Protesters Call High School Exit Exam 'Racist' (Critics Say Tests Are Biased Toward Whites, Asians)

NBC - 4 ^ | February 26, 2003

[Michael2001]

LOS ANGELES -- Demonstrators urged the Los Angeles school board Tuesday to reconsider the use of tests they say are racist and unfair to blacks and Latinos.

Some people believe the California High School Exit Exam and other standardized tests are culturally biased toward whites and Asians.

"We are concerned about the racist tests that are going on in the schools today," said Paige Leven of the Coalition for Educational Justice.

The demonstration was timed to coincide with proposal from school board members Genethia Hudley Hayes, who is black, and Jose Huizar, who is of Latino descent. They want state officials to explore the "legal, financial and policy implications of establishing a moratorium on the high stakes consequences of the (high school exit exam)."

At the same time, Hayes and Huizar want to continue using results from the exit exam as a "diagnostic tool."

Whites and students of Asian descent typically score better than blacks and Latinos on standardized tests. Huizar said the gap was at least a "20-25 percent disparity."

Last spring, the school board voted 4-1 to consider alternatives to the Stanford 9 and high school exit exam after Hayes and Huizar suggested the tests were biased against nonwhites from poor families.

But Superintendent Roy Romer said the two tests are required by state law.

Tuesday, Hayes and Huizar proposed that the district consider adopting or expanding "alternative or interim assessments to improve the quality of information available to individual classroom teachers."

The alternatives would include "language arts performance assignments" for grades 2-9 and quarterly assessments in math.

Hayes and Huizar also want to create a task force to devise an "Opportunity to Learn Index that would provide public information on ... students' equitable access to tools, resources and materials that inform the educational conditions under which they are assessed."

Demonstrators said many inner-city students were disadvantaged.

"We have very little funds. We have very little books," said Victor Banuelos, an 11th-grade student at Los Angeles High School.

Hayes said she was concerned that the district was considering offering two kinds of high school diplomas -- one saying the student passed the exit exam, and the other saying he or she did not.

The school board will vote on the Hayes-Huizar proposal in two weeks.

[newyorkronin]

Not too long ago, here in NYC, parents of inner-city schools were asked to vote on whether to allow Edison Schools, a private voucher-based education corp to set up shop. I think the vote was like 70% against, after union teachers picketed the school.

Why should we even bother trying to improve public education? The parents had their one chance and they blew it.

In my neighborhood, there are at least 5 different SAT prep schools run by chinese entrepeneurs. Asian kids barely 7 or 8 are sent there AFTER their compulsory public indoctrination/gang initiation for a real education at the end of the day.

But fellow Freepers, please don't tell liberals about these schools; they're liable to start regulating and quotatizing them. I really do respect hard-working teachers, but their unions, for lack of a better term, need to be blown the f**k up. A full voucher system where corporal punishment is used to instill proper behavior is the only hope for de-ghettotizing and restoring order. Those problem kids who slip through the cracks would simply be "solved" the first time they break into private property and get a quick education on gunshot wound ballistics and hydrostatic shock.

[honeygrl]

LOL!!!

[Swampmarine]

Asians. Of course, that's the ticket. Blacks, hispanics and whites are all being had by the great Asian conspiracy.

[sit-rep]

I dare one to layout the following display...

Whites and Asians who listen to rap music? _________

Blacks and Latinos who listen to country and rock-n-roll? _______

I think the answer to number one will parallel the whites and asians who fall in with the failing blacks and latinos. I think the answer to number two, will show blacks and latinos who listen to country and rock-n-roll will be graduating in the top 50%...

Justa hypothisis...

SR

[hellinahandcart]

wasn't this topic brought up some months ago?

Yes. We were howling over the "very little books".

[ZULU]

Regardless of "multiculturalism", a concept with which I take issue, an individual must have certain skills to survive in this society and culture, including a good understanding of English, a basic knowledge of American and world history, math skills, computer skills, and whatever other skills are required in whatever occupation that individual chooses to pursue. In order to acquire and employ these skills, certain thought processes and patterns of mental behavior are required.

For some blacks to say that I.Q. tests are biased towards whites, that is only because the society, economy, culture, etc in which we live is primarily a European-American product. If Orientals right off the boat, speaking no language but their native tongue can learn English and acquire these skills, blacks born right here should be able to also, and they can. The solution is not to alter the test to reflect a non-existent world, but to make sure that all blacks have an equal opportunity to acquire the educational benefits which are available to whites and orientals. This would mean school vouchers so they can pull their kids out of poor schools and send them to better ones. It means preventing pregnancies out of wedlock, so black kids can grow up in a normal nuclear family with both parental partners around to make sure they grow up properly. It means having blacks as individuals and as communities start taking responsibility for their own success or failure and stop blaming whites, orientals, long-dead slave-owners, or their failure to perform at I.Q. test as well as they feel they ought to.

Instead they should take the time and effort to read, learn, and perform as society requires they do, and we will all find out that there is no inherent inability in the capacity of a black brain to learn this stuff.

[cyborg]

My mother was playing Time-Life's 101 Classical Greatest Hits while she was pregnant with me. All of my life, I listened to classical,calypso, and country in that order. Gangsta rap addles the brain. I can handle only so much.

[jocon307]

Shanaynay has twenty fo dolla. She wants some phat new Jordans dat cost lotta bling bling, FITTY DOLLA! How much rock does Shanaynay gotta sling to make bank?


LOL, this is very good. Is this real slang (ok, I know phat is)? LOL, I'm rolling over this. Although, I'm thinking "lotta bling bling. Fitty dolla!" sounds a little suspiciously Asian to me. Perhaps you can make some new tests for these folks, ones were all but the whites will do well, that outta put a smile on the lefties faces, since all the rich white lefties have their kids in private schools already!

[cyborg]

My sister has black friends who are teacher aides in public school that are predominantly black. The teachers could care less about black students. The white teachers assume that since many of the black students don't want to learn, then ALL of them don't want to learn. The black teachers aren't that much better either. Public schools are a cesspool of mediocrity. Clarence Thomas went to a private Catholic prep school where those white nuns kicked his a$$ and said he could be something great. Supreme Court is great. Either many black parents have to get over the stereotype of homeschooling being a 'white trash' thing or bitch about improving the public schools.

Joe Clark is the template for a thousand clones.

[wardaddy]

That's a tall order...but the right one.

[Mark17]

Whenever I didn't do well on a test, I just simply claimed that the test was clearly racist.

I did too, but they just laughed at me.

[RightOnline]

Fercryinoutloud..............tell these pissants to hit the books and quit crying "racism" because they have had better things to do than........oh, say, ...........learn. What a bunch of unmitigated bulls**t. This is the type of thing that sets race relations back yet another 30 years.

[wardaddy]

Hey gurl...I got pics....gonna work on it some more at the office in the AM.

[cyborg]

pleasant surprise! awesome... can't wait. I am going to need a lot of website room for my summer pics and my vacation pictures.

[cyborg]

I vividly recall the OBSESSION with asian intelligence in grade school (during the 1980s) A filipino girl came into our class and the teacher (white) virtually ignored everyone else in the class, even the white kids. I was glad to get out of her class because she hated my guts.

[wardaddy]

I've got plenty more to scan on my new 40 dollar HP2300 which is slow as Christmas but works. I have to learn how to place images side by side...haven't figured that out yet...any ideas?

[ladylib]

We have a large Asian population in my town also and we have five or six of these tutoring centers.

The only reason our public schools improved over the last 15 years is because of the influx of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese kids.

There used to be fights in the high school because the non-Asian kids were jealous of the Asian kids running off with all the scholarship money and academic prizes.

[Stazmanian Devil]

I remember a few years back when the NCAA's Prop 48 was at issue, Temple University's basketball coach John Cheyney was on Nightline with Koppel. They were talking about "racial bias" in the SATs. Cheyeny's example of this bias was to question how a kid from North Philly would know the definition of the word REGATTA. I thought to myself, geez, Philadelphia is home to one of the largest events in the country, the Dad Vail Regatta which is walking distance from many neighborhoods. The real question Cheyney should have asked is "How would a kid from Oklahoma know what a regatta is?" (land locked example, no slight to any Sooners out there intended ;-_)

[Starboard]

cleaning up the "white" words...regatta & yacht

How unfair these were...I suggest we replace these elite nautical terms with more terrestial-related words like "steeplechase" and "equestrian". /sarcasm

[kstewskis]

*pinging you my humble and obedient!*

Now you know one of the reasons why I (and countless others) needed to escape the mentality of L.A. way back when. And it's gotten ten times worse since I graduated in '81!