Educators See Civil Rights Issue in Bad Schools
Devlin Barrett, AP, June 12, 2008
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If Johnny can’t read and Sally can’t add, it’s often because of the color of their skin and their ZIP code, educators and activists said Wednesday.
The heads of the New York City and Washington, D.C., school systems joined with civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton and others to press for a shake-up of public schools from coast to coast to narrow the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanic students. The group called the gap the nation’s most pressing civil rights issue.
By the time they near high school graduation, black and Hispanic teenagers on average have math and reading skills no higher than that of white middle-school students four years younger.
Nationally, 55 percent of black males graduate high school on time, compared to about 78 percent for whites, according to recent data released by Education Week with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
{snip}
The group has yet to advocate any specific policies it wants to see enacted, but in general its leading members said they want to see greater accountability from teachers, more incentives to reward success, and greater parental responsibility for educating children.
“We are in an age where we are trying to move beyond race, but achievement in education is not beyond race,” said Sharpton. “Our children are drowning in the waters of indifference and old coalitions that no longer work and no longer care.”
{snip}
(Posted on June 13, 2008)
Comments
Let’s have the Federal judiciary pass an injunction forcing stupid children to be smart.
Posted by Question Diversity at 5:14 PM on June 13
Nationally, 55 percent of black males graduate high school on time, compared to about 78 percent for whites, according to recent data released by Education Week with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…………Yes and Bill and Melinda Gates are doing their best to eliminate Jobs for white students in the fields of computers by investing money in india and china.The graduation rates for white students would be higher if it was not for integration of the schools.They have eliminated vocational education out of fear that such classes would be full of black students which would be racist.I mean not all white students are college material so more drop out of High school.
Posted by Tony Soprano. at 5:39 PM on June 13
“Our children are drowning in the waters of indifference and old coalitions that no longer work and no longer care.”
And whose indifference might that be?
Posted by Pasha at 5:47 PM on June 13
or maybe it’s due to the IQ gap between blacks, hispanics, whites, and asians.
Posted by at 5:51 PM on June 13
“We are in an age where we are trying to move beyond race, but achievement in education is not beyond race,”
This statement by Sharpton proves he is not always wrong, even though the truth he sometimes utters is inadvertent.
Ronald
Posted by at 6:30 PM on June 13
“Rhee noted that in her city, children who go to public schools in an affluent neighborhood get a “wildly different” education than students in the same school system who live in a poorer neighborhood.”
I’m willing to bet that black students do poorly even when they attend the schools in those affluent neighborhoods.
I found a site that shows the achievement scores by race in DC for the various schools but I couldn’t find many with a white majority.
These are the few I found with a white majority:
Lafayette ES:
Reading - % proficient or advanced:
Black/Non-hispanic 81.15%
White/Non-hispanic 95.14%
Math - % proficient or advanced:
Black/Non-hispanic 68.11%
White/Non-hispanic 91.14%
—————————————
JANNEY ES:
Reading - % proficient or advanced:
Black/Non-hispanic 70%
White/Non-hispanic 87.89%
Math - % proficient or advanced:
Black/Non-hispanic 63.33%
White/Non-hispanic 84.71%
—————————————
HARDY MS:
Reading - % proficient or advanced:
Black/Non-hispanic 62.44%
White/Non-hispanic 91.67%
Math - % proficient or advanced:
Black/Non-hispanic 47.71%
White/Non-hispanic 87.5%
This shows that whites score higher than blacks even when they attend the same school so it isn’t the schools that are performing badly it’s the students that attend them who are performing badly.
Posted by Amren Reader at 6:45 PM on June 13
Sorta reads like the the forced integration concept in our schools is rearing it’s ugly head to me. Why on earth would I as a white parent even consider sending my children to a school full of minority thugs. Of course Sharpton rears his ugly head again. It’s time for whites to have their own say and quite letting these minorities ride on our backs.
Posted by at 7:04 PM on June 13
“The group has yet to advocate any specific policies it wants to see enacted…”
They can’t advocate any because we’ve tried everything and everything has failed.
The only option I see left is to provide each student with individual instruction. Each minority student is provided with a teacher/mentor/life coach/advocate to hold their hand from pre-k to high school graduation.
Do I think it would work? No, but what else hasn’t been tried? Besides, it’s as absurd as any other program that failed before.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 7:27 PM on June 13
“Money won’t by everything, it’s true…
What it won’t get, I can’t use…”
They can’t say exactly what they want done, because they haven’t any idea what will work. But it will take lots of money, that’s assured.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 7:27 PM on June 13
“The group has yet to enact any specific policies…”
How about adopting a plan that doesn’t discriminate against the children of two-parent families just to accommodate a host of “under-privileged” illegitimates?
Allowing nurtured potential to achieve excellence isn’t racist, it’s just plain FAIR!
And the day that government has become a surrogate parent is the day the Orwellian prophesy has come true (Brown v. Board, 1954).
Posted by KonfederateKarl at 7:32 PM on June 13
At least they got the greater parental responsibility right.
Posted by Ed at 7:52 PM on June 13
“We are in an age where we are trying to move beyond race…”
What a crock. These airheads have race on their minds 24/7. Everything revolves around race for them. Just like the issue this article addresses. If they arent demanding “extras” for blacks, they are accusing whites of holding them down. Regardless both issues are race based, the very thing they claim they want to “move beyond”.
As far as the article? Yeah, lets throw more money at the problem, maybe dumb things down even more, point out some “institutional racism” etc, etc. These things have worked in the past, so lets try em again, no? Good Lord man. Give it a rest.
Posted by Mike Harrigan at 8:04 PM on June 13
“If Johnny can’t read and Sally can’t add, it’s often because of the color of their skin and their ZIP code, educators and activists said Wednesday.”
Denying the proven reality that blacks cannot compete in advanced societies is causing untold grief throughout the West and will continue to do so until it is all brought to fruition by a cataclysmic riot.
Posted by at 8:10 PM on June 13
I see this as a case of results based analysis. If one accepts the premise that “all men are created equal” (even though the founding fathers meant “equal before God”) then one has to logically develop the conclusion, from the premise of equal average intelligence among ethnic groups, that if we are just more earnest and innovative about educating blacks and hispanics then the average graduation rates will equalize before long.
It’s interesting that when it comes to athletic ability, there is an implied acceptance of the idea that, on average, blacks have greater sprinting and jumping ability than whites, so there’s no problem accepting all, or mostly black, basketball and football starting teams. No one tries to say that inferior coaching and facilities for whites are to blame for racial percentages on sports teams that are unreflective of the general population.
But for people to question the premise of equal average intelligence among blacks, whites and hispanics is socially and politically unacceptable. And as long as this continues to be the case, we’ll all have to deal with an “Emperor’s New Pair of Clothes” situation which has been going on since the Frankfurt School of Anthropology, led by Franz Boas, started undermining any objective analysis and discussion of race and intelligence from the 1930’s on.
Posted by Paul Jones at 8:20 PM on June 13
“old coalitions that no longer work and no longer care.”
Umm, did they ever work in the first place?
Sounds to me like Big Al’s funds are drying up and he needs more handouts; all in an effort to avoid having to do actual work.
Posted by Jeremy Douglas at 8:53 PM on June 13
“We are in an age where we are trying to move beyond race, but achievement in education is not beyond race,” said Sharpton.
So we need to focus on race more intensely than ever. In fact, every facet of life has to be about race, right, Sharpton? Education, crime, health, work, breathing…
Why doesn’t the article mention Indians, Asians, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, or any of the myriad and DIVERSE racial mixes that are in this country? Why always black/white (and sometimes Hispanics — non-white Hispanics, I presume)?
Black/white is so over, Al. MULTI-cultural, not BI-cultural, or TRI-cultural (when it suits you to include Hispanics).
Sheesh.
Posted by at 9:06 PM on June 13
Not this again, why do we have to waste time and money doing fruitless activities. Isn’t this the definition of insanity?? Let ‘em hip hop, reggaetone, and enjoy their lives. They don’t want to be academic, it’s not in their genes or mindset.
If some show promise, sure help them but let the low IQ be and don’t harass them anymore!! Let them live in peace in their natural habitat and habits!!
Posted by realist at 9:06 PM on June 13
sbuffaloalone wrote:
The only option I see left is to provide each student with individual instruction. Each minority student is provided with a teacher/mentor/life coach/advocate to hold their hand from pre-k to high school graduation. Do I think it would work? No, but what else hasn’t been tried? Besides, it’s as absurd as any other program that failed before.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch actually proposed this idea about five years ago. Only they took it one step further — they want this one-on-one teacher/mentor to stay with the minority student through college.
Posted by Question Diversity at 9:28 PM on June 13
So Al, how exactly is it that Black students who share schools with White or higher-Asian peers, who utilize the same textbooks, have the same teachers, same curricula, same opportunities and then some, still lag so far behind and do not perform appreciably better than their cousins in the most dysfunctional urban schools? What manner of mystical phenomenon is this that holds back Black students wherever they go, no matter the circumstances? Do tell Al?
Posted by Hank at 9:34 PM on June 13
One proposal that black are pushing for here in Buffalo is to get black kids into suburban schools. Why they think suburban schools are better equipped to teach black kids while the integrated city schools they now dominate are not, is something I don’t understand.
What they’re advocating in merging schools in the same county. That way, black kids in the now poorly performing integrated city schools can be bused even further out into the county schools in the suburbs.
Hey, it didn’t work the last time it was tried with city schools, maybe it’ll work this time with schools in the suburb.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 11:06 PM on June 13
“The heads of the New York City and Washington, D.C., school systems joined with civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton and others to press for a shake-down of public schools from coast to coast to narrow the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanic students.”
Posted by at 7:44 AM on June 14
One solution would be to require competancy tests every year, and sterilize the parents of children who fail the tests before sending them to prison until their kids start passing the tests. This would pretty much guarantee an active interest on the part of irresponsible parents in their kid’s schoolwork. Another component of the plan would be sending any child who drops out of school and can not pass the tests to prison on their 18th birthday, sterlizing them and keeping them locked up until they finish a GED.
If Sharpton is correct and this is a “civil rights” issue, then of course the parents are violating the civil rights of their own children, and criminal penalties are the only answer. In fact, I regard the willful refusal on the part of any individual to become an educated, responsible member of society as a violation of my own civil rights; I believe I have a right to live in a society composed of people with approximately my own level of education.
The proposal for individual mentors sounds good. Parents should be required to mentor their own children or compelled to hire private tutors with their own money. Refusal to do so would result in the usual sterilization and imprisonment.
I understand some classes are overcrowded, and this results in teachers being unable to give students the individual attention some of them require. The answer here would be to allow free public education only for the first two children in any family, and require parents to pay out of their own pockets for the education of any third or succeeding children they produce, with mandatory sterilization and imprisonment for those unwilling or unable to do so.
While Sharpton appears to have forgotten what the purpose of a family is, the right legislation and suitable penalties would reaffirm the concept of parental responsibility.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 9:15 AM on June 14
Agreed with everything that Tony Soprano said, but I doubt that voke schools would be chock full of black students under any circumstances.
I’ve been in the “trades” all my life and rarely have worked with blacks. Racism? Nah! There’s nothing stopping black kids from learning those vocational trades that are the ticket to a relatively prosperous and stable middle class life.
Then again, you have to get your hands dirty. You have to show up on time. You have to devote a lifetime to work and to keeping up with your trade’s technology.
Yeah, it’s really unromantic to live the life of a tradesman. Ergo…much better to hip and hop…long for the NBA…or the rewards of tokenism.
Posted by sudoeste euro at 10:08 AM on June 14
I live in Ohio, and have recently seen on the Columbus news stations that Columbus City Schools want to place a bond on the November ballot for additional funding. The owner of a $100,000 home will pay $200 MORE a year. Columbus has a huge population of Somalis brought in by the Democratic black mayor, to make more Democratic blacks. Columbus city schools are ran by blacks and other liberals. An islamic terrorist that fled the country, was almost appointed to the school board. I am sure the majority of people that are living in a $100,000 home are not utilizing the public school system. I am sure the same goes for the NY and DC school systems. The people running these schools are idiots trying to come up with any new plan they can that spends more of the taxpayers money to educate the uneducatable. And I hate to be the one to tell such highly educated people how to handle themselves, but getting into bed with Al and Jesse does nothing but make a joke out of their cause.
Posted by Kellie at 10:14 AM on June 14
“The group has yet to advocate any specific policies it wants to see enacted, but in general its leading members said they want to see greater accountability from teachers, more incentives to reward success, and greater parental responsibility for educating children.”
Pity the poor teacher having to listen to, and respond to, this idiotic rubbish from windbag Rev. Sharpton.
“Greater accountability from teachers” will inevitably mean the teacher will be on the dock if her minority students don’t magically exceed their limited abilities.
“More incentives to reward success” - anyone want to make a try at what the hell that means?
“Greater parental responsibility for educating children.” How does (usually) a single parent (probably) working two jobs achieve that?
“The group has yet to advocate any specific policies it wants to see enacted…” - But still feels free to shoot its collective mouth off heaping blame on everyone else.
Here we have yet another case of the belicose yammering class berating the burdened - because it’s easy, and the noise-factory media is an ever-willing echo chamber.
Posted by Gary at 3:10 PM on June 14
Thank you for that information about Columbus, OH city schools. That was very informative. I wonder if students there have been experience other ‘problems’ for the last 4 decades too? Ones that no one seems to be talking about.
Posted by at 4:45 PM on June 14
“If Johnny can’t read and Sally can’t add, it’s often because of the color of their skin..”
They are clearly admitting here that racial differences are more than skin deep while at the very same time denying racial differences in intelligence exist. Liberal hypocracy at its best.
Posted by Robert at 5:41 PM on June 14
Fast forward to 2010:
“Attention! Attention! In order to insure future educational equality, and because every other attempt to institute same has been a gargantuan failure, by order of His High Exaltedness, the great omniscient President and Maximum Leader Barack Obama, all white and Asian schoolchildren will report within 30 days to the nearest neurologist for mandatory lobotomies. For those in rural areas, the government will provide mobile “lobotomy vans”. Failure to comply will result in lifetime imprisonment at hard labor as Enemies of the People.”
Where’s Kurt Vonnegut when you really need him?
Posted by Strider at 5:57 PM on June 14
Sharpton is a liar. Anyone who associates with a known liar is a clown. Remember this your whole life. I may be a liberal (although that’s becoming debatable lately), but I’m no fool.
Posted by Guilty Liberal at 10:51 PM on June 14
Does anyone have any pictures of the sort of homes Jesse Jackson and the (rev) Al Sharpton live in? Are they in the same gated community the (rev) Wright is moving to? Where did these people acquire their (reverendship) at? Do black people just get away with calling themselves the Rev. or the Hon. Who pays these two, they must have extravagant travel expenses since they show up all over the U.S. causing trouble.
Posted by Skip at 1:53 AM on June 15
“More incentives to reward success” - anyone want to make a try at what the hell that means?
I will. “pass blacks, get money”
Posted by Skip at 2:18 AM on June 15
“more incentives to reward success”
Gee, like graduating and having a fulfilling career? Thats all I needed.
Posted by VaFuzz at 2:32 AM on June 15
Civil Rights issues has nothing to do with it. It’s modern liberal ideology and the people and their children themselves that are to blame.
Here’s a very accurate assessment by a substitute teacher that was in the Los Angeles Unified School District:
On November 16, 2007, the WorldNet Daily posted “Battle-scarred ‘sub’ in L.A. barrios speaks out” by Migdia Chinea Varela, a screenwriter and former substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Chinea stated that, in many schools she served, the students had no interest in learning, abused the teachers, vandalized property, and joined gangs.
Chinea, who was injured on the job, stated that teachers are underpaid and under-appreciated in the district. She described the campuses in LAUSD as a “mess, filthy, dilapidated and without supplies.” Chinea believes that the district is taking little action against the conditions rampant in various low income schools.
Here’s a Los Angeles Times article about LA students:
On January 5, 2008 Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times reported that vandals and thieves targeted LAUSD schools in various neighborhoods during holidays. Banks said that the lack of police presence allows thieves to target schools.
It just goes on and on like this. It’s a self-perpetuating paradigm at this point with no end in sight.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 12:43 PM on June 15
Agreed with everything that Tony Soprano said, but I doubt that voke schools would be chock full of black students under any circumstances.
I’ve been in the “trades” all my life and rarely have worked with blacks. Racism? Nah! There’s nothing stopping black kids from learning those vocational trades that are the ticket to a relatively prosperous and stable middle class life.
Then again, you have to get your hands dirty. You have to show up on time. You have to devote a lifetime to work and to keeping up with your trade’s technology.
Yeah, it’s really unromantic to live the life of a tradesman. Ergo…much better to hip and hop…long for the NBA…or the rewards of tokenism.
Posted by sudoeste euro
To add to what Tony Soprano and sudoeste say, the June 2006 issue of AR has an insightful article about working in a certain, difficult, trade: high steel. It is rare that we get such an inside view, and it ain’t pretty as regards affirmative action. I really recommend that readers take a look at that article.
As to the education issue in particular, and affirmative action in general, I am old enough to recall when Lyndon Johnson intoned that we must have not only equality of opportunity [which few of us disagree with], but “equality of results”. This pernicious doctrine has lead to more mischief than any other that comes to my mind.
Posted by at 7:33 AM on June 16
To the contrary ; the greatest ” civil rights ” issue is both no and deminishing representation in congress because of one’s race,ethnicity and religion, namely the Euro-white Christian who founded America and wrote its constitution. Since the unconstitutional, treasonous , racist 1965 Immigration and Reform act; America has ceased to be a representative democracy (republic ) but an un-representative ” diversity ” at the explicit monetary and political expense of white-Christian Americans.
Posted by Michigan Patriot at 12:06 PM on June 16
Sharpton is right about one thing: the teachers’ union handicaps everything. They get more and more money every year for less and less work. Europe does not have this problem. The money is attached to the student, so schools have to be competitive or they’ll collapse. Not the case in the US. Schools can be glorified day cares for 16-year olds and they’ll still get more funding.
Following Europe’s model won’t help the achievement gap, though. That has to come from personal responsibility and nobody in charge seems to want to admit it.
Posted by Concerned Citizens at 4:15 PM on June 16
This is not a civil rights issue and these jerks know. This is a ploy for more money to be wasted on public schools.
Posted by Frank at 4:05 PM on June 22