Is there a large school district in the whole country where blacks and Hispanics achieve at the same level of whites nationally? If there were, I'm sure the media would be trumpeting it. If there is no such district, why bash Arne Duncan for not doing what any other school superintendent has been able to do?
Surely, KIPP children ( who are chosen by lottery) do **far** better when compared to children who were randomly not chosen in the lottery. Evidently, it is the methods being used by KIPP that are making the difference. It is certainly not the IQ of the children when both groups ( accepted or rejected) are chosen by lottery.
We need to begin the process of privatizing universal K-12 education so that the free market can begin to develop the educational practices that will yield the best achievement for **all** racial groups.
Have the study habits of the highest achieving children ( both institutionalized and homeschooled ) ever been thoroughly and carefully studied? Just exactly how much learning is really happening in the schools and how much is **really** being done due entirely to the child and parents’ efforts? Are these academically successful children really succeeding because they and their parents are actually homeschooling ( “afterschooling”)?
We need to know the answer to the above question because:
* If academically successful children are in essence being homeschooled by their parents and themselves then the existing system of government K-12 schools will **never** help children ( of any race and regardless of IQ) from disadvantaged families.
* If the greatest academic success achievable for a child's IQ is due to parental and the child's own teaching efforts in the home then institutional schools for children in disadvantaged families will need to somehow duplicate or substitute for what the children are not getting at home. KIPP by the way seems to be one answer. I believe that with a free market possibly other solutions would emerge.
I do believe that it is **insanity** to continue to apply the same government K-12 model of education to disadvantaged children that we are using today.
We do not honestly know if the existing system of government K-12 schools is even the most effective model for white middle class children in functional homes! It could be that white children in functional homes are succeeding **in spite** of their government k-12 imprisonment, not because of it. It could be that academically successful children are successful ( homeschooled and institutionalized) entirely due to their own and their parents “at home” efforts.
In a private market of education the best educational practices for chidlren of all ranges of IQ would emerge. In a private and free market system of education the best educational practices for helping children from dysadvantaged homes would emerge.
The Hispanic kids at one charter school in my state (about $7,000 per year per student) beat out our local middle school, whites and Asians (about $14,000 per year per student) in their state tests last year.
The charter school doesn’t waste kids’ time with a lot of nonsense. It’s a tough school and many of the kids get scholarships to private high schools or go to specialized public high schools.
It’s not the race, it’s the culture. On average, the majority black and hispanic cultures don’t place much emphasis on learning. Chris Rock even said it, something like going back to the ‘hood with a master’s degree and someone saying “Oooh, you have a master’s degree, but can you whoop MY ass?”