Posted on 04/28/2009 8:33:10 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The achievement gap between white and minority students has not narrowed in recent years, despite the focus of the No Child Left Behind law on improving black and Hispanic scores, according to results of a federal test considered to be the nation’s best measure of long-term trends in math and reading proficiency.
Black and Hispanic elementary, middle and high school students all scored much higher on the federal test, administered last year, than did their counterparts decades back. But nearly four decades of scores on the same test show that their most important academic gains came not in recent years, but during the desegregation efforts of the 1970s and 1980s.
Between 2004 and last year, scores for young minority students increased, but so did those of white students, leaving the achievement gap stubbornly wide, despite President Bush’s frequent assertions that the No Child law was having a dramatic effect.
“There’s not much indication that N.C.L.B. is causing the kind of change we were all hoping for,” said G. Gage Kingsbury, a testing expert who is a director at the Northwest Evaluation Association in Portland. “Trends after the law took effect mimic trends we were seeing before. But in terms of watershed change, that doesn’t seem to be happening.” Overall, America’s education system does not seem to be making progress either. The scores of 17-year-old students were the same as those of teenagers who took the test in the early 1970’s. The scores of 9- and 13-year-old students, however, averaged across all groups, were up modestly in reading, and considerably higher in math, since 2004, the last time the test was administered. And they were quite a bit higher than those of students of the same age a generation back. Still, their progress disappeared as they got older.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Darn those white kids for improving and keeping the gap alive. Seriously, I think it's a big mistake to obsess about achievement "gaps" rather than helping everyone learn to the extent of their intellectual abilities.
Ya mean back when school was about LEARNING and not about little Skyler's precious self-esteem?
Who'da thunk it?
“There’s not much indication that N.C.L.B. is causing the kind of change we were all hoping for,” said G. Gage Kingsbury
Apparently the kind of change they were hoping for consisted of white kids not making any improvements at all.
The public school system in America is a laughingstock and the colleges and universities which are dominated by far left idealogue teachers are getting just as bad. At this rate, America will have one of the worst educational systems in the world if not THE WORST!
Congressman Billybob
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Without regard to the state of US schools, kids who want to be educated will be, Those who don’t, won’t.
I say get gov’t completely out of education and let the chips fall where they may.
Interesting that they rightly and admittedly call it achievement and not intelligence. If you don’t try, no matter how smart you may or may not be, you will guarantee failure. And THAT is what is as work here.
In this case asians are not considered minorities. The problem is black and hispanic children. The out of wedlock birth rates for blacks is 68% and for Hispanics is 50%. They also have the highest school dropout rates. This is the social pathology for failure in this country. We are building a huge underclass that will be more dependent on government and more receptive to socialism.
By 2023, just 14 short years from now, half of the children 18 and under will be minorities as classified by the USG. Unless we do something about the education of "minorities," this country is in deep trouble. By 2042, half of the country will be minorities. 87% of the 1.2 MILLION LEGAL IMMIGRANTS who enter this country annually are minorities. Demography is destiny.
Great opening for Jesse and Al to play the race card.
I’m tired of only hearing from the “mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” and who is now President.
Could a taser be thought of as a torture instrument?
“There’s not much indication that N.C.L.B. is causing the kind of change we were all hoping for,”
1- the attack on NCLB begins now that Democrats are in control
2- msybe the minority communities need to take responsibility for changing their attitude toward education
As reported by the Bureau of Labor for March 2009, the unemployment rate for blacks is 13.3% and for Hispanics, 11.4%.
liberals water down everything when it comes to education... we adopted our older son from the state system of CPS... he was almost five when we met him... he had been in "Head Start," a program that the government said was necessary to get underprivileged kids up to par with kids who come from more privileged homes... our son knew nothing that my nieces and nephews typically knew by the time they were 2-3 years old... he knew no colors, one shape, he could count to 2 and did not know the alphabet... when i brought this up to his Head Start teachers, they said, we are mainly here for "nutrition." he went to Head Start to eat... to get breakfast and lunch... there was no "getting him up to par" so he could begin kindergarten at the same level as other kids...
we began homeschooling him the moment he came to live with us in May 2001... by November 2001 he was reading and doing basic math...
Consequently, the 30+ year war against White males will continue.
Education, like most everything else begins at home. My mother taught me to read, how to count and add and subtract and she gave me my value system. Too many people think that education can be a cure or equalizer to bad or absent parenting. It can't. The weakness in our minority's test scores isn't exclusively a sign of our failing education system, but an unintended (or perhaps it's intended) consequence of the left's war on traditional values and the nuclear family.
To your point about having the worst college and education system, I think in many areas we're already there. America's predominance in higher education really comes from the medical, physical and mathematical sciences. We enjoy a strong leadership position in these fields because there's so much synergy between these institutions of higher learning and our private sector. But, these fields represent only a small fraction of total student enrollment at our colleges.
I would argue that we've "dumbed-down" the requirements and definition of a four year degree that it has almost no relevance or significance of a four year degree from 40 years ago. Simply put, it's far easier to obtain and consequently less indicative of a students abilities or intellect.
I’m teaching middle school to mostly Hispanic students. When mom is only 14 years older than daughter, the outcome tends to be pretty consistent. Actually, I wonder how the numbers would stack up if they compared students by parents’ age instead of by race.
Maybe change the entire friggin culture to reward success instead of rewarding failure and thug-ism.
My wife is Chinese, as is her daughter. Kid is off-the-charts brilliant according to these tests. My wife says that here in the US she’s considered brilliant, but in China she’d only be considered an average student!
As the parent of a couple middle schoolers, God bless ya!
Any education begins with the parents, a point which you confirm by your actions and the little fellow's performance. As a single father, I put my 4 kids thru private schools and college. Best thing I ever did for my kids.
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