Florida schools require less from blacks and Hispanics under new education standards

[claud3]

Asian students should be the smartest, and teachers will expect the least from blacks. That’s the case in Florida, at least, where the Board of Education has agreed to pass a revised plan that outlines new academic goals for students based on race.

The Florida Board of Education passed the plan last week and hopes to have students across the state meeting the newly created goals by 2018. And while educators are hoping to have higher test scores coming in across the board, race and ethnicity play a deciding factor in what’s expected from Sunshine State students in the years to come.

Under the approved strategic revision, 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of whites, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of blacks will be expected to read at or above their applicable reading grade levels in future tests. For math scores, they expect 92 percent of Asians, 80 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of blacks to excel, suggesting that some races warrant a lower bar than others.

Patrick Franklin, president and CEO of the Urban League of Palm Beach County, opposes the revision, telling the Sun Sentinel, "All children should be held to high standards and for them to say that for African-Americans the goal is below other students is unacceptable.”

Cheryl Etters, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, defends the approved plan, however, and says the decision was made so as to set "realistic and attainable" goals.

“Of course we want every student to be successful," Etters tells the Sentinel. "But we do have to take into account their starting point."

According to test scores taken from the 2011-2012 state FCAT reading exam, 69 percent of white students scored at or above grade level, while only 38 percent of blacks and 53 percent of Hispanics scored similarly.

Despite previous scores suggesting that students from some backgrounds are more likely to excel in tests than others, though, using race as a factor in establishing goals is raising opposition across Florida and the rest of the United States.

“Separate but equal is not,” Kris Amundson of Education Sector, a DC-based independent education think tank, tells Fox News. “I understand that this is recognition that students are beginning at different places — and that’s honest — but I think it is, at best, ill-advised to set different learning standards for students based on the color of their skin.”

Juan Lopez, a magnet coordinator at Riviera Beach, Florida’s predominantly black John F. Kennedy Middle School joins Amundson in opposition and tells the Sentinel that he thinks the maneuver is unfair, to say the least.

“To expect less from one demographic and more from another is just a little off-base,” Lopez says. “Our kids, although they come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, they still have the ability to learn,” Lopez adds. “To dumb down the expectations for one group, that seems a little unfair.”

JFK has a black student population of around 88 percent, leaving only around one-sixth of the student body to be stuck with studying more.

Florida Department of Ed Chairperson Kathleen Shanahan tells reporters that the revision is being made to help comply with the terms included in a waiver that Florida and nearly three dozen other states have within provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, the President George W. Bush-approved legislation that allocated federal funding to public schools that takes into account test scores.

“We feel that it’s very, very important to have these goals so that we can draw attention to where our students are now, where each of the subgroups are so that schools and parents and teachers can all focus on where we are and where we need to be eventually,” Interim Education Commissioner Pam Stewart tells The Examiner in support of the revisions.

The Examiner notes that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush wrote an editorial in the Washington Times only last month calling into question similar benchmarks in Virginia.

“Schools’ expectations should be color blind. As a nation, we have rejected police use of racial profiling on the streets, by what rational do we now accept it from educators in the classroom,” Gov. Bush wrote.

F

http://rt.com/usa/news/florida-hispa...on-blacks-582/

This is just crazy in my opinion

[Cybertox]

I think that this is a little bit racistic lol.

[DeviousOne]

Trying to save face and funding for schools in the central FL area that don't me academic requirements at the end of the day. The public education system in Fl is a fucking joke then they wonder why so many kids don't make it in college and drop out...

I can name a couple HS in the central FL that it would Help smh

[BoyBettaKnow]

'Aim low, blacks and hispanics. Aim low'

What a brilliant way to make people think they can't achieve. just wow

[Kuro]

Florida again? Lol..wow

[Thorzilla]

People from the US doing their shit as usual. Political correctness? Please. Some of the US seriously needs to get its head out of its ass.

[DeviousOne]

There are a lot of ignorant people in FL's public school education system its a fucking joke.

Programs like this are product of kids that were given low standards then later on in life became part of the system which comes up with genius ideas like this!

[Kuro]

That's so stupid man..Damn

[squirrelbo1]

Surely they should have set these targets based on income and starting point. Yeah it would have pretty much given similar results but poor people do worse in education because they are poor, not because they are black or Hispanic.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[mikeghtmare]

That's the stupidest thing ever. It's sad that it's all about the money, because everyone knows this is not going to help anyone except for schools to get more funding because they get more people "passing".

[Cybertox]

Oh Damn i forgot to write my famous sentence:

Meanwhile in America...

[mickice]

You know why Asian kids are smart? They study 24/7, they live in a learned environment, high scores and smarts are highly respected and praised.

[DeviousOne]

That's the stupidest thing ever. It's sad that it's all about the money, because everyone knows this is not going to help anyone except for schools to get more funding because they get more people "passing".

That's exactly what its about the funding. Its BS!

They use what about the kids line all the time but never go out of their way to help the struggling kids and praise the 5% of students doing well then bend over backwards for them.

I was never one on those 5% I did ok enough just to get by and get outta HS to move on with my life.

[claud3]

Its crazy and yet its the norm, lets see whats next and what will happen after this goes into full effect

[weskurtz81]

Trying to save face and funding for schools in the central FL area that don't me academic requirements at the end of the day. The public education system in Fl is a fucking joke then they wonder why so many kids don't make it in college and drop out...

I can name a couple HS in the central FL that it would Help smh

Why is this a problem but affirmative action isn't?

[DeviousOne]

Why is this a problem but affirmative action isn't?

That's an whole other topic. I don't agree with that as well! I don't think now a days we need affirmative action in the job place. Whatever happened 60 years ago is in the past! Time to move on because affirmative action has yet to benefit me in anyway in my career.

With programs like this a small percentage of people benefit from it people complain in america we are behind well it because of the loose standards in our education that's where it starts.

Me for example dont I think I deserve a position more than a white person because I'm of latino decent. Hell no its because I'm educated, confident and know my shit I'm just better because I've had the education, drive, and experience. No one has given me anything for being a minority if anything I have to work harder to get what I have and be smarter. Any person white black purple whatever can do what I do in the end it comes down to the person...in my case it always has.

[keefy]

How does something so racist become a standard?

[PeanutButterMunky]

Cuz that's fair to everyone else...

In other news, blacks and Hispanics aren't any less intelligent than any other race.

Florida is a joke.

[podsaurus]

The biggest factor in a kid doing well: do they give a shit about an education? There have been plenty of days over the years when my mother comes home (she's a teacher) and talks about the garbage her kids hand in IF they hand in any homework at all. Some of them are very smart, they know what they need to do but they don't care so they don't do the work. And when they come from a home where their parents have no education, most only have one parent, certainly no college and in a lot of cases no GED the parents don't care about education. So the kids aren't going to either and why would they?

Every kid has to ability to achieve in school and the way they achieve is through their willingness to learn and knowing the importance of an education. So telling kids that basically they're stupid and they will held at lower academic standards than others is just wrong. Everybody goes on and on about this country needing jobs and getting things going again, so instead of taking the short cut with education and teaching kids less, hire more teachers and aids. Make sure those kids get the resources, get the help and get the attention they need to succeed.

These school districts don't want to spend the money to make sure every kid can move up in life. They rather cuts costs and not spend the money. But years later they'll say 'Look look! The black and hispanic kids are doing so well look at their grades!' They got a 'good' grade because it's a dumbed down version of the test. All kids can do well as long as they care and are getting what they need to do well.

[F34R]

Just another thing going on for the gov't to give more money. Instead of teaching more, they lower the bar to get more money. Nice.

[Ixion]

Exams have been getting easier over the years in order to keep scores the same. We're getting dumber as a nation, and this is another example of lowering the bar instead of actually improving education.

Where's James Cameron when you need him?

[DeviousOne]

You have these teacher they actually try to help but since they have a structure like this in place teachers can do shit without fear of losing their jobs in Central Fl. I have a couple friends that are teachers.

I feel bad for these kids that try to go to college after going thru the fl public school system cause you aren't prepared FL has some of the best colleges in the country. But our public school system is shit!

My kids won't be going to public school here in Central Fl

[Yuuichi]

Welcome to Fl education system where it is teach to pass Fcat. We actually talked about this in my Education into Diversity class last week. This is just a growing problem with Teachers expecting less from students because of xyz reason, and those students being passed on a grade lvl they are not ready for so they always playing catch up but "Teachers do not have time to focus on helping the kid play catch up" so the student gets affected by it all when if you get it early then there is no need to play catch up.

The "A" rated schools in my area have many many places in effect for students. They have after school programs, they take student who are say in grade 5 but reading at grade lvl 3 and take them out of class giving them more focus so they do not play catch up. I was witch a Teacher who was always early, and would help students struggling. By the same side I have seen a teacher that really didn't care about the failing students and gave up on them, even bad mouthing them in the teachers lounge.

[weskurtz81]

That's an whole other topic. I don't agree with that as well! I don't think now a days we need affirmative action in the job place. Whatever happened 60 years ago is in the past! Time to move on because affirmative action has yet to benefit me in anyway in my career.

With programs like this a small percentage of people benefit from it people complain in america we are behind well it because of the loose standards in our education that's where it starts.

Me for example dont I think I deserve a position more than a white person because I'm of latino decent. Hell no its because I'm educated, confident and know my shit I'm just better because I've had the education, drive, and experience. No one has given me anything for being a minority if anything I have to work harder to get what I have and be smarter. Any person white black purple whatever can do what I do in the end it comes down to the person...in my case it always has.

Can't agree more, that's the way it should be. IMO, affirmative action actually HURTS minorities more than it helps them. Of course though, Democrats will support it because that's what a large part of their base wants them to support, I just wish it would go away as a failed social program.

[RaY_210]

Lol! Really??? Wow I don't even know what to say about this! I don't even know how this is an actual proposal!