Posted on 02/17/2023 10:54:30 AM PST by karpov
CULVER CITY, Calif.—A group of parents stepped to the lectern Tuesday night at a school board meeting in this middle-class, Los Angeles-area city to push back against a racial-equity initiative. The high school, they argued, should reinstate honors English classes that were eliminated because they didn’t enroll enough Black and Latino students.
The district earlier this school year replaced the honors classes at Culver City High School with uniform courses that officials say will ensure students of all races receive an equal, rigorous education.
These parents disagreed.
“We really feel equity means offering opportunities to students of diverse backgrounds, not taking away opportunities for advanced education and study,” Joanna Schaenman, a Culver City parent who helped spearhead the effort, said in the run-up to the meeting.
The parental pushback in Culver City mirrors resistance that has taken place in Wisconsin, Rhode Island and elsewhere in California over the last year in response to schools stripping away the honors designation on some high school classes.
School districts doing away with honors classes argue students who don’t take those classes from a young age start to see themselves in a different tier, and come to think they aren’t capable of enrolling in Advanced Placement classes that help with college admissions. Black and Latino students are underrepresented in AP enrollment in the majority of states, according to the Education Trust, a nonprofit that studies equity in education.
Since the start of this school year, freshmen and sophomores in Culver City have only been able to select one level of English class, known as College Prep, rather than the previous system in which anyone could opt into the honors class. School officials say the goal is to teach everyone with an equal level of rigor
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Racial differences in intelligence are uncomfortable topic, but people who ignore them do harmful things in the name of "equity".
What was the Kurt Vonnegut story where everybody had to carry/wear handicaps?
Racing to embrace the lowest common denominator.
Harrison Bergeron - that was it. Depressingly prophetic.
Harrison Bergeron.
this is the pursuit of mediocrity, not excellence.
You beat me by ONE second.
This is a race to the bottom in public education. Illiteracy is demeaning to minorities. The solution is to make sure EVERY CHILD IS ILLITERATE regardless of skin color. That is “equity.”
Isn’t DeSantis talking about eliminating AP classes in Florida?
To be fair they should eliminate football and basketball.
The Bell Curve does not lie. And Blacks know it.
all will be equal at the lowest denominator.
except for the elite.
Classic socialism/communism. Spreading misery equally. Make everybody poor - except for the ‘elites’, of course. /s
And thus they remove a great leg up for poor kids. A school with a good honors program can give a kid a chance to take AP tests and get a year’s worth of college credit before they get out of high school, thus reducing their potential college costs, and make it easier for them to work and go to school at the same time.
Inequality is the result of inequality
Racial differences in intelligence are uncomfortable topic...
Interestingly, I was having a conversation Wednesday with a former student who is now a teacher herself. She told me how frustrating it is for her to have to teach to the slowest kid in the class, knowing that the smart ones are going to be bored to death because things move so slowly.
Least Common Denominator
The Black community has problems it needs to address culturally and white liberals claiming things like timeliness, delayed gratification or the protestant work ethic are hallmarks of white privilege don’t care about Blacks, particularly in urban areas, with chaotic lives and a consequential lack of self discipline robbing themselves and their next generations of opportunity.
Not everyone is a gifted student but not challenging the gifted students robs them of growth opportunities as well. By the time they reach high school, students should have been exposed to eight years of similar educational experience and opportunity. Lowest common denominator education is not the answer and focus on the social fads of the day rather than concrete learning is not the way to educate a successful people.
You’re making too much sense
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