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Tension surrounding the issue flared at the most recent community meeting, when a man read an “I Have a Dream” poem that used Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic speech as a framework for his commentary on efforts to create more racial balance.
“I had a dream that the NBA would make it easier for Asian players to get in because they wanted to close the achievement gap between Asian players and African American players,” he said.
Several leaders in the black community called the poem — and the applause that followed it — offensive. Byron Johns, chair of the education committee of the Montgomery County chapter of the NAACP, said he eventually walked out of the May meeting because of its tone, language and spirit.
The issue is not "Black and White" any more. Can affirmative Action bring more giftedness to those beneficiaries?
From the article: “This should be a merit-based program, and it should be a colorblind and universal standard,” he said.
I agree with this. Kids aren't being selected for special better treatment. Kids with differing needs are identified and those needs are accommodated. Identification of the kids with those needs should absolutely be colorblind. Preferably, the programs would administer something like the COGAT to all students interested, and then take the top scorers until all the seats are full. Without looking at names or races of the students.
Altering any admission decision based on race, Black or Asian or otherwise, is racist and should be illegal.
Here's the problem. In our system -- considered one of the best in the nation -- there were numerous things considered. Test scores, grades, and the biggest of all -- teacher(s) recommendation. We got very few minority students "highly recommended" for our program by teachers. There was pretty much room for all in our middle school program, because I could just make the number of sections what I wanted when I would build my master schedule. I began taking a chance on some minority students who seemed to have decent test scores and decent grades, but were not highly recommended by their teachers. Once they got into one of our two gifted programs, they did just as well with no more of a "drop out" rate than the rest of the students.
So I guess it comes down to how you measure merit. If teacher recommendation is included -- and I think it should be -- then you are mixing in that judgement by perspective issue.
Here's the problem. In our system -- considered one of the best in the nation -- there were numerous things considered. Test scores, grades, and the biggest of all -- teacher(s) recommendation. We got very few minority students "highly recommended" for our program by teachers. There was pretty much room for all in our middle school program, because I could just make the number of sections what I wanted when I would build my master schedule. I began taking a chance on some minority students who seemed to have decent test scores and decent grades, but were not highly recommended by their teachers. Once they got into one of our two gifted programs, they did just as well with no more of a "drop out" rate than the rest of the students.
So I guess it comes down to how you measure merit. If teacher recommendation is included -- and I think it should be -- then you are mixing in that judgement by perspective issue.
Decent test scores and decent grades isn't gifted. Our school requires top 5% of standardized testing to even be considered for testing. Then you have to go through a battery of tests and meet certain criteria, including IQ above 142.
Here's the problem. In our system -- considered one of the best in the nation -- there were numerous things considered. Test scores, grades, and the biggest of all -- teacher(s) recommendation. We got very few minority students "highly recommended" for our program by teachers. There was pretty much room for all in our middle school program, because I could just make the number of sections what I wanted when I would build my master schedule. I began taking a chance on some minority students who seemed to have decent test scores and decent grades, but were not highly recommended by their teachers. Once they got into one of our two gifted programs, they did just as well with no more of a "drop out" rate than the rest of the students.
So I guess it comes down to how you measure merit. If teacher recommendation is included -- and I think it should be -- then you are mixing in that judgement by perspective issue.
How did the teacher recommendations compare to test score results?
If test scores had candidates at 30% Asian, 50% white 15% Hispanic and 5% black, and the teacher recommendations mirrored that, couldn't it be that teachers were making their decisions based upon merit?
Please show us the divergence between scores and teachers recommendations since you appear to be making that assumption.
IMO there is no such thing as "colorblind" in regards to honors/TAG/magnet programs in school. In many ways they are heavily influenced by the income levels of the parents, due to the fact that higher income families can "make" their kids "gifted" by giving them additional tutoring via Kumon or Sylvan and other centers so that they can excek on one or more tests for admission into gifted programs.
FWIW, I was in a gifted program from K-12. I was a black female born to a single mother. It was a surprise that I turned out to be "gifted" because I had been labeled as "mentally retarded" by a pediatrician.
Too often, many of you are unaware of the fact that many actually gifted minority children are not even considered for these programs even though they would qualify. I believe that this may be the case in Maryland. I had many non-TAG program friends who scored very high on the Iowa Test back when I was in school when that was the only standardized test we took every year. There were also many minority students who scored well on the creative assessments we took. However, none of those children were referred to the TAG program. I only was due to a barrage of test, including IQ that was given to me in Head Start to see how mentally retarded I was and to provide services to retarded kids. I actually remember the meeting with my mom where they told her I was gifted. She had doubted I was retarded anyway since I could read kid novels at aged 3. They never believed her that I could read. If I had not been labeled by the pedia as retarded and instead just entered into regular kindergarten without the gifted designation I was given in Head Start, I highly doubt I would have been invited to participate in that program.
My brother was also a VERY good student. We had a very health nerdy competition as kids (in basically everything, we drilled each other on multiplication facts and spelling long words and reading long books to see who could finish first and taking stuff apart/putting it back together to see if it would work), however, he was never referred to the gifted program even though he always had scores above the 98th percentile on standardized tests like ITBS. I also have a little cousin who is currently a high school student who was never referred to the magnet program even though he also scored in the 98th percentile or above. His mother had to push for 2 years to get him accepted into the gifted program in their district. Many minority parents are not aware of those programs or how to get their kids into them. My mom, via later conversations we had when I was grown felt that both my older brother and my younger brother should have gotten the opportunities I got via the gifted program. But she never knew that she could request to have them put into those programs.
A few years ago our district lost a discriminatory lawsuit filed by the black parent teachers organization in our city whereas it was found that black children were not provided the opportunity to be in the gifted program in our district. Also majority black schools did not even offer a single AP course for black high school students and it showed that the district committed discrimination against black students via these methods. They have since taken steps to remedy this and now offer AP classes at the high schools that are over 90% black and they streamlined/refined the process for qualification for the gifted program. The criteria was not changed, but each school was tasked with singling out their top talented students for consideration into the program and it is an ongoing process which has increased the amount of both black and hispanic students in TAG.
So in regards to the article, I don't think that criteria should be changed to enter into the magnet programs. I do however feel that talented minority students should be targeted for admission or referred to the program based on their performance either in the classroom or on standardized test or on creative assessments (there is a such thing as being "creatively" gifted). Contrary to what many of you on these forums believe, there are very smart black and hispanic children and they should be allowed to participate in these programs because they offer a very high level of education. I know without my program, I would have been thoroughly bored in school. My brother was and he had issues later on in school as a result. My younger brother did as well and my mom had to put him into a private high school where he went from Ds (from just not going to and turning in schoolwork because it was "boring" in the public school) to an A/B student.
Also, I feel that too often many of the kids in these programs are labeled as "gifted" when they are not. I knew many Asian kids in my own program growing up who were good students when we were younger, but by 5th or 6th grade, they weren't all that great of students anymore. They were never kicked out of the program and parents know that once you get that label of "gifted" on your kid, they carry it forever in many districts and they can never be kicked out of their special programs. This is why they get those kids all the tutoring mentioned above, so that they can pass those tests and get that label for the college applications in the future.
Decent test scores and decent grades isn't gifted. Our school requires top 5% of standardized testing to even be considered for testing. Then you have to go through a battery of tests and meet certain criteria, including IQ above 142.
That's fine. That wasn't our school system's criteria.
In fact, the saddest thing was big mouth parents who got their way.
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