Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Can Whites Teach Blacks?

Race was at the heart of the Hartford school system's most wrenching incidents this year. A white principal didn't make it through the year at Simpson-Waverly Classical Magnet School, in a mostly black neighborhood, after she hired all white teachers to replace retirees, setting the tone for a racially charged atmosphere that seemed to worsen every week.

At the end of the year, parents and students also complained bitterly to the school board that a Simpson-Waverly music teacher told kids she didn't like "black music." The music teacher, who denies ever saying such a thing, had previously filed a complaint of her own accusing three black teachers in the school of racially harassing her and encouraging their students to misbehave in her class. And a black principal in the district's most troubled school, Milner Elementary School, attributed her school's woes, in part, to white teachers being culturally out of tune with black students.

Hartford's political focus on racial balance has long helped determine the composition of the school board and the selection of the superintendent and even principals. But it has rarely reached down to the classrooms as it did this year. School officials whiplashed by this year's incidents are now debating some tough questions: Can white teachers effectively teach children of color? Is the lagging achievement of children of color caused in part by low expectations of white teachers? And are white educators to blame for the high rate of minority group members directed to special education services?

Michael C. Williams, vice chairman of the board of education, is pushing hard for an aggressive affirmative action plan to drastically increase the number of minority teachers. The way he sees it, the achievement gap is inherently a racial problem. "We need a race-based solution," said Williams, who is black.

Superintendent of Schools Robert Henry, who is black and Latino, strongly disagreed and said Hartford's record of hiring a diverse teaching force is the best in the state. Half of all administrators, including Henry, eight of his 11 senior administrators and 32 percent of the teaching force are black or Hispanic. The student body is 96 percent black and Hispanic.

The debate about the race of teachers has spilled beyond board meetings and is creeping into broader public forums. Former Hartford Mayor Thirman L. Milner addressed the issue in a recent column in the Northend Agent's newspaper. "There is nothing wrong with white teachers," Milner wrote. "I had them, respect them, was the only black in an all-white high school, and appreciated the education that I received, but when they are sent into a problem environment that they are not used to, and may not want to get used to, what do you expect and what do you expect the students to learn?"

District officials say Hartford is a success story when it comes to minority hiring. They point to a minority recruitment and retention plan approved by the school board in 2000 as evidence of the district's attention to diversity.

Williams said the plan is inadequate and there should be a constant effort to improve, though he is uncertain what the goal should be. Some board members agree with him, to varying degrees. Others disagree altogether. "I don't think quota systems work," said board member Michael Lupo. "In the long run, they do more harm than good. You'll find white teachers that do an excellent job teaching all students."

But Williams voiced a skepticism that has long simmered in the North End. "Institutional racism exists within the school system," Williams said. As an example, he cited the high number of black and Hispanic students identified as needing special education services, particularly speech and language. When white refugees from Bosnia moved into the district, their children were not placed in special education, yet high numbers of black and Latino children are, he said. [Draw your own conclusions from that]

More here





A BRITISH BACHELOR'S DEGREE NOW MEANS LITTLE

Between 1995-6 and 2002-3, there was a 42 per cent increase in the number of people choosing to take a taught MA, with almost 10 per cent of graduates staying on for postgraduate education. Many of the extra 35,000 students a year are from overseas, attracted to the prestige associated with some British universities - but a significant proportion are British. While some British students stay out of academic interest, many seem to choose an MA as a way to postpone entering the job market. Between the lie-ins and long sessions down the pub, it's perhaps little wonder that more people want to stay as students.

Helen Finlayson is about to start an MA in Politics and Economics. 'I'm unsure what I want to do once I finally leave the comfort of university life, and I want to put that off as long as possible. But I'm also aware that my undergrad degree is largely useless, because of the increasing numbers of people who hold bachelor's degrees.' Bachelor's degrees are now pretty much open to anyone who wants one, and many are becoming easier by the year. When you can get a 2:1 off the back of three or four hours' work a week, or go months without even attending lectures, a degree is going to mean little to any prospective employers. People are now looking to masters to provide the new yardstick in academic achievement.

MAs were once seen as only for those with an aim to enter academia, but they are now becoming mainstream. Less than 30 per cent of graduates seriously look for a job when they first leave university. Stephanie Hammans, who is about to start an MA in English literature, says: 'I would rather "waste" a year getting an MA rather than working as a data imputer or checkout person. It's not like you can't work at the same time so you can still get money.' Mike Hill, chief executive of the graduate service Prospects, argues that this trend is likely to continue. 'I think it will inevitably follow the American model, where they tend to only take people with MAs and MScs. We're not quite there yet, but my daughter's 12 and by the time she graduates I think we will be.'

MAs aren't restricted to new graduates - as many as a third of postgraduates are people returning to university in a career break. Chris Gage, the education officer from the Mature Students Union, says that people may need the career boost within their chosen field, or because they have been made redundant. Some also return to university mid-career because of 'the realisation that the individual concerned may have wasted their original "bite at the educational cherry" and as a result they have ended up in a dead end job'. For others, it's about taking 'time out' from the world, in much the same way as other thirtysomethings choose to go backpacking around India....

The consumerisation of education has been affecting bachelor's degrees for years. Universities can feel like graduate factories, aiming only to churn out the maximum number of happy customers. MA students are often more comfortable than undergraduates with complaining to departments if they think that the service is not up to scratch. When students have to pay steeper rates for masters' degrees than for undergraduate study, they could feel more like consumers. All this is likely to mean that MAs won't count for much in the end. If bachelor's degrees are now perceived as devalued, it's likely that MAs will go down the same path.

More here





SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR CAUGHT CHEATING IN NYC

Post lifted from Betsy's Page:

If you're a school in New York and you hire a former seminarian with a history of exposing prominent plagiarists and then trying to get the Pulitzer Prizes for Alex Haley, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and David McCullough revoked, it might not be a good idea to try to commit massive fraud on the Regents' Exam in front of him. And retaliating against the teacher for blowing the whistle is also a bad idea. That is what happened when Philip Nobile, who had exposed plagiarism by those three authors was teaching at a school in New York. The school's administrator who was apparently masterminding the cheating retaliated against him, but he persisted and now she's had to resign and he's received tenure.

It sounds like part of the problem is having the exams graded locally at the school where teachers and administrators have an incentive to give higher grades. I'm not from New York and don't know if this is the common procedure for grading the Regents' but it seems ripe for cheating.

Of course, there can also be cheating when the school administrator responsible for giving the exam and protecting the answer sheet gives the multiple choice answers to his son who then writes the answers on his hand. Again, why is the answer key given to an administrator at the school? In North Carolina, no one at the school has access to the answer key or to grading the essays on our state tests. Those are all graded off-site and the essays are graded by people who don't know the students. That is the only fair way.

***************************

For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


Comments? Email me here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site (viewable even in China!) here

***************************

No comments: