Fairfax Postpones Vote About Student Behavior Study
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The Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously last night to postpone a decision on whether to accept a school system report that showed racial and ethnic gaps in certain measures of achievement in character education.
Debate on the report, which has emerged as a sensitive matter for the region’s largest school system, dealt in part with possible biases in its underlying data and in its presentation. Several board members said they supported delaying a vote on acceptance of the report so they could spend more time discussing it.
Several board members said beforehand that they had too many questions about the report. Among the issues they raised: whether assessments of student behavior and moral character are biased and whether sifting such data by race, ethnicity and other factors will help or hinder the school system’s efforts to promote effective character education.
{snip}
Hone said board members and staff need to look at ways to present the information without “the unintended consequences of showing numbers that would have the effect of demoralizing children or feeding into negative stereotypes.”
School systems are required to break down academic data by race and ethnicity under the federal No Child Left Behind law, but it is less common to analyze data about student behavior or morality the same way. Fairfax school officials are trying to chart new territory by developing assessments for non-academic life skills the board considers “essential” to success for the current workforce.
Initial attempts to measure progress yielded results that many school officials found surprising. The report, presented March 27, detailed a disparity in a category of achievement for demonstration of moral character and ethical judgment: 82 percent of African American third-grade students, 83 percent of special education students and 86 percent of Hispanic students received “good” or “outstanding” marks on certain related indicators on their elementary school report card compared with 95 percent of Asian American and white students.
The report card indicators cited included “accepts responsibility,” “listens to and follows direction,” “respects personal and school property,” “complies with established rules” and “follows through on assignments.”
The analysis also found gaps among groups of students in other skills, including being able to contribute effectively in a group, resolve conflicts and make healthy choices.
{snip}
“The message that seems to be out there, that some people’s morals are better than others, that’s not where we wanted to go with this report,” said board member Kathy L. Smith (Sully). The board’s goal, she said, was to “ensure that kids have the skill sets they need to be successful.”
{snip}
[Editor’s Note: Earlier stories on this report can be found starting here.]
(Posted on April 15, 2008)
Comments
All that needs to be done is to examine the individual files of students, the one that records the disciplinary records. Every school, public and private, has these necessary records.
Then score the offenses by race. It’s a simple and accurate method. Then again, this spineless administration wouldn’t allow those results to be made public anyway.
Posted by Proactive at 7:30 PM on April 15
Heh, heh. Didn’t see that one coming. Can’t talk about it, but they sure put their foot in it. Hard not to talk about it now.
“The message that seems to be out there, that some people’s morals are better than others, that’s not where we wanted to go with this report”
Shouldn’t have asked the question if you were afraid of the answer. So if you want better children, the answer is to start with better parents? Better conduct new tests and tweak them to get different results, pronto. PC results, of course.
Posted by Edward at 7:38 PM on April 15
They are debating whether truth has got to be suppressed in order to fit the party line. Now that is scary.
They are hoping by postponing again and again, the findings will quietly die into obscurity.
Posted by Reality Check at 8:36 PM on April 15
Apparently the blacks and latino students are not acting ‘white’ enough for these clowns. So now will they indoctrinate these under-white moral students in how to act like good white people? I thought “diversity is strength”?
In a world where there was some form of fair play, a spade would have been called a spade, but these school administrators are too racist to admit that ‘diversity’ may not the our greatest asset.
Go figure!
Posted by at 8:39 PM on April 15
“The message that seems to be out there, that some people’s morals are better than others, that’s not where we wanted to go with this report,” said board member Kathy L. Smith …
Yeah, I bet you didn’t! That sure backfired on them.
Posted by kitty at 9:10 PM on April 15
They dont want that cat outta the bag that blacks and hispanics and muslims are more immoral than other races….although when I saw that tape of those girls beating up that girl I thought one of them had to be black…I was right….the one is black….incase no one noticed….
Posted by lydia at 9:16 PM on April 15
I just admire the great thinkers of the school board ans their smartest solution: it simple like every stroke of genius.
Look here, no report is no question; no question is no problem; no problem… If there’s no problem with the students ethic everybody is an angel. Hurray, issue white wings to all minorites and… no problem.
Who is objecting? You? You are a racist.
Posted by alex at 9:35 PM on April 15
They wont be happy till we’re all equally barbaric and taking some kind of happy-zombie pills
Posted by at 9:55 PM on April 15
This is 100% as predicted. Hear no evil, see no evil.
Next time, just keep the racial breakdowns secret, so that no one will be embarrassed.
Posted by Reader-1 at 10:15 PM on April 15
Obviously, they not only don’t want the students, to know the facts, they don’t want anyone else to know either. I for one, would certainly like to see stats, showing such high numbers for any of the children. Plus, to ensure the skills to succeed, teach them to vote democrat, then they can continue to get everything given to them, by the ones who really do succeed. “Keep on working, millions on welfare depend on you”.
Posted by The Old Sage at 11:53 PM on April 15
Typical of bureaucratic leftists, these dolts want to supress a study not because its data are false or misleading but because they are true. I suspect they really believed this study would confirm the egalitarian biases they picked up in Ed. School. Sorry, folks, your “professors” were wrong, about virtually everything.
Posted by Cassiodorus at 12:39 AM on April 16
According to the report, 83 percent of Black kids are mor-
ally OK? That seems more than a little high from what I’ve seen.
The answer is probably as reported by Rushton et al: Blacks fall
increasingly behind Whites as they get older. If you studied the
eigth grade, the full extent of the disaster would be evident.
Why? Possibly because their elevated testosterone begins
to kick in. And again, their rate of intellectual development
has already slowed compared to Whites. And given the relationship
between the intellectual and moral development, the main aspects
of the problem are covered. In a secondary but practically impor-
tant sense, the lack of family and socail structure doesn’t allow
them to develop even to the extent they could. And in lieu of
real structure, you have rap and gang culture to complete the
hideous picture that is young Black America.
Posted by Freyr at 1:25 AM on April 16
“The message that seems to be out there, that some people’s morals are better than others, that’s not where we wanted to go with this report,” said board member Kathy L. Smith
Some people’s morals are better than others. Are we to the point where the morality of murderers and rapists must be considered equal to the morality of, say, George Washington or Jesus?
Or does she mean, all groups of people are equally moral? In that case, why are whites and whites alone the source of all evil on earth, the only racists, who steal from the rest of the world and oppress everyone but never contribute anything? Blank out.
Why do blacks have a murder rate 36 times as high as asians? How can that be equally moral? Is murder moral if you’re black, so it all works out? Questions, questions.
Posted by Diamed at 4:24 AM on April 16
This is the mindset that all liberals have in common, the same one that has caused the American educational to fall behind so many 3rd world countries, any fool could look back to intergration and see the beginning decline of education in America, virtually every liberal policy is an abject failure and education in America is proof, liberals just ignore the facts, this study was their ideal, just another way to spend money, and now they wanta ignore the facts.
Posted by abc at 6:29 AM on April 16
from the article - “The message that seems to be out there, that some people’s morals are better than others, that’s not where we wanted to go with this report,” said board member Kathy L. Smith (Sully).
What is this comment supposed to mean, that they will only create reports that have outcomes to their liking? Wouldn’t that just be racial propaganda?
Posted by Robert at 7:25 AM on April 16
Another example of how, when dealing with blacks, you can’t win.
While they claim to want to know why their kids are failing, they don’t like the answer.
The answer they want is “racism”. That’s they only reason they’ll accept to explain black failure. What they want is ‘research’ that points the finger of blame at ‘white supremacy’.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 10:04 AM on April 16
What a stupid survey. All it would achieve is a way for schools to make more docile and bored to death white kids. I don`t know a single CEO who follows the rules and doesn`t cheat steal lie and even murder to get ahead. I cheated every time I had to from the first grade on up to the bar exam. My uncles told me that the rich make the rules to make sure you don`t get rich. I would rather have the Fairfax schools teach kids how to beat the lie box or how to cheat your wholesaler in the crack market than how to grovel before the Ivy Leaguers who run the entire country.
Give white kids a chance. Instead of teaching them to sit down, shut up, and call 9-11; teach them to shoot straight, study like crazy and do anything to win, including lying, stealing, and cheating. If not white kids will continue to be pawns of the super rich; prey for violent black and brown thugs, and fit only for being consumers of credit and despondency.
Charles B. Tiffany
Kissimmee, Florida
Posted by Charles B. Tiffany at 1:05 PM on April 16
It is painfully obvious that White students are failing in these schools and preventing africans and hispanics from achieving their full potential. Whites should be removed and placed in special remedial facilities where they would learn the basics of quantum mechanics, particle physics and the theory of evolution. They must forced to study Shakespeare, Archimedes, the square root of minus one and research why the giggle pin fouls the moving shaft whenever the little thingie is pressed. That would teach the little tykes a lesson! Meanwhile, the other students, free of White interference, would be free to gain credits in basketball, media studies such as rap and grafitti, and be awarded special merit points by spending several weeks in jamaica playing dominoes as part of a government funded cultural awareness heritage programme.
Posted by Yorkshireman at 1:58 PM on April 16
It’s Ok to subject white children to this on an hourly basis, but to speak even a word about? Why that’s just too inhumane.
Posted by at 2:07 PM on April 16
“The message that seems to be out there, that some people’s morals are better than others, that’s not where we wanted to go with this report,” said board member Kathy L. Smith…”
Miss Smith’s mindset is absolutely antipodal to the spirit and purpose of educational oversight. If any group ought to be centered in on demonstrable truth to forearm their actions, it is a school board. This board member seems to believe that facts and truth must remain secondary to keeping the tykes happy. She and all like her on the board who feel instead of think should be awarded a MacDonald’s happy meal and booted out of the district.
Posted by Gary at 3:27 PM on April 16
Fairfax county school board members are friggin idiots. What the heck did they expect the results to be. Are they so politically correct that it never entered their little noggins that a racial difference would exist? The only thing I can say is what a bunch of idiots for formulating and administering such a test. This is a lesson for all other school districts. Don’t do it. Don’t be idiots. Surely you must know what the result, broken down by race, will be.
Posted by Lonely Jew at 12:17 AM on April 17