Posted on 10/21/2003 10:58:28 PM PDT by kattracks
"Excellent schools deliver a clear message to their students: No Excuses. No excuses for failing to do your homework, failing to work hard in general; no excuses for fighting with other students, running in the hallways, dressing inappropriately and so forth."
That's part of the prescription for ending educational mediocrity discussed in Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom's new book, "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" (Simon & Schuster, 2003). <see the new book review from Townhall.com>It's no secret that, as the Thernstroms point out, the education achieved by white students is nothing to write home about. In civics, math, reading, writing and geography, nearly a quarter of all students leave high school with academic skills that are "Below Basic." In science, 47 percent leave high school with skills Below Basic, and in American history it's 57 percent. Below Basic is the category the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) uses for students unable to display even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level.
As dismal as these figures are, for black students it is magnitudes worse. According to NAEP findings, only in writing are less than 40 percent of black high school students Below Basic. In math, it's 70 percent, and science 75 percent. Blacks completing high school perform a little worse than white eighth-graders in both reading and U.S. history, and a lot worse in math and geography.
The Thernstroms report, "In math and geography, indeed, they know no more than whites in the seventh grade." From these facts, the Thernstroms conclude, "The employer hiring the typical black high school graduate (or the college that admits the average black student) is, in effect choosing a youngster who has made it only through the eighth grade."
At the other end of the NAEP academic scale, Proficient and Advanced, nearly half of all whites and 40 percent of Asians score in those categories in reading, compared to less than a fifth of blacks. In science and math, 3 percent of black students display more than a partial mastery, in contrast to seven to 10 times as many white and Asians.
The dismal performance of black students translates into at least two devastating consequences. First, glaring racial double standards are needed if more than a handful of black students are to attend the nation's most prestigious universities. Second, if one hasn't mastered high school pre-calculus, high-paying careers such as engineering, medicine and computer technology are hermetically sealed for life.
These outcomes are not preordained, and the solution is not more money, as the educationists would have us believe. Were that the case, academic achievement wouldn't be a problem. In the last two decades, educational expenditures have doubled, yet academic performance has declined.
The route to greater academic excellence is nearly a no-brainer. There are three vital inputs to education: parents, teachers and students. You tell me: How much money does it take for teachers to assign homework, and for parents and teachers see to it that it gets done? How much money does it take to see to it that kids get a good night's sleep, come to school on time, don't fight in school,and respect authority? If these no-brainer things aren't accomplished, there's no amount of money that's going to make much of a difference.
The education establishment likes to blame poor parenting and rowdy and lawless students for educational mediocrity. Without a doubt, that's part of the problem, but incompetent, uncaring teachers are also a part of the problem.
The NAEP findings clearly point to one fault that lies solely at the feet of the education establishment -- that's the granting of fraudulent diplomas. After all, isn't it fraud to confer a high school diploma upon a student, attesting that he's mastered a 12th-grade level of education, when in fact he hasn't mastered a seventh or eighth-grade level?
©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
---------------------
That's optimistic. Try sixth grade.
-----------------------
What's this parents business whith 70% being born out of wedlock?
On a personal note, my niece says, "If 'they' would let me use a calculator, I could pass the test, but, 'they' won't!" But, while she was "learning" mathematics, use of calculators was encouraged. Thus, the machine takes over the function of the human brain. Happenstance???? NOT LIKELY!!!! Peace and love, George.
To be sure, black readers in general have responded positively and in droves to the call for a black education movement along the lines of our historic civil rights movement. They have said they agree that this movement must demand rigorous academic standards and a high level of parental responsibility and community involvement to ensure black children's success.
In a comment typical of many I've received, a reader wrote, "We as black people must begin to create a culture of valuing education ... if we are to ever pull our children out of the river of underachievement in which they find themselves. I believe that this can be done, but it will require a new and different determination on the part of the black community, and every black parent in particular, before it will be achieved."
Another reader wrote, "I am just frustrated at our community's complacency towards education and the willingness of so many parents to allow their children to waste their young years on activities that do not help them become competitive in academia. ... I'm making the effort to convert as many [people] as I can. I think I successfully turned my husband around. He was wiling to buy his children-to-be their first car but would not fund their college education. Now THAT had to change."
But I've heard little from Houston's black leadership.***
The remarkable thing about this article is that the discussion is taking place at all.
I remember well Cultural Literacy and *GASP!* The Bell Curve.
Nothing has changed, indeed, things have gotten worse, and in the process enormous amounts of the State budget has been placed "off limits", and is no small part of California's descent into fiscal hell.
This particular pararaph sums it all up. The deadly combination, societal and educational ebola infecting a huge chunk of of our population and feeding the only inevitable result: disaffection, resentment and cluelessness.
Is it true that "we" spend more on sports, rap music and running shoes than we do on education? In spite of the bloated education budget? That says it all.
I work in a building with around 80 people in it, at a work site with around 400 employees total.
Of our 80 bodies, in a highly technical atmosphere there is one black in a professional technical position and two in support clerical positions, and already the "one" has played the race card in resolving disputes with outside contractors.
In a critically technical environment, only the best qualified survive, and there is no "faking it". The price of admission is ruthlessly uniform and uncompromising.
But more significantly, in addition to the usual banter about sports, camping, cars, guns, you will find discussions about religion, ethics, mathematics, literature, cosmology, in short, all the "useless" disciplines that the clueless eschew. No Gangsta Rap there...
The real life imperative of getting a critical job done professionally and efficiently allows no leeway to worshiping the multicultural god. Life is a bitch.
P, You do great injustice to the sack of rocks. Peace and love, George.
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.