Clearly, we’re setting expectations far too high.
The headline:
Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected
It’s a relativity thing. If the problem is: “lower than expected proficiency scores,” we can fix that problem by expecting lower scores. See? Now the headline is: “Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Meet Expectations.”
I kid, of course. That’s not the problem. The problem is: proficiency among black students – particularly boys – is troublingly low.
Why?
“There’s accumulating evidence that there are racial differences in what kids experience before the first day of kindergarten,” said Ronald Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard. “They have to do with a lot of sociological and historical forces. In order to address those, we have to be able to have conversations that people are unwilling to have.”
Those include “conversations about early childhood parenting practices,” Dr. Ferguson said. “The activities that parents conduct with their 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds. How much we talk to them, the ways we talk to them, the ways we enforce discipline, the ways we encourage them to think and develop a sense of autonomy.”
Am I out of line to be thinking of this story?
Blacks struggle with 72 percent unwed mothers rate
I don’t think I am.
Via Memeorandum.
UPDATE - Linked at Creative Minority Report.
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having lived for the last thirty years in a ‘racially mixed’ neighborhood, i can attest, with knowledge gained from experience, that it has less to do with single moms or how they speak to their toddlers than it does ‘cultural’ peer pressure. excelling (or even participating at all) in any pursuits other than sports, rap music, pimping, or gang-banging is considered “white” and, therefore, extremely undesirable. it can even get you killed.