Marc Fisher, Washington Post, April 10, 2008
What would drive one of the nation’s most successful and respected school systems to report which racial and ethnic groups demonstrate the soundest moral character and ethical judgment? How did the Fairfax County schools come to put out statistics claiming that black and Hispanic students are less likely than their white and Asian peers to “possess the skills to manage and resolve conflict”?
{snip}
Two years ago, Fairfax, like a growing number of school systems across the country, decided to make “essential life skills” as much a goal as academics. The school board decreed that by the end of high school, “All students will demonstrate the aptitude, attitude and skills to lead responsible, fulfilling and respectful lives.”
{snip}
Administrators, principals and teachers calculated how to determine which students “demonstrate sound moral character” and “courageously identify and pursue their personal goals,” and which don’t.
Then, as if that weren’t difficult and subjective enough, the educators decided to collect data, chop it up by racial and ethnic groups, and digest it into a nifty little scorecard with explosive nuggets like this: Third-grade students who scored “good” or better on work habits “ranged from a low near 80 percent for Black and Special Education students to about 95 percent for Asian and white students.”
{snip}
Fairfax School Board member Tina Hone walked off the dais after the data were reported two weeks ago. Today, she hopes to persuade a majority of her colleagues to reject the report and tell the system to go back to the drawing board.
“I agree that our role, especially for kids caught on the wrong side of the tracks, is to fill in gaps left in the home,” Hone says. “What I don’t think is wise is reporting data by race on having good character. If there’s ever a place where teaching to everybody will raise all ships, it’s in teaching character. We should be teaching fair play and a moral compass to every child.”
Fairfax’s measurements of moral character look crisply quantitative on paper, but read behind the numbers and you see scores built on a foundation of nonsense: Number of F’s based on attendance; number of discipline referrals issued; teacher observations; surveys students fill out about their life skills—a load of data, signifying … what?
{snip}
But in Fairfax, and in schools across the land, the instinct—no, the compulsion—is to amass data points and “disaggregate,” ed-lingo for looking at children not as individuals but as members of a group. The move to quantify grows from a religious devotion to test scores, a faith that the shaping of a mind can be mapped like a cancer cell and expressed as a number. And the resort to race stems from the balkanization of society, the self-destructive notion that we are a collection of groups rather than a nation of individuals who believe what it says on the coins in your pocket: e pluribus unum—out of many, one.
“The superintendent told me that the reason they broke it down by race was that two years ago, the board decided to report all data by race,” Hone says. “That was part of the No Child Left Behind frenzy. This is a classic case of a pendulum overswing.”
Hone believes that as long as the achievement gap that divides the races persists, it’s important to break out test scores by race. Otherwise, the failure to push underachieving students up to par might be hidden beneath overall strong numbers in a system such as Fairfax’s.
But discerning right from wrong goes to the intimate core of the relationship between student and teacher, Hone says. It’s just not something that you can reduce to a number. “This is on the teachers,” she says. “It’s not a problem of one group of kids. If I as a teacher saw a kid being left out because they were a nerd or fat, it was my job to figure out how to get that child together with the others.”
{snip}
[Editor’s Note: Previous stories on the Fairfax County “moral charater” study can be read here and here.]
Original article
(Posted on April 11, 2008)
Comments
Two years ago, Fairfax, like a growing number of school systems across the country, decided to make “essential life skills” as much a goal as academics. The school board decreed that by the end of high school, “All students will demonstrate the aptitude, attitude and skills to lead responsible, fulfilling and respectful lives.”
I always thought it was the parents and church who was supposed to do this.This is kind of like what the white australians did to some aboriginals when they took away children from aboriginal parents.It would really anger me if my childs school did anything like this.What sort of values do they think my child should have.
Posted by Tony Soprano at 6:38 PM on April 11
This is no different than claiming that blacks are more prone to hypertension, diabetes, or sickle cell anemia.
There is legitimate value in using racial stereotypes to identify diseases of the body and the mind. Unlike liberals, diseases are very race and heredity conscious when choosing a host-victim.
Imagine the future furor when scientists absolutely identify markers in DNA and in the brain that are clearly identified with criminal or antisocial behavior that is passed down through the generations. When they find that one racial group has more of these indications (guess which?) than another, what do you think the reaction will be?
The reaction will be nil, because the findings will be buried, not released, or called “jumpimg to conclusions”.
Isn’t it better to identify a disease and treat it than to ignore and deny its existence? Isn’t it could to know which mamamals are more likely to carry a particular disease? Isn’t good to know which animals can be domesticated and which can’t due to their inherent behavior?
Facts are stubborn things.
Posted by Lucas M at 6:44 PM on April 11
Liberals and ‘progressives’ are offended by reality. Consequently, they have an overwhelming compulsion to create an alternate universe in their own mind.
Fact, reality, and the truth don’t matter. What matters is that their belief system is infallible and that since reality doesn’t conform to their belief system, reality is wrong.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 6:48 PM on April 11
Horn is quoted: “That was part of the No Child Left Behind frenzy. This is a classic case of a pendulum overswing.”
Once given a push by the federal government, it is only natural for a school district to adopt the No Child Left Behind mindset and look at students as members of a racial group. With this “morality” data, the educators can see if behaviors might be a factor in the NCLB testing results. So no, I don’t think it’s “pendulum overswing.” It’s a natural extension of the desire to get a good statistical picture of your students.
However, another Amren poster predicted that this study would be buried. It’s just as embarrassing as the actual NLCB testing results. So yes, probably it will be buried.
Posted by Reader-1 at 7:06 PM on April 11
Then, as if that weren’t difficult and subjective enough, the educators decided to collect data, chop it up by racial and ethnic groups, and digest it into a nifty little scorecard
I notice the left isn’t the least bit concerned when things like housing patterns, income etc. are digested into a nifty little scorecard…if it can be used to make whites look “racist.” Its only when the data puts blacks in a bad light instead of whites that they’re up in arms about it.
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 7:10 PM on April 11
“What would drive one of the nation’s most successful and respected school systems to report which racial and ethnic groups demonstrate the soundest moral character and ethical judgment?”
An uncharacteristic desire to see the truth.
“How did the Fairfax County schools come to put out statistics claiming that black and Hispanic students are less likely than their white and Asian peers to “possess the skills to manage and resolve conflict”?”
Probably from the daily evidence before their very eyes.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 8:30 PM on April 11
“This is on the teachers,” she says. “It’s not a problem of one group of kids. If I as a teacher saw a kid being left out because they were a nerd or fat, it was my job to figure out how to get that child together with the others.”
As a teacher myself, I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with this sort of rhetoric. If it actually is “on the teachers”, give us some real authority to DO something without getting sued, reprimanded, or accused of being PREEEEEEEEEJ-dist for a change.
School board members, like most educational administrators, are phoneys who wouldn’t last ten minutes in an actual classroom.
Posted by Kevin at 8:46 PM on April 11
when you don’t like the results of your tests, declare the tests to be invalid or ‘biased.’
nothing new here.
Posted by crow at 11:58 AM on April 12
From Anthony Browne in the Daily Mail; “As their economic confidence grows, Asians are discovering pride in their own cultures and are less inclined to mimic Western ones.
…. Western culture, like the dollar, will soon find its heyday behind it.
But Western attitudes will change as well, with a likely shift to the political Right. White liberal guilt, the driving force behind political correctness, will subside as Westerners feel threatened by the global order changing, and their supremacy slipping away.
Anti-Americanism will disappear as Europeans realise how much better it was to have a world super power that was a democracy (however flawed) not a dictatorship…
Western attitudes of superiority to China and the rest of the East will also subside, as Westerners realise they are no longer the masters of the world….”
The truth is slowly sinking in that the 21st century will not belong to “us” i.e., the Whites but rather it will belong to the Asian nations.Within 10 years it will be indisputable. And then?
What changes will we see in the national dialogue about race relations, achievement, welfare, crime, and yes, manners? It will be interesting, if not comfortable, for us to undergo this painful devolution to secondary status in world affairs.
Posted by mark at 12:31 PM on April 12
More deliberate liberal distortion of conservativism!
We neither measure character nor IQ by race: we measure character by demonstrated behavior and IQ by demonstrated cognitive ability. Of course, we have also noticed overwhelming racial correlations with both…
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 1:30 PM on April 12
“…Then, as if that weren’t difficult and subjective enough, the educators decided to collect data, chop it up by racial and ethnic groups, and digest it into a nifty little scorecard with explosive nuggets like this: Third-grade students who scored “good” or better on work habits “ranged from a low near 80 percent for Black and Special Education students to about 95 percent for Asian and white students…”
The study was a first step in detecting causes behind student failure in public school, and no surprise, the cause revealed itself in the failed sub-cultural preparation of the students themselves. Since these statistical findings this time nakedly translated back to specific racial groups, academia and media both rushed to attack them - committed as those worthies are to permanently surpressing certain kinds of truth - and not just the findings, but even the idea of studying actual student practice of morality.
Unsatisfied with that Pravda-like condemnation, Mr. Fisher favors us with his own absolutist moral prenouncement on how all of us should think of ourselves…
“…And the resort to race stems from the balkanization of society, the self-destructive notion that we are a collection of groups rather than a nation of individuals…”
We in America have always quite obviously been “a collection of groups” cooperating with each other under the aegis of a nation of general laws, those laws constutionally and deliberately designed to be non-intrusive to the traditions of any ethnic or religious group.
Ideologically and Sociologically, Mr. Fisher is still the feverish boy in his playroom, fiercely intent on scolding his stuffed toys into all being the same.
Posted by Gary at 1:39 PM on April 12
It’s almost like the writer of this article was paid for every liberal cliche and buzzword he could fit into it. Typical PC approach: don’t agree with the cold facts? Than just whine about “stereotypes”.
Posted by RSJ at 1:46 PM on April 12
I wonder if the writer would have been so outraged if the data had shown that blacks and hispanics had a higher rating in conflict resolution than whites? In a word, no. He would have eaten it up, trumpeting that the study destroys stereotypes,etc. As an educator, to state that blacks and hispanics have poor conflict resolution skills is to state the obvious. They have “cultures” that worship violence and hatred, so why should we be surprised?
Posted by teachmike at 8:34 PM on April 12
“What sort of values do they think my child should have.”
Value number one seems to be hating anything white.
Posted by Mathias at 9:20 PM on April 12
Its the Washington Post for godsake..those who live in this area know itcaters to a 65% black population. Every article in it panders to the pampered stupidity of the Capital areas blacks. This group has been living free off the Federal teat for so long all they know they only have to squeal “racism” and a dozen Federal programs will appear to give them money. And the Washington Post is there to tell them its the way life should be.
Posted by at 9:23 PM on April 12
“I wonder if the writer would have been so outraged if the data had shown that blacks and hispanics had a higher rating in conflict resolution than whites? In a word, no. He would have eaten it up, trumpeting that the study destroys stereotypes,etc.”
I think you are absolutely correct on this. All classic symptoms of someone doing everything within their power to hate whites at every possible opportunity. Oh, I’m sorry. I meant to say someone who just can’t promote ‘diversity’ enough.
Posted by Dr. Smith at 9:29 PM on April 12
check out this website geared for unqualifies “MINORITIES” HIGHERJOBS.COM
Posted by enraged at 11:00 PM on April 12
It really doesn’t take a battery of tests to see what is wrong with our school systems. The Kansas City Missouri should serve as a model of a dysfunctional school system. Large minority body of students and a minority dominated schoolboard. We have low test scores and a large dropout rate. This plus a schoolboard that changes superintendents like most people change cars. Now we have to have armed guards in these schools to protect the teachers and to keep the students from killing each other. All this plus gang activity in the schools and young female students dropping kids for welfare bucks.
Posted by at 11:27 AM on April 13
Frankly, blacks being more amoral is no surprise to me. In fact, 80% moral sounds steep for the black population… I suspect these numbers were derived from a standardized test on a given day, which would miss juvenile delinquents in lock up, and absentees, both of which are likely to be more amoral, and black.
Of course, since it is a questionaire, it also relies upon the replier to be honest, and if more blacks are dishonest, than this skews the data as well. As way more blacks are criminals, then they may feel motivated into lying and pretending to be moral, as they may fear a written record of amoral behavior which could potentially be supoenaed.
It has also been demonstrated by others through more empirical (scientific method-based) approaches already that blacks are far more likely to be pathological anyway- which people like the author of the article conveniently ignore.
Posted by at 5:49 PM on April 13
But in Fairfax, and in schools across the land, the instinct—no, the compulsion—is to amass data points and “disaggregate,” ed-lingo for looking at children not as individuals but as members of a group. The move to quantify grows from a religious devotion to test scores, a faith that the shaping of a mind can be mapped like a cancer cell and expressed as a number. And the resort to race stems from the balkanization of society, the self-destructive notion that we are a collection of groups rather than a nation of individuals who believe what it says on the coins in your pocket: e pluribus unum—out of many, one.
This is hilarious. It is the liberals who insist upon all this “disaggregation”, the dividing up of all statistics by race. The “No Child Left Behind” law requires it. Liberals do it so whenever blacks or Hispanics are shown to behind whites they can blame it on racism and demand more money for programs to help their poor backward minorities.
Posted by WR the elder at 5:51 PM on April 13
If it is “folly” measuring character by race…
Explain please how we’re supposed to ignore the massive amount of evidence showing Blacks to be a dysfunctional, crime-prone, sociopathic race? I mean, is going into automatic denial every time we here of yet another Black criminal — going to make the problem magically go away?
Posted by Fed Up at 6:37 PM on April 13
Although I can’t say genetics is insignificant I think the proper environment can definitely improve achievement amongst lower tier students.
Perhaps the best example, which was an article posted here on AMREN too I might add, is Reseda High’s African village program.
http://www.thevillagenation.com/latimes.htm
Where according to the LA Times:
“In 2003, 36% of black students at Cleveland passed the math portion of the California High School Exit Examination. The figure rose to 81% in 2006.”
There are inovative solutions that can work and close the achievement gap but we have to be willing to think outside the box. Whether not it will remain in some form is something that I will not go into but I certainly believe there is some anecdotal and stastical evidence to show that it can be dealt with on some level.
Also this is another part of diversity that people ignore. That people from different ethnic groups may behave differently and respond optimally to different conditions.
I personally think its a complex synergy of culture and biology. After all even if the differences in races is only skin deep a black kid will be expected to behave as a black kid by the society around him and his immediate peers and family.
Whereas a poor underclass white person from West Virginia can change his clothes and acquire some new mannerisms and be someone else, without any questions.
There is tremendous pressure on human beings to fit in and conform to the norms of their group and this can both have positive and negative consequences. Just look at Germany Circa 1933 or Rwanda 1994.
Posted by Yellow Man at 7:04 PM on April 13
>>>This is no different than claiming that blacks are more prone to hypertension, diabetes, or sickle cell anemia.
Other than being “politically incorrect”, just WHAT is supposed to be wrong in admission of what most of us already know: That Blacks are infinitely MORE apt to commit crimes, have lower moral standards and GENERALLY lower mental and cognitive abilities, compared to White counterparts.
We Whites are hardly stupid. Having seen these claims supported over and over again by news events, by what law enforcement friends relate… Hell, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck. . whether p.c. admissible or not, LET’S TELL THE TRUTH, REGARDLESS OF WHOM IT HURTS!
Posted by Fed Up at 2:41 PM on April 14
Lucas M wrote, “This is no different than claiming blacks are more prone to hypertension, diabetes or sickle cell anemia. There is legitimate value in using racial stereotypes to identify diseases of the body and mind.”
I agree with this principle. It’s no different than pointing
out the fact that whites are more prone to cystic fibrosis,
multiple sclerosis, PKU, type one diabetes, melanoma, or
macular degeneration.
Posted by Leroy at 7:08 PM on April 17
