classes.

[McLynnan]

How long ago was this? Most schools don't even allow such options these days. Our district (in Texas) has things structured where four years in high school are mandatory.

[LWalk18]

The worst thing about this is that many top colleges expect you to take AP courses. Schools without them hurt their students by making them less competitive when college comes around. Why can't they work to increase the standard of work in the regular classes?