Posted on 11/28/2018 5:55:55 PM PST by Kaslin
What do you think of the proposition that no black youngsters should be saved from educational rot until all can be saved? Black people cannot afford to accept such a proposition. Actions by the education establishment, black and white liberal politicians, and some civil rights organizations appear to support the proposition. Let's look at it with the help of some data developed by my friend and colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell.
The Nation's Report Card for 2017 showed the following reading scores for fourth-graders in New York state's public schools: Thirty-two percent scored below basic, with 32 percent scoring basic, 27 percent scoring proficient and 9 percent scoring advanced. When it came to black fourth-graders in the state, 19 percent scored proficient, and 3 percent scored advanced (http://tinyurl.com/y85a4phm).
Dr. Sowell compared 2016-17 scores on the New York state ELA test. Thirty percent of Brooklyn's William Floyd elementary school third-graders scored well below proficient in English and language arts, but at a Success Academy charter school in the same building, only one did. At William Floyd, 36 percent were below proficient, with 24 percent being proficient and none being above proficient. By contrast, at Success Academy, only 17 percent of third-graders were below proficient, with 70 percent being proficient and 11 percent being above proficient. Among Success Academy's fourth-graders, 51 percent and 43 percent, respectively, scored proficient and above proficient, while their William Floyd counterparts scored 23 percent and 6 percent, respectively, proficient and above proficient. It's worthwhile stressing that William Floyd and this Success Academy location have the same address.
Similar high performance can be found in the Manhattan charter school KIPP Infinity Middle School among its sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders when compared with that of students at New Design Middle School, a public school at the same location. Liberals believe integration is a necessary condition for black academic excellence. Public charter schools such as those mentioned above belie that vision. Sowell points out that only 39 percent of students in all New York state schools who were recently tested scored at the "proficient" level in math, but 100 percent of the students at the Crown Heights Success Academy tested proficient. Blacks and Hispanics constitute 90 percent of the students in that Success Academy.
There's little question that charter schools provide superior educational opportunities for black youngsters. In a story The New York Times ran about charter schools earlier this month, "With Democratic Wins, Charter Schools Face a Backlash in N.Y. and Other States," John Liu, an incoming Democratic state senator from Queens, said New York City should "get rid of" large charter school networks. State Sen.-elect Julia Salazar, D-Brooklyn, said, "I'm not interested in privatizing our public schools." The New York Times went on to say, "Over 100,000 students in hundreds of the city's charter schools are doing well on state tests, and tens of thousands of children are on waiting lists for spots."
One would think that black politicians and civil rights organizations would support charter schools. To the contrary, they want to saddle charter schools with procedures that make so many public schools a failure. For example, the NAACP demands that charter schools "cease expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate." It wants charter schools to "cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious." Most importantly, it wants charter schools to come under the control of teachers unions.
Charter schools have an advantage that some call "selection bias." Because charter schools require parents to apply or enter lotteries for their children's admission, they attract more students who have engaged parents and students who are higher-achieving and better behaved.
Many in the teaching establishment who are against parental alternatives want alternatives for themselves. In Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, 25 percent of public-school teachers send their children to private schools. In Philadelphia, 44 percent of teachers do so. In Cincinnati, it's 41 percent. In Chicago, 39 percent do, and in Rochester, New York, it's 38 percent. This demonstrates the dishonesty, hypocrisy and arrogance of the elite. Their position is, "One thing for thee and another for me."
Why doesn’t Trump restore those scholarships to D.C. schoolchildren? Does he need congress?
Blacks get the same schools as whites. The results are very different. It ain’t the schools.
If anything the schools bend over backwards for minorities.
It’s soon to be 2019.
If it weren’t for the race-baiting Democrats wanting to keep certain races impoverished and beholden to THEM, ALL of our kids, Black, White, Yellow, Purple & Green would be adequately educated, productive tax payers!
Is this any way to run a Country? Seriously. Is it?
Blacks get the same schools as whites. The results are very different. It ain’t the schools.
I taught at a rural school for over 30 years before I retired. Had great white kids and great black kids. Had lousy kids of each race as well. Believe it or not if the kid is ‘raised by wolves’ (actually wolves would likely do a better job) there is very little a school can do to overcome a kid’s upbringing, regardless of race.
I know that there are public schools filled with people who are just putting time in until they can retire. But there are also schools with teachers who are trying their best to save kids from a swamp that is trying to suck them back down.
Sorry for the rant.
“there is very little a school can do to overcome a kid’s upbringing”
That’s the primary statement. The black community hasn’t decided it cares about education. Some have, but most have not.
Lots of reasons for this, but I think welfare and other liberal policies have blacks living without the need for education. They have been incentivized.
A single achievement test prior to high school. Advance to high school for another singular color blind test to qualify for university. We need ditch diggers etc.too.
The state of New York recently passed a law to give government school teachers a literacy test, but repealed it the following year because 36 percent of white teacher failed the test on the first try, while 54 percent of Hispanic candidates and 59 percent of black candidates failed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/nyregion/ny-regents-teacher-exams-alst.html
In other words the State of New York is knowingly putting a large number of illiterate teachers in classrooms.
Nothing will change until that changes.
The black community hasn’t decided it cares about education. Some have, but most have not.
I’ll be honest, I don’t have a clue as to what the solution is. I can tell you that it is very sad to look at a 10-year-old kid (black or white) and figure he or she is pretty much doomed through circumstances beyond his control.
If there are cultural, behavioral or cognitive differences then those need to be recognized and accommodated in schools rather than going lowest common denominator and dragging everyone down including black students. If more discipline is necessary for educational success, impose it. Don’t be cowed by those who will call it racist, they’re the racists, dooming black public school kids to a life of ignorance.
I could not have said it any better.
I could not have said it any better.
Thanks Kaslin.
Maybe I’m missing something, but what does race have to do with this? Dr. Sowell’s research revealed that only 39% are proficient... that 61% who are below proficient has to include all races. It is the schools.
Sure, of course I agree parents have to do their part. But at the same time the School Industrial Complex operates as a top-heavy and nonsensical bureaucratic system, unresponsive and blithe to its inadequacies, antiquated in its methods, and more interested in protecting its turf than accomplishing its mission. With the few exceptions of charter schools it runs as a monopoly, and monopolies produce inferior products at inefficiently higher costs. There is no choice, the law says kids must go to school and that they must go to the school assigned to them if they cannot afford their way out to private school or luck into a charter school.
In other words, its a compulsory ignorance producing factory that turns entire generations into mediocre mush lacking critical thinking skills (which, as an aside, is part of their political agenda). And because of their size (city schools have 1000’s of kids attending each year) one of their main priorities is to maintain order, which stifles positive creativity and innovation in learning. So they are runs more like a prison or boot camp marching kids around every 50 minutes to the sounds of bells. It doesn’t even make sense to try to teach 6 different subjects every day for 50 minutes at time - much better to spend 2 hours per subject 2-3 days per week and give the kids a chance to delve into and explore a subject.
We only have one chance to teach kids. When they become adults they have to sink or swim on their own. We need to teach kids how to learn not to indoctrinate them or just buff them up to wear they can pass muster on a standardized test.
Great point
Thanks for posting
I think Trump is old enough to know how things are supposed to work, so this is one of his things to make America great again :)
They may have the same schools, but nobody has the same expectations for them.
You’ve summed up the problem in NJ nicely; we spend enormous amounts of money on public schools and get little in return. This from a month ago (from one of our cities): “Eight Paterson high schools had less than 2 percent of students pass PARCC math exam.”
What other business would remain open/receive funding with results like that? Public education has simply become a great “no-show” job for teachers’ union members.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.