Equal Educashunz?

[Nietzsche]

I'm somewhat surprised this wasn't posted yet, but I suppose the post-election flaccid disappointments are still flowing from the chalice of hope and change.

Anyway, Virginia, not Texas, has found an interesting way to tinker with educational objectives.

The source seems pretty reliable, though I can't vouch for it 100%.

Personally, I don't live in VA and don't give two dimes how they run their state. I just thought this was an imaginative solution to a problem. I guess if you change a few standards here and there, eventually everyone will meet them.

I wonder what this will mean to the students when they go to take a nationally standardized test. Or, if they go to college and wind up spending a year and $$$ in remedial topic X.

[Col. Tartleton]

The problems are bad enough in some places, disparity wise, that perhaps progress should be measured relative to demography. I'm just not sure race is the way to do it.

[Big War Bird]

Guess we know what the master race is now.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Kanaric]

education goals that are higher for white and Asian kids than for blacks, Latinos and students with disabilities.

So Latinos and Blacks are disabled? Seems racist.

[Genius of the Restoration]

There is some logic behind the move in terms of attempting to set targets for students that they can reach, but doing so on a scale of race is stupid. The literacy skills of boys in ze West are, broadly speaking, lower than those of girls, but the solutions proposed there have generally focussed on ways to improve literacy by targetting the engagement of boys, not lowering standards.

[The Last Varangian]

So they abandoned No Child Left Behind, only to replace it with something even more tarded. I wouldn't have thought that humanly possible until now.

[Sarissofoi]

I remember old movies where if some women or black appear on lead or was officer it mean that she/he was probably more reliable than average white in the same role.
Now it is reversed.
Is affirmative action do more good than bad for minorities?

[Menelik_I]

OP article :

new set of education goals that are higher for white and Asian kids than for blacks, Latinos and students with disabilities.

Racist and idiotic.

[Lord Thesaurian]

I wouldn't call Virginia's policies racist. After all, the thresholds are based on performance data. Affirmative Action forms policies based on racial data all the time. Don't hear too many folks griping about that. If Virginia's policies were racist, it would mean mandating standards contrary to data, like placing "passing grade" standards for whites above Asians, for example. Since that is not the case, and the policies do not conflict with the data, I wouldn't call them "racist." In today's "Progressive" America, we have racial quotas and racially based programs across the spectrum. Nobody complains about those. I disagree with any unequal policy based upon anything other than academic performance. My sentiments, however, do not seem to be mainstream.

Plus, Florida is under fire for similar policies.

...Perhaps the Boards of Ed in VA and FL are just "new philosophers" embracing the reality of the will to power

[Nietzsche]

I wouldn't call Virginia's policies racist. After all, the thresholds are based on performance data. Affirmative Action forms policies based on racial data all the time. Don't hear too many folks griping about that. If Virginia's policies were racist, it would mean mandating standards contrary to data, like placing "passing grade" standards for whites above Asians, for example. Since that is not the case, and the policies do not conflict with the data, I wouldn't call them "racist." In today's "Progressive" America, we have racial quotas and racially based programs across the spectrum. Nobody complains about those. I disagree with any unequal policy based upon anything other than academic performance. My sentiments, however, do not seem to be mainstream.

Plus, Florida is under fire for similar policies.

...Perhaps the Boards of Ed in VA and FL are just "new philosophers" embracing the reality of the will to power

I saw the Florida thing a bit later on, but I didn't investigate the particulars. Affirmative Action lowers the bar for performance to allow the disadvantaged a chance at success. Being the superman that I am, I'm ambivalent about the practice. I don't think test scores and grades adequately portray an individual or his potential. Some are late bloomers some max out in high school and can't hack it any further. It's a human crap shoot. Perhaps VA is just trying to beat the house.

[Lord Thesaurian]

I saw the Florida thing a bit later on, but I didn't investigate the particulars. Affirmative Action lowers the bar for performance to allow the disadvantaged a chance at success. Being the superman that I am, I'm ambivalent about the practice. I don't think test scores and grades adequately portray an individual or his potential. Some are late bloomers some max out in high school and can't hack it any further. It's a human crap shoot. Perhaps VA is just trying to beat the house.

Which is why the obvious solution here is for a superman like yourself to shamelessly promote arbitrary values that remedy the situation whilst making masters of the former victims - like the Jews did

[mongrel]

The scheme seems arbitrarily racist to me. surely background is relevant , if anything.

[Kanaric]

Background is irrelevant when it comes to math and science. These are things that are fact regardless of where you came from and if you can't study at your grade level then you shouldn't be protected by the government because you are a certain race. That is ridiculous. "It's ok hes dumb guys, he's black"

[The spartan]

Great, tell different races you expect them to be smarter/dumber than each other. Hasn't the whole “blue-eyed/brown-eyed” experiment tell us that that was a bad thing?

[Col. Tartleton]

Were I a Virginian, as a stupid white person, I would not be happy about being held to an artificially higher standard than brilliant blacks. Plus this model gets tricky with mixed race people. Where do they fit in? One drop rule? Patrilineal? Matrilineal? Flip a coin? If they're dumb they're black?

Sane model:

Compile elementary school grades. Note who is behind and who is ahead. Measure progress quarter to quarter, not an average as that masks their performance.

Raise standards for people who are ahead to challenge them.
Keep doing what you're doing for people who fall within the average band.
Lower standards for people who are behind, and reallocate more resources to getting them up to speed during middle school.

By high school we should hope to see improvements in the lowest performing group. If not keep working at it and make sure they graduate by pushing them, not lowering the bar. Split the kids into peer groups so they're around people of similar skill level, this should hopefully encourage academic competition and get them all moving forward. kids who get C's and D's don't want to be around kids who are always getting A's. It hurts the morale. Likewise if most of the people are doing lousy it's harder to get the smart kids to work as hard.

Advanced kids can take AP where available to speed them through the learning process.
Advanced kids get Honors Level.
Normal Kids get A level.
Stragglers get B level.
Learning Disabilities get C level.

You know, like a normal school.

AP and B level should have the best teachers to push them through things which are difficult for them. Honors and A can have the regular teachers. C should have teachers with special training for disability and probably have a second instructor in the room so they can have smaller groups with a teacher leading them.

[Nietzsche]

Were I a Virginian, as a stupid white person, I would not be happy about being held to an artificially higher standard than brilliant blacks. Plus this model gets tricky with mixed race people. Where do they fit in? One drop rule? Patrilineal? Matrilineal? Flip a coin? If they're dumb they're black?

Sane model:

Compile elementary school grades. Note who is behind and who is ahead. Measure progress quarter to quarter, not an average as that masks their performance.

Raise standards for people who are ahead to challenge them.
Keep doing what you're doing for people who fall within the average band.
Lower standards for people who are behind, and reallocate more resources to getting them up to speed during middle school.

By high school we should hope to see improvements in the lowest performing group. If not keep working at it and make sure they graduate by pushing them, not lowering the bar. Split the kids into peer groups so they're around people of similar skill level, this should hopefully encourage academic competition and get them all moving forward. kids who get C's and D's don't want to be around kids who are always getting A's. It hurts the morale. Likewise if most of the people are doing lousy it's harder to get the smart kids to work as hard.

Advanced kids can take AP where available to speed them through the learning process.
Advanced kids get Honors Level.
Normal Kids get A level.
Stragglers get B level.
Learning Disabilities get C level.

You know, like a normal school.

AP and B level should have the best teachers to push them through things which are difficult for them. Honors and A can have the regular teachers. C should have teachers with special training for disability and probably have a second instructor in the room so they can have smaller groups with a teacher leading them.

I think what we are witnessing is a shell game to conceal our public education system's disgrace. Spending per capita in America is among the highest in the world yet we need these sociological manipulations in order to pass entire swaths of the student body.

Which is why the obvious solution here is for a superman like yourself to shamelessly promote arbitrary values that remedy the situation whilst making masters of the former victims - like the Jews did

LOL... I don't believe I've ever promoted arbitrary values sir. What I have done is demand the individual be allowed to assess their own. Further, they should be held to some degree of responsibility for the same. Society ain't no vacuum don't you know!

In either case, they can be made masters by rejecting the externally assigned and artificially low standard and exceeding beyond the racist expectation of their governing body. When they are finished succeeding they can then destroy that body and all of it's racist relics.

Thus spoke Zarathustra.

[Primo]

Can't they just separate after the grades of children and not because of their ethnicities?

[Kanaric]

Can't they just separate after the grades of children and not because of their ethnicities?

If you mean different classes for different skill levels you would have one AP class with all white people and asians and a few token minorities then the "retard" classes filled with blacks and hispanics. Then people would call it out as racist.

Why do I know this is what would happen? Because such a thing was implemented at my school. There were 3 levels of class, the AP (advanced placement) classes, the regular, and then they had classes for "slow" students. You can guess which ones were filled with what kind of minorities.

IDK why this is the case, I don't think its a racial thing as no race is any less smart than another. Its likely purely a cultural thing. I'm sure most of the hispanic students were behind because they were mostly immigrants and therefore came from inferior education system or were learning english. What is the excuse for the black students? Their culture is , that is all.

[Primo]

If you mean different classes for different skill levels you would have one AP class with all white people and asians and a few token minorities then the "retard" classes filled with blacks and hispanics. Then people would call it out as racist.

Why do I know this is what would happen? Because such a thing was implemented at my school. There were 3 levels of class, the AP (advanced placement) classes, the regular, and then they had classes for "slow" students. You can guess which ones were filled with what kind of minorities.

IDK why this is the case, I don't think its a racial thing as no race is any less smart than another. Its likely purely a cultural thing. I'm sure most of the hispanic students were behind because they were mostly immigrants and therefore came from inferior education system or were learning english. What is the excuse for the black students? Their culture is , that is all.

Yeah, it's also pretty much what we have in Germany. Though contrary to what you say it was still fair. If students aren't as talented as others, they need another kind of education. In Germany everyone is able to go to university if he invests enough effort, and isn't totally dumb (in which case he doesn't do the former anyways, so it's a moot point).

Everyone can get a school suited to his skillset, that will help him in the things he needs to be educated. Percisely what is needed in Virginia, too.

[Col. Tartleton]

I've had multiple blacks in like 60% of my honors courses.