Firestorm Erupts Over Virginia's Education Goals

As part of Virginia's waiver to opt out of mandates set out in the No Child Left Behind law, the state has created a controversial new set of education goals that are higher for white and Asian kids than for blacks, Latinos and students with disabilities.

www.vpr.net...

Here's what the Virginia state board of education actually did. It looked at students' test scores in reading and math and then proposed new passing rates. In math it set an acceptable passing rate at 82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities.

I don't know about anyone else, but if someone ever told me the bar should be set lower because of the color of my skin, they would be swiftly punched in the face.

Re-enforcing the false idea that certain races are inferior is not going to help the cause of class mobility, IMO.

Originally posted by SilentKoala


I don't know about anyone else, but if someone ever told me the bar should be set lower because of the color of my skin, they would be swiftly punched in the face.

Re-enforcing the false idea that certain races are inferior is not going to help the cause of class mobility, IMO.

Effin Aye

Last I knew the law it was illegal to discriminate based on race. Looks to me like the Black children are being told they aren't as Smart as the Asians and White children so they don't need to feel bad when they score lower, as (obviously) is expected of them. meanwhile, the White and Asian children hear it as, they have to work harder and longer to achieve the same grade as the Black children.

Isn't this a hell of a lot easier when we just STOP making regulations and rules with consideration to race EITHER direction?? I agree with the OP. I'd be furious to be told I was born dumber because of my skin pigment so I needn't bother myself about never measuring up to the other kids. How Evil. They're being trained as victims from the earliest age.

There was an earlier thread on this with a trollish title,
It makes me mad, sad and ashamed to be a Virginia atm.
This is so racist, so nonsensical but just like what you'd expect from our educational "experts".
Overpaid social engineers is more like it.

Somebody needs to be fired.
Funny how the timing on this right after the election.
One more thing to keep up from looking at something else.
Divide and conquer.
I can smell the political backroom dealings on this from miles away from the capitol.
Can we all this "No Child gets Ahead?"

Holy horse dung!!!
This is unfreakin'believeable!
My kids are a mix of English, Irish, Native American, Black and Spanish.

I guess they would have to score somewhere in the 50% area, wait... One has "The good hair" ... Does that mean the white took over and he has to score a little bit higher?
Wake up people it's 2012!

If we listen to sterotypes my boys should be able to chug some whiskey while in a fight, stabbing somebody, eatin fried chicken, dribbling a basketball amazingly, dancing good, wearing clothes that fit, paying their bills on time, doing their taxes early, loving mayonaise, all while now apperantly backed up by some Virginia study being quite mediocre at math.

Jeez, I know some black and latino guys that can do weight conversions in their heads, and keep up with cash in their heads, never writing anything down, lol.

This is exactly what you get with affirmative action.

They make the ethnic community support it by telling them they deserve an easier trip through life, and access to things in life, because they were oppressed.

It is basically double think, or cognitive dissidence. Making people believe two mutually contradictory things at the same time. Basically standard practice for the new age, politically correct, culture.

It is illegal to discriminate unless you are discriminating against the majority.

They use guilt to subjugate the majority long after the inequities of the past are long gone. It is strictly a tool of social control. Same as slavery to a point, but in this situation you get to control both sides as slaves of the state to a degree. One side by making them unable to support themselves without your help, and the other by guilt.

reply to post by Mr Tranny

They make the ethnic community support it by telling them they deserve an easier trip through life, and access to things in life, because they were oppressed.

If you read the article you would see that the black caucus is upset over it.

Alarmed by these numbers, McEachin and members of the Legislature's black caucus denounced the new policy as a "backwards-looking scheme."

"If we don't demand the best of our children, we won't receive the best," says McEachin.

www.vpr.net...

Guess what could fix all these problems without getting into a whole racial generalization:

Homeschooling.

Wow......
You know what kind of message that sends? Geeeeeeeeeez, schools are a joke. Then when the black people's grades sink even more, then what? Telling them they are dummer than everyone else, yeah, that's gonna send the mesage of why bother even trying. The school board needs a shrink ASAP......

Originally posted by Trustfund
reply to post by Mr Tranny

 

They make the ethnic community support it by telling them they deserve an easier trip through life, and access to things in life, because they were oppressed.

If you read the article you would see that the black caucus is upset over it.

Alarmed by these numbers, McEachin and members of the Legislature's black caucus denounced the new policy as a "backwards-looking scheme."

"If we don't demand the best of our children, we won't receive the best," says McEachin.

www.vpr.net...

The Virginia legislative black caucus upset over it? You have got to be f’ng kidding me! Ooww the irony!!!!

After their confrontation with james webb six years ago, in regard to the subject. You would think that if anyone knew when to keep their mouth shut in a situation, it would be them.

Talk about being instrumental in creating a situation, then running around crying like you are the victim!

They publicly denounced webb because of his comments about affirmative action. They were the ones front and center, pushing affirmative action, and his criticisms of how it was being implemented(by them) were mocked, and he was derided.

You want to know what webb said?

Affirmative action, which originally sought to repair the state-induced damage to blacks from slavery and its aftermath, has within one generation brought about a permeating state-sponsored racism that is as odious as the Jim Crow laws it sought to countermand.

Yet, six years later, when the policies are being put into action that they were instrumental in creating…… They have the gall to cry racism! They are saying something now that they practically ran a person out of town for saying six years ago.

I could use the terms like…
Blaring hypocrisy.
Cognitive dissidence.
Shooting yourself in the foot.
Or just blatant dishonesty.

But all those terms would not really properly describe the concept going through my head right now.

Where do unequal standards end ?

8th Grade graduation ?

High School graduation ?

College ?

Oh wait......here it is

Job qualifications maybe ?

What do employers think about this ?

They're complaining because a traditionally lower test score will allow now act as a passing score? Haha!!! What the hell do people think affirmative action is? It allows those that have lower credentials to be seen as if their credentials were higher and equal to everyone else's.

This is what happens when Liberal principles are applied as I see this as being one. Were people this upset when the military lowered its physical standards to coddle Liberal women groups?

To me it says to the teachers "Dont waste your time with these kids"

Besides, the school has our kids for 12 years, they spend more time than we do with them, we get home from work, pick up the house, make dinner, do the teachers job (Homework). We may have a quality 2 - 3 hours. After that 12 years they still cant get a job. Kids run like rats in a maze driven by pressure and stress, hormones, lust, class structure, etc etc all day.
I started home schooling my 15 year old, she goes to school 1 hour a week for testing and homework. She learns one subject at a time, a whole year of one subject takes her about 5 weeks. She is getting As and she now has time to take community collage classes that will teach her a skill. She also has time to volunteer in the community. Sorry, got a little off topic.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


I was really sad to see Mr. Webb go.
Remember the ruckus over him going in to the capitol armed?
Atta boy Jim! We need more men of principle and guts like him.

reply to post by SilentKoala

In math it set an acceptable passing rate at 82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities.

"No child gets ahead" is right! For shame.

Originally posted by SilentKoala

As part of Virginia's waiver to opt out of mandates set out in the No Child Left Behind law, the state has created a controversial new set of education goals that are higher for white and Asian kids than for blacks, Latinos and students with disabilities.

www.vpr.net...

Here's what the Virginia state board of education actually did. It looked at students' test scores in reading and math and then proposed new passing rates. In math it set an acceptable passing rate at 82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities.

I don't know about anyone else, but if someone ever told me the bar should be set lower because of the color of my skin, they would be swiftly punched in the face.

Re-enforcing the false idea that certain races are inferior is not going to help the cause of class mobility, IMO.

Wow. It really doesn't get any more racist than that.

Originally posted by Mr Tranny

Originally posted by Trustfund
reply to post by Mr Tranny

 

They make the ethnic community support it by telling them they deserve an easier trip through life, and access to things in life, because they were oppressed.

If you read the article you would see that the black caucus is upset over it.

Alarmed by these numbers, McEachin and members of the Legislature's black caucus denounced the new policy as a "backwards-looking scheme."

"If we don't demand the best of our children, we won't receive the best," says McEachin.

www.vpr.net...

The Virginia legislative black caucus upset over it? You have got to be f’ng kidding me! Ooww the irony!!!!

After their confrontation with james webb six years ago, in regard to the subject. You would think that if anyone knew when to keep their mouth shut in a situation, it would be them.

Talk about being instrumental in creating a situation, then running around crying like you are the victim!

They publicly denounced webb because of his comments about affirmative action. They were the ones front and center, pushing affirmative action, and his criticisms of how it was being implemented(by them) were mocked, and he was derided.

You want to know what webb said?

Affirmative action, which originally sought to repair the state-induced damage to blacks from slavery and its aftermath, has within one generation brought about a permeating state-sponsored racism that is as odious as the Jim Crow laws it sought to countermand.

Yet, six years later, when the policies are being put into action that they were instrumental in creating…… They have the gall to cry racism! They are saying something now that they practically ran a person out of town for saying six years ago.

I could use the terms like…
Blaring hypocrisy.
Cognitive dissidence.
Shooting yourself in the foot.
Or just blatant dishonesty.

But all those terms would not really properly describe the concept going through my head right now.

Huh? In what way is blatant racial discrimination comparable to affirmative action?

...and don't even start with the "reverse racism" nonsensical "argument" about how white males have it so tough. Affirmative Action was put into place because certain states (like ummm...Virginia and the rest of the South) and even certain organizations NOT in the South weren't really "on the bandwagon" with the whole Civil Rights thing in a meaningful way. So...because they were irresponsible and couldn't seem to afford black people the equal opportunities as they were required to by law....the Federal Government had to step in and do it for them like they were bunch of little kids.

Originally posted by xuenchen
Where do unequal standards end ?

8th Grade graduation ?

High School graduation ?

College ?

Oh wait......here it is

Job qualifications maybe ?

What do employers think about this ?

Unequal standards end when large geographic regions of the country get over their seemingly endemic racism.

Looks like we still have a long way to go. Good thing we have affirmative action so that us sane and responsible folks can simply force the more regressive parts of society to modernize whether they like it or not.

Huh? In what way is blatant racial discrimination comparable to affirmative action?

Unequal standards end when large geographic regions of the country get over their seemingly endemic racism.

The cognitive dissidence is strong in this one master yoda….

reply to post by SilentKoala


Hold up. We need to cover some quick basics about the how/why of this story.

First, under the Elementary an Secondary Schools Act (reauthorized in the 2001 as No Child Left Behind), there are unrealistic mandates imposed on our nation's public schools, which indicate by 2014...ALL students will be 100% proficient in math AND reading.

Reread for a moment. By 2014, ALL students will be 100% proficient in math AND reading.

Every kid.

Unfortunately, it's not just a goal that public schools are to "inspire" to, rather, there are strict repercussions for schools that have failed to meet significant progress on their state approved assessments scores each year. For example, after three years of not making the proficiency score, schools' administrators could be fired and replaced, then entire teaching staff, then potentially a state-takeover so state bureaucrats (lay educators) can run the schools.

This was originally planned as a bi-partisan legislation. Educators, teacher unions, think-tanks, and researchers were shouting at the top of their lungs that this law is unrealistic and punitive.

Penalizing a public school district for not being able to demonstrate proficiency of all its kids, despite so many variables that could affect one's proficiency, is horrible policy.

There is bi-partisan effort to reauthorize NCLB and immediately throw these horrific educational mandates away. But, Congress won't act on it.

States have taken matters into their own hands by applying for waivers to the U.S. Department of Education, but these waivers must still require schools to divide its student population into "subgroups" and demonstrate adequate annual growth, based upon the data of preceding years.

The Virginia State Board of Education analyzed their student test scores of the last decade and determined a feasible, and reasonable, goal that can potentially be attained by next year.

I'm not so sure the VA SBOE is proud to create these goals, but they have no choice to comply with US DOE expectations, without fear of funding slashes, federal takeover, and other mandates imposed on the state and local schools within VA.

If any of you should be outraged, certainly be outraged at the academic inequity that our country does demonstrate. But if you do....then you have to help be part of the problem too.
- You must volunteer, or choose to work, in our schools and ensure that a single classroom teacher of 30+ students isn't the ONLY teacher of a student.
- Help support the role of our schools and teachers.
- Approve local decisions for bond issues.
- Build more libraries and public infrastructure for our kids and families.
- Rid our schools of gang influence and crime.
- And this is just a start.

If you're not willing to take personal action to help the life of a student(s), then you must take your outrage directly to Congress and ensure that they cease these federal mandates on state schools. You must insist that Congress reauthorize NCLB and not tie outcomes to penalties that only exacerbate the problem not improve.

I'm very proud to read the posts in this thread and see how my fellow ATS community is totally aligned with me on supporting educational equity for all students. I didn't think our community was this pro-education. It's an awesome reality-check for me.

But, let's make sure we focusing on the proper issues and understand the full complexities. A headline does not do justice to a real story, nor does a book's cover, right?