Wednesday, October 31, 2018

What Explains Most Of The Racial Achievement Gap?

In education today, the student has no responsibility.  Flunk all your classes?  The district will provide you with "credit recovery" hoops to jump through so that you still get a diploma.  Don't want to do your work?  The teacher will give you make-up assignments.  Failing near the end of the semester?  Expect some extra credit "favors" so you can barely pass.

Notice that responsibility for fixing the problem of failing students lies with the adults, specifically school staff, and not with the student.

And if you can't get the adults to take responsibility, cry racism.  And there's an entire industry out there that will help you make such a claim.  Parents in one Missouri school district, though, have had enough:
Recently, however, parents in a Missouri school district — Lee’s Summit — rebelled against paying Singleton and his group to provide cultural and racial equity training. They expressed their displeasure at a school board meeting and on social media. 
What's the bottom line here?
I don’t think critics are denying that racial outcomes are unequal, though. Instead, it appears that they reject, as I do, the idea that responsibility for poor outcomes lies with the school district, rather than the students and/or their parents.
I wish more people say things that clearly.

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