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With NCLB Waiver, Virginia Sorts Kids' Scores By Race

Posted by timothy on from the racism-as-practiced-by-idiots dept.

According to a story at Northwest Public Radio, the state of Virginia's board of education has decided to institute different passing scores for standardized tests, based on the racial and cultural background of the students taking the test. Apparently the state has chosen to divide its student population into broad categories of black, white, Hispanic, and Asian — which takes painting with a rather broad brush, to put it mildly. From the article (there's an audio version linked as well): "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. ... 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." (If officially determined group membership determines passing scores, why stop there?) Florida passed a similar measure last month.

7 of 622 comments (clear)

  1. *different* scores for *standardized* tests by jerpyro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thank you government for pointing us in the complete wrong direction. This is absolutely going to encourage racism.

    1. Re:*different* scores for *standardized* tests by ByOhTek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Agreed. As someone who went through school with severe disabilities (bad vision, an odd hearing issue), and typically surpassed most/all of his classmates, I find such reduction in standards to be idiotic, asinine and down-fucking-right insulting.

      If I'm not good enough at something to compete in tests with someone who doesn't have my disabilities, with someone else from a more financially sound background, with someone who is Asian, then I shouldn't get the god damn job.

      What next? Reduced vision test requirements for driving, for the visually imparfed? That's just what the world needs, me behind the wheel.

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    2. Re:*different* scores for *standardized* tests by 1s44c · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Thank you government for pointing us in the complete wrong direction. This is absolutely going to encourage racism.

      Encourage racism? It is racism.

      But then racism was always OK as long as it's anti-white.

    3. Re:*different* scores for *standardized* tests by jerpyro · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just wait until the teachers start grading on a curve and a black kid suffers social consequences because he got an A with a 75% and a white kid got a C with a 75%. Or someone who applies to a job and a "Latino 4.0" is considered substandard to an "Asian 2.0" -- any way you slice it the implications of this are outrageous.

    4. Re:*different* scores for *standardized* tests by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why would you say something like that? They are under no obligation to learn better than they do now. It's their choice to work harder. You don't disparage South American indigenous people for their life choices, either (I hope, at least).

      I think the problem has more to do with how do they fit in the society in which they live. An aboriginal tribesman in New York City will have a hard time not because he's inferior (which I find measuring a culture versus Western civilization a little disingenuous) but because his lifestyle puts him at a significant disadvantage when compared to his neighbors. So world culture comparisons is really off-topic to what is being discussed.

      I think the "elephant in the room" is that we have a single labor market in the US, and trying to grade people on the curve based on their social or ethnic background isn't doing anyone any favors. If a job requires a skill set "A" then we should be able to measure accurately that applicants have skill set "A" not that he would have skill set "A" if he was a certain race or income bracket.

      Grading on a social curve isn't really doing anyone any favor and does more to hide problems than fix them.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
  2. Offensive by Murdoch5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Passing should be the same for everyone, how long did we have racial profiling laws that made it impossible for equality to exist, now in one move Virginia wants to completely defeat that. If there going to profile kids based of there race do they also seat kids based off there skin color, black kids at the back, Asian's at the front so they can answer the question more easily, whites in the middle to be forgotten and average and Hispanics where ever? Same idea just a different spin, this entire concept is offensive and unethical.

  3. Re:Discrimination by 3vi1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> but in this case I do feel especially bad for Asian's and Whites given the higher requirement for them.

    You've got it backwards: Feel bad for the other races, who won't be pushed to excel to the same level and will therefore be stuck in menial low-pay jobs for the rest of their lives.