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Another study that throws out a multitude of excuses without actually addressing the real problem.
What's particularly interesting is that commentators on the very liberal Huffington Post aren't buying the excuses either.
Quote:
How prevalent is the achievement gap at the high school level?
On average, African-American and Latino high school seniors perform math and read at the same level as 13-year-old white students.
"We take kids that start [high school] a little behind and by the time they finish high school, they're way behind," says Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at the Education Trust, a Washington-based educational advocacy group. "That's the opposite of what American values say education is about. Education is supposed to level the playing field. And it does the opposite. . . .While many people are celebrating our postracial society . . . there is still a significant hangover in our schools."
Educators cite these causes for the disparity in performance:
<LI class=first>Lowered expectations for students of color
Growing income inequality and lack of resources in low-income school districts
Unequal access to experienced teachers
An increased number of "out of field" teachers instructing minority students in subjects outside their area of expertise
Unconscious bias" by teachers and administrators.
These factors, experts say, produce an opportunity gap for students of color.
I find it interesting that all these reasons are listed for the underachievement or academic hardships of this or that group or whatever, when I've never seen anyone mention that kids these days (of all types) seem to have less motivation to do well in school and more motivation to sneak their i-gadgets into class to screw around.
The reason is simple, outside of the school they live in a very bad environment and have little or no involvement by their parents/mentors.
Quote:
Growing income inequality and lack of resources in low-income school districts
BS, you could double the funding these kids are getting and they would still perform badly. Money only goes so far and without positive influences outside of the school these kids will continue to suffer.
Notice how "minority" never include middle to lower class Jewish or asian students. These students all outperform blacks and latinos and even upper-class Whites! And you can't say its because asian or jews have more money because i am only looking at those with middle incomes.
If they are performing the same as 30 years ago, yet the no child left behind has lowered the bar for the elite white kids, I'd say they are doing and learning better than, the white kids living in the wealthy schools, that have had to dumb down their curriculum.
It doesn't take many to drag down the overall scores of a school.
Tell everyone they can go to college and put everyone on an academic track regardless of their actual skill and this is what you get.
Thank 10 years of NCLB for making a bad situation even worse.
Now that 2014 is coming up and NCLB mandates 100% passing states are in a rush to get waivers. And Uncle Sam is ready and waiting with their next new program.."Race to the Top" which they will have to implement if they want those waivers.
The reason is simple, outside of the school they live in a very bad environment and have little or no involvement by their parents/mentors.
BS, you could double the funding these kids are getting and they would still perform badly. Money only goes so far and without positive influences outside of the school these kids will continue to suffer.
In the same article they say middle class blacks are also falling behind so how could income inequality explain the gap? These academics aren't really making any sense.
Notice how "minority" never include middle to lower class Jewish or asian students. These students all outperform blacks and latinos and even upper-class Whites! And you can't say its because asian or jews have more money because i am only looking at those with middle incomes.
I noticed that as well. Asians evidently are no longer a minority even though they make up a smaller percentage of the population than Blacks or Hispanics.
Race vs race is not an apples to apples comparison, unless you're comparing apples that have been picked and placed in a basket to apples that have been thrown to the ground.
A study on just race ignores several obvious variables like quality of the school, financial stability at home, working/non-working parents, etc. It would be like comparing Black kids in private schools to White kids in the Appalachians.
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