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I attended an event where the superintendent of schools spoke to the community. He was talking about the differences between various ethnic groups in academic test results. He told the audience that he firmly believed that in 20 years that there would be no difference in academic performance and test scores between Black, White, Asian and Hispanic students. Then someone asked if there would any difference in test scores between rich and poor students. He doubled down and said that in twenty years that gap would be eliminated too.
Everyone clapped and looked so proud of themselves for being in a society where this could happen.
Do YOU think there will be a time in your life where all races and income levels will be equal in academic performance?
Lower the standards and everyone gets an “A” and gets to play.
I attended an event where the superintendent of schools spoke to the community. He was talking about the differences between various ethnic groups in academic test results. He told the audience that he firmly believed that in 20 years that there would be no difference in academic performance and test scores between Black, White, Asian and Hispanic students. Then someone asked if there would any difference in test scores between rich and poor students. He doubled down and said that in twenty years that gap would be eliminated too.
Everyone clapped and looked so proud of themselves for being in a society where this could happen.
Do YOU think there will be a time in your life where all races and income levels will be equal in academic performance?
What was the event and who was the speaker?
No information provided here other than a summary that seems to be encouraging racial bashing based on a made up story.
I attended an event where the superintendent of schools spoke to the community. He was talking about the differences between various ethnic groups in academic test results. He told the audience that he firmly believed that in 20 years that there would be no difference in academic performance and test scores between Black, White, Asian and Hispanic students. Then someone asked if there would any difference in test scores between rich and poor students. He doubled down and said that in twenty years that gap would be eliminated too.
Everyone clapped and looked so proud of themselves for being in a society where this could happen.
Do YOU think there will be a time in your life where all races and income levels will be equal in academic performance?
No information provided here other than a summary that seems to be encouraging racial bashing based on a made up story.
Might not have been this school as the article is over a year old but it's a common theme. Just google search and you'll see all kinds of stories about promises to close the achievement gap.
Not sure why you are surprised by this, elected officials and those appointed by elected officials are of course going to promise things people want to hear.
FWIW, I didn't see this as racial bashing but rather just basic empty political promises that are prevalent regardless of party or office held.
Furthermore, I can guarantee you that the people in that room cheering contained almost none of the students with the most room to improve. That of course being the root problem as to how you get kids with no parental support to put forth effort to improve when you essentially have zero control over them. Not only that, the schools get held responsible for the students failures.
I don't know about you guys but a job where you have no control but all of the blame and it sounds like a professional scapegoat to me.
In regards to the question of the OP about "all races" and income levels being equal - I don't think any one individual is equal to another academically or even biologically (except identical siblings/clones).
So it would be silly to assume any equalization.
However, I'll note it is also silly to believe that "intelligence" can be measured by a test like an IQ test. IQ tests measure what a particular society feels is valuable for their own definitions of intelligence and "success" in a particular way.
Just like individuals aren't equal biologically, they are not also equal in agreement on what constitutes superior cognitive abilities and/or the definition (especially) of "success."
I was IQ tested as a child to determine how "retarded" I was....
I was not deemed retarded as a result of the test but as a prodigy child of sorts. Yet my skin color makes people believe that I am of inferior "intelligence." I also do not value money like many Americans do. I'd be fine if I only made $50k per year and could survive once my kids leave on less than that and be fine. Having "things" are not important to me. Time is important and my "success" as an individual, for me, is based upon the good times I spend with my family and friends and me being happy 75% of the time with my activities. I'd prefer to live a simple life even though I was deemed to be of high intelligence based on tests. Someone happy being a social worker making $35k a year versus someone miserable in a STEM career making $100k per year IMO is more successful than the STEM career worker because they are happier in their life and career.
I attended an event where the superintendent of schools spoke to the community. He was talking about the differences between various ethnic groups in academic test results. He told the audience that he firmly believed that in 20 years that there would be no difference in academic performance and test scores between Black, White, Asian and Hispanic students. Then someone asked if there would any difference in test scores between rich and poor students. He doubled down and said that in twenty years that gap would be eliminated too.
Everyone clapped and looked so proud of themselves for being in a society where this could happen.
Do YOU think there will be a time in your life where all races and income levels will be equal in academic performance?
won't happen as long as teacher unions run the edu show.
sounds like socialist pap where everyone is equal.
Like giving everyone a living wage and watch how many abuse the cash and become in need of financial help. what will the left do for those people? Same theory used to claim equivalence in 20 years.
why heck, the left claims all life on earth will be obliterated by global warming in 20 years!
There are huge cultural differences in how academics are viewed. You're not going to change that in 1 generation.
This is why even when East Asian kids and say Hispanic or Native American kids grow up in similar economic conditions, the East Asian kids still beat the brakes off them in regards to academics.
Add to this that in you believe in evolution, it would be impossible to assume intelligence doesn't have a genetic root. There is simply no way that two groups of people with vastly different diets and living conditions evolved the same, including brain function. That's not to say that there are huge gaps in certain areas of intelligence between different groups, but to say they don't exist is to simply deny reality. Look at Rome 2,000 years ago, and look at Papua New Guinea today. To say that genetics don't play into that is simply dishonest as much as we don't want to believe it.
I attended an event where the superintendent of schools spoke to the community. He was talking about the differences between various ethnic groups in academic test results. He told the audience that he firmly believed that in 20 years that there would be no difference in academic performance and test scores between Black, White, Asian and Hispanic students. Then someone asked if there would any difference in test scores between rich and poor students. He doubled down and said that in twenty years that gap would be eliminated too.
Everyone clapped and looked so proud of themselves for being in a society where this could happen.
Do YOU think there will be a time in your life where all races and income levels will be equal in academic performance?
maybe in 100 years or more, certainly not 20 years
we have had the "war on poverty" for over 50 years...no real gain
we have had affirmative action in one form or another for 150 years...no measurable gains in test scores
doesn't matter the color, the poor, tend to perform poorly in schools...mostly from parents who don't care, and are poorly educated themselves
Might not have been this school as the article is over a year old but it's a common theme. Just google search and you'll see all kinds of stories about promises to close the achievement gap.
Not sure why you are surprised by this, elected officials and those appointed by elected officials are of course going to promise things people want to hear.
FWIW, I didn't see this as racial bashing but rather just basic empty political promises that are prevalent regardless of party or office held.
Furthermore, I can guarantee you that the people in that room cheering contained almost none of the students with the most room to improve. That of course being the root problem as to how you get kids with no parental support to put forth effort to improve when you essentially have zero control over them. Not only that, the schools get held responsible for the students failures.
I don't know about you guys but a job where you have no control but all of the blame and it sounds like a professional scapegoat to me.
I wasn't surprised. I just asked about who the speaker was and what the event was.
IMO it is interesting that all of you are "going with" the OP's summation when they could be easily making it up. Also elected officials always lie and aren't educators or superintendents. I don't take anything a politician says as the truth.
On your link, it did not say that that superintendent claimed he would close the gap completely. This is why I asked the OP to provide information. I've seen many superintendents make lofty speeches/goals about closing gaps but never that they would be closed completely in 20 years. Also, it is interesting that your article mentioned the PARCC test as there was a big hoopla in my state a few years ago when PARCC came here primarily because it was a completely electronic/PC based test and our kids were used to do doing paper tests and not familiar with using the PC (especially not 8 year olds, they could not type well or use the mouse since most kids use a tablet efficiently only at that age). Not sure if that was/is the case in MA where the article is from but our state got rid of the PARCC test mostly because it was found that the lack of familiarity with the format of the test was a main reason why all students did worse on it versus the previous test (which your article stated as well - it stated black students in that district did well on the previous test and that both black and white students received much lower scores on PARCC if technological proficiency was a reason, black students would fare worse since in the district, per your article they are more poverty stricken and more than likely don't have a PC with a keyboard/mouse at home and if they don't get daily practice with it - which my daughter's school now does BTW - then they may even have been timed out of the test and not able to complete it on a higher level than white students. Testing scores often have more to do with other factors versus the academic arsenal of the student or their cognitive ability in regards to the material being tested).
And the thread did turn into a racial bashing sort of fest like these usually do.
As a black American, I honestly feel that black people shouldn't even pay attention to any sorts of test results. There has been a longstanding concerted historical effort for 500 years to "prove" (via various methods) the inferiority of black/African ancestored people. I'm comfortable with the fact that many people are heavily invested in these racial superiority beliefs and due to that IMO there is nothing black people can do to counter those heavily entrenched beliefs so we should just not buy into or really put much effort into proving anything to anyone about our intelligence. It's stupid IMO to continue to do so and reminds me of the fact that racial superiority ideologies are primarily based upon delusions since biologically we are not very different at all. It is a psychological issue of the person who holds the delusions and IMO there is no point in seriously trying to prove anything to a delusional individual - they are prone to paranoia and delusions and just like with an addicted or mentally ill person, as an "outsider" of sorts, there is nothing I can do to help that person overcome their delusional issues. IMO black people as a collective need to stop investing so much in what white people think of us or our intelligence. IMO that is the 2nd most important "issue" we have as a demographic - that we seek too much acceptance from society instead of just being okay with being black and recognizing people who have inferiority complexes about us are the problems, not us.
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