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It's an interesting dilemma for the school. Black students were identified as being a lower performing group. If the school doesn't do anything it will be accused of letting the black students continue to fail. However, if the school tries something new in an attempt to help these students it is accused of discrimination. It seems like a no win situation for the school district.
I wonder what the parents of the kids involved think of the program.
First of all, students engage in self-segregation. Where I teach, the student body is about 50% Hispanic, 30% white, 15% black and 5% asian.
The Mexicans ALWAYS sit together and eat lunch together, with no outsiders. Ditto for the blacks, whites and Asians. They don't mix. I'm not saying it's good or it's bad, but it's a fact of life at my University.
I have seen this happen before people tend to congregrate to others of their own race or language . If it helps the students learn better being with people of their own language or race ,I think it is a good idea .
This is the kind of crap that just really bugs me. They did not "separate the black students" they separated ALL the students. If you read the article, they were first divided by gender then "race" to work with a mentor of that same gender/race. They also have the option to move to a different home room. I see nothing wrong with this at all. A female mentor is going to have a lot more in common with a female student on the whole. Since the focus of the program is to provide a mentor situation, why does this have to turn into some huge 'race' issue.
Now, if they provided mentors for just the white males of the school, ok, big issue.
Black students are being separated in a HS in PA to help their poor performance.
I think this quote describes the reason for separating the kids,
Quote:
Tilghman developed the program after reading studies that suggested black students performed better when grouped by gender with other black students and a black mentor. Some of the work she cited was done by Alfred Tatum of the University of Illinois, who studies literacy in African-American males. His work has shown that placing groups of people in "literacy collaboratives," groups that are centered on a common characteristic, removes other distractions.
A lot of colleges now have freshman take writing classes focused on the students interests for the same reason. I think it might have been better to split student up by a sports or extra-curricular interest instead of using race.
This is the kind of crap that just really bugs me. They did not "separate the black students" they separated ALL the students. If you read the article, they were first divided by gender then "race" to work with a mentor of that same gender/race. They also have the option to move to a different home room. I see nothing wrong with this at all. A female mentor is going to have a lot more in common with a female student on the whole. Since the focus of the program is to provide a mentor situation, why does this have to turn into some huge 'race' issue.
Now, if they provided mentors for just the white males of the school, ok, big issue.
And what if I, as a white female, really connected with one of the black teachers and wanted them to be my mentor? Where would that leave me? Would they allow me into that class or would I be put elsewhere because I wasn't the right color?
And what if I, as a white female, really connected with one of the black teachers and wanted them to be my mentor? Where would that leave me? Would they allow me into that class or would I be put elsewhere because I wasn't the right color?
That school has a 30% pass rate of the Black student population.
It has nothing to do with who you identify with..it has to do with passing/failing grades based on race.
You'd probably be free to ask for whatever mentor you wanted outside the scope of this program.
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