Should public schools academic goals for students be based on race?

[Disgustipated]

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/10/12/florida-passes-plan-for-racially-based-academic-goals/

Can anyone from Florida confirm this? I'm shocked to say the least. The year is 2012, and we are still facing this? I really don't even know what to say to open this thread with. But surely this warrants comments of some sort.

First of all, lowering expectations will just cause students to live down to those expectations. Schools are easy enough as it is, and getting easier. I hear France is eliminating home work. Schools need to be at least three times as tough as they currently are in my opinion. If you fail, then off to vocational school to you. Expectations of students needs to be raised, not lowered.

But that won't fix the main problem, which is the parents themselves aren't pushing their children to excel and do well. The problem of America's schools isn't in the schools, but at home. I'm not sure how to fix that. Maybe a tax break for parents of kids who perform well in school. I'd even be more controversial. Instead of paying parents to have children as we are currently doing, I say cut their Earned Income Credits if their kid performs poorly in school.

Back to setting standards based on race, it's obviously a mistake for many reasons. I have not found any conclusive evidence that intelligence is based on race, and seems to deal most with upbringing and genetics of your parents. I blame single parent households for the most part, followed by a cushy lifestyle we in the U.S. live, and a culture where being nerdy is uncool and subject to extreme bullying. I'd like to see all bullies removed from schools and forced to work in work camps.

But enough of my extreme ideas. Does anyone really believe it's a good idea to expect latinos and blacks to do worse on their test scores?

And for the record, I got better test scores in math and science than the Asian kids, so don't go telling me they are smarter than me. The only subject I sucked at was English and foreign language.

alm Beach, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race.

On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as poverty and disabilities, reported the Palm Beach Post.

 

[bhsup]

“To expect less from one demographic and more from another is just a little off-base,” Juan Lopez, magnet coordinator at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Riviera Beach, told the Palm Beach Post.

Exactly. You can blame affirmative action for this kind of mindset even existing. We've been telling minorities for decades now that they are not equal and need government help to succeed because they are sub-part. That's precisely what affirmative action is. This is just an extension of that mindset.

 

[Disgustipated]

Exactly. You can blame affirmative action for this kind of mindset even existing. We've been telling minorities for decades now that they are not equal and need government help to succeed because they are sub-part. That's precisely what affirmative action is. This is just an extension of that mindset.

I agree. It's time for affirmative action to go.

 

[Leoreth]

There is no such thing as "positive" discrimination.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I don't want to get my 10 foot pole dirty.

 

[luiz]

Funny I should read this on the same day it was announced the Brazilian government will institute a 30% quota for blacks and mulattos in all civil service admission exams... and if that's not enough, they'll criminally prosecute people who "falsily" claim to be black in order to get easier access to the civil service. I wonder how they'll prove someone is lying - maybe they'll hire some doctor who worked at Auschwitz or something and is a racial expert.

Anyway, the world is going mad. Thanks for creating this racialist AA nonsense, USA, but please try to keep it for yourselves next time you have one of those brilliant ideas. So please don't spread this notion of different academic standards for different "races", because I know the ******** Brazilian government will copy it...

 

[ace99]

But enough of my extreme ideas. Does anyone really believe it's a good idea to expect latinos and blacks to do worse on their test scores?

Facts are facts.

Of course there's also this correlation:

 

[Lillefix]

What's that saying about statistics and lies again...

 

[JollyRoger]

They could have set the goals by family income level and it would have been the same deal.

 

[Leoreth]

Facts are facts.

If the context of these graphs was something else, say crime, the left would be the first to bring up the key term "socio-economic factors". I wonder why this isn't the case as soon as education is involved.

"Adjusting" requirements in school based on race isn't going to solve problems, it will only hide symptoms.

 

[ace99]

It's well established that blacks, Native Americans and Latino's under-perform on standardized tests. It's probably for a lot of socio-economic reasons. But until the government decides to do something to address them, what is wrong with academic institutions doing what they can to mitigate it? We're talking about institutions here deciding to use race as a plus factor in admission consideration. Just like your personal statement, your family background, your grades and what not are factors.

 

[Arwon]

Well it makes perfect sense to set goals based on predictive socio-economic variables. If you plot performance and there are correlating variables, then of course you want to take into account what those variables are saying.

Ethnicity may well be one of those, or a regression controlling for income may completely eliminate that influence of ethnicity. In either case, goal-setting should proceed accordingly from what the current data are saying.

And if regression analysis does show that ethnicity is a meaningful variable into which to divide demographics for the purpose of setting a goal, then it doesn't seem terribly controversial to make such a breakdown in goalsetting.

 

[downtown]

This headline is misleading. The district isn't setting goals for specific students based on their race, only that they want to improve their race-based academic achievement gap. I would hope that every single large district in the country would want this goal.

Eventually, you want 100% of all students to hit the benchmarks, but you have to hit the baby steps along the way.

 

[Arwon]

Oh yeah, that too. It's absolutely not saying anything about any specific student. Stereotype threat is a real thing but I don't think this is a trigger for it.

 

[Bamspeedy]

So minorities will get an artificial boost on standardized test scores (is it still 'standardized' if the scoring isn't?) in addition to the few bonus points they already get during college admissions (which was supposed to 'level the playing field').

How much of a handicap do they need?

But until the government decides to do something to address them, what is wrong with academic institutions doing what they can to mitigate it?

Why not give all poor people an advantage and not just people of certain skin colors?

 

[Arwon]

So minorities will get an artificial boost on standardized test scores (is it still 'standardized' if the scoring isn't?) in addition to the few bonus points they already get during college admissions (which was supposed to 'level the playing field').

How much of a handicap do they need?

What?

 

[ace99]

Why not give all poor people an advantage and not just people of certain skin colors?

Pretty sure most colleges take into account income and family background as factors when considering applications. Like I said, race is just another one of the factors considered. The "point system" where different factors are assigned points is not used in the US nor are quotas. That was ruled unconstitutional earlier. So race is merely a factor that receives consideration.

 

[Bamspeedy]

What?

My post was assuming the OP was correct. Downtown's post clarified that it was just goals and not tests actually being given extra points, which I didn't see when writing my post.

 

[Disgustipated]

Standards should not be lowered for any reason whatsoever (including income). How can we compete with China by lowering our standards?

 

[ace99]

Standards should not be lowered for any reason whatsoever (including income). How can we compete with China by lowering our standards?

Again, I can't speak for public schools but I can tell your for colleges that's now how it works. No standards are lowered, no quotas exist, no point system is used. Affirmative action as most people imagine it doesn't exist in the US.