Black Education

Townhall.com ^ | December 22, 2009 | Walter E. Williams

[Kaslin]

Detroit's (predominantly black) public schools are the worst in the nation and it takes some doing to be worse than Washington, D.C. Only 3 percent of Detroit's fourth-graders scored proficient on the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test, sometimes called "The Nation's Report Card." Twenty-eight percent scored basic and 69 percent below basic. "Below basic" is the NAEP category when students are unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level. It's the same story for Detroit's eighth-graders. Four percent scored proficient, 18 percent basic and 77 percent below basic.

Michael Casserly, executive director of the D.C.-based Council on Great City Schools, in an article appearing in Crain's Detroit Business, (12/8/09) titled, "Detroit's Public Schools Post Worst Scores on Record in National Assessment," said, "There is no jurisdiction of any kind, at any level, at any time in the 30-year history of NAEP that has ever registered such low numbers." The academic performance of black students in other large cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles is not much better than Detroit and Washington.

What's to be done about this tragic state of black education? The education establishment and politicians tell us that we need to spend more for higher teacher pay and smaller class size. The fact of business is higher teacher salaries and smaller class sizes mean little or nothing in terms of academic achievement. Washington, D.C., for example spends over $15,000 per student, has class sizes smaller than the nation's average, and with an average annual salary of $61,195, its teachers are the most highly paid in the nation.

What about role models? Standard psychobabble asserts a positive relationship between the race of teachers and administrators and student performance. That's nonsense. Black academic performance is the worst in the very cities where large percentages of teachers and administrators are black, and often the school superintendent is black, the mayor is black, most of the city council is black and very often the chief of police is black.

Black people have accepted hare-brained ideas that have made large percentages of black youngsters virtually useless in an increasingly technological economy. This destruction will continue until the day comes when black people are willing to turn their backs on liberals and the education establishment's agenda and confront issues that are both embarrassing and uncomfortable. To a lesser extent, this also applies to whites because the educational performance of many white kids is nothing to write home about; it's just not the disaster that black education is.

Many black students are alien and hostile to the education process. They have parents with little interest in their education. These students not only sabotage the education process, but make schools unsafe as well. These students should not be permitted to destroy the education chances of others. They should be removed or those students who want to learn should be provided with a mechanism to go to another school.

Another issue deemed too delicate to discuss is the overall quality of people teaching our children. Students who have chosen education as their major have the lowest SAT scores of any other major. Students who have an education degree earn lower scores than any other major on graduate school admission tests such as the GRE, MCAT or LSAT. Schools of education, either graduate or undergraduate, represent the academic slums of most any university. They are home to the least able students and professors. Schools of education should be shut down.

Yet another issue is the academic fraud committed by teachers and administrators. After all, what is it when a student is granted a diploma certifying a 12th grade level of achievement when in fact he can't perform at the sixth- or seventh-grade level?

Prospects for improvement in black education are not likely given the cozy relationship between black politicians, civil rights organizations and teacher unions.

[spintreebob]

And we bailed out Detroit Auto makers, but not Red State Auto makers because.....

[Bon mots]

Sounds like someone has touched the third rail.

I wonder if there is a clue in the academic work of Professor Richard Lynn?

From I.Q. and the Wealth of Nations

Nations and their IQ

Rank	Country	IQ estimate
1	Hong Kong	107
2	South Korea	106
3	Japan	105
4	Taiwan	104
5	Singapore	103
6	Austria	102
6	Germany	102
6	Italy	102
6	Netherlands	102
10	Sweden	101
10	Switzerland	101
12	Belgium	100
12	China	100
12	New Zealand	100
12	United Kingdom	100
16	Hungary	99
16	Poland	99
16	Spain	99
19	Australia	98
19	Denmark	98
19	France	98
19	Mongolia	98
19	United States	98
24	Canada	97
24	Czech Republic	97
24	Finland	97
27	Argentina	96
27	Russia	96
27	Slovakia	96
27	Uruguay	96
31	Portugal	95
31	Slovenia	95
33	Israel	94
33	Romania	94
35	Bulgaria	93
35	Ireland	93
35	Greece	93
38	Malaysia	92
39	Thailand	91
40	Croatia	90
40	Peru	90
40	Turkey	90
43	Colombia	89
43	Indonesia	89
43	Suriname	89
46	Brazil	87
46	Iraq	87
46	Mexico	87
46	Samoa	87
46	Tonga	87
51	Lebanon	86
51	Philippines	86
53	Cuba	85
53	Morocco	85
55	Fiji	84
55	Iran	84
55	Marshall Islands	84
55	Puerto Rico	84
59	Egypt	83
60	India	81
61	Ecuador	80
62	Guatemala	79
63	Barbados	78
63	Nepal	78
63	Qatar	78
66	Zambia	77
67	Congo	73
67	Uganda	73
69	Jamaica	72
69	Kenya	72
69	South Africa	72
69	Sudan	72
69	Tanzania	72
74	Ghana	71
75	Nigeria	67
76	Guinea	66
76	Zimbabwe	66
78	Democratic Republic of the Congo	65
79	Sierra Leone	64
80	Ethiopia	63
81	Equatorial Guinea	59

[stevie_d_64]

Well all I have to say about the whole role model thing is...

mmmmmmmmm, mmmmmmmmmmm, mmmmmmmmmm Barack Hussien Obama...

With a role model like that, why do they need anything else???

[libs_kma]

"Prospects for improvement in black education are not likely given the cozy relationship between black politicians, civil rights organizations and teacher unions."

Needs to be repeated until even a Detroit inner city student understands it.

[ClearCase_guy]

Walter Williams is great. I agree with so much of this. But I don't see much in the way of offered solutions.

Personally, I find the situation very depressing because it seems like there is no solution. But more and more I fall back on the idea that ALL social services need to be ended. Perhaps a phase out over 10 years. Public welfare, Public housing, Public education, whatever. Say it loudly and clearly that past a certain point in time, if you are not working and supporting yourself, you may very well starve to death in the gutter. That's your problem, not ours. Get some education. Get some skills. Work and ye shall eat.

[reaganaut1]

I agree with you, the Bell Curve is at the root of the problem.

[PeteB570]

The D’s have figured it out. You don’t need a good education to live on the government tit.

Just a mouth to hold on to it and an arm to vote with.

[MaggieCarta]

Thanks, Kaslin. Pinging grellis for the Michigan list

[Molon Labbie]

Young students in Japan have been known to commit suicide because they COULDN’T get into a school.

Here we have seventeen year olds in the eighth grade.

Sorry, folks there is not fixing what ails this nation with inner city education. You can throw money at it all day long and it won’t matter.

Here in the St. Louis area, we have at least five casinos where part of their take goes to the school system. The St. Louis City School systema and some outlying St. Louis County School systems are the worst in the nation.

It’s a culture that thinks education accounts for nothing. Why should you strive for excellence and independence when everything you need is handed to you by those who went to school and became successful in life?

[Jack Hammer]

I think you may be on to something there....

[Kaslin]

YOU ARE WELCOME

[Daveinyork]

I think the IQ is only part of the story. What is seriously lacking in the US and the West is the AQ, the adversity quotient. Western culture seems to have lost the ability to stare adversity in the face and defeat it.

[MindBender26]

Sounds like we need another $500 Billion Education Stimulus package in Detroit. That would be sure to work.

</ sarcasm>

[Bon mots]

I think that they need to give ALL African-American Detroit students a Nobel Prize.

[Kaslin]

You practically answered your question yourself

[Kaslin]

Excellent question

[MrB]

The problem with “0bama empowerment” is that it just leads to a higher sense of entitlement and vengeance, not to achievement.

[CaptainAmiigaf]

Yes, Walter Williams is great. Personally, I would force him to be the National Director or Education. The RECOGNITION OF THE PROBLEM is a great indicator of the the needed solution.
Black parents are “not interested in their child’s education progress”? That is both the problem and the answer of where to begin.
Black education requires teachers of the “correct race”, with NO emphasis on QUALITY and ABILITY to teach? There lies the problem and the indicator of the solution.
Education majors are of the lowest academic standing? Again the problem is obvious as is the solution.
Consider EVERY problem Mr. Williams cites and therein lies the solution.
The OVERLYING problem? Here is the obvious problem that lacks a stated or even an implied solution.
HOW DO WE ATTRACT THE PEOPLE WITH THE ABILITY, COURAGE, AND/OR THE DESIRE(!) TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM?
There can be NO solutions or answer from either the “education” or “political world”.
And there is the problem that is the root of all others.

[gthog61]

lots of future dem voters currently in the Detroit public schools I see