Facing challenges at school
By RICK MARTINEZ
RALEIGH--Sometimes the elusive quest for equality gets in the way of meaningful progress for minorities. The latest example is the educational theory of "differentiation" as adopted by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district.
Under differentiation, students of all abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds are taught in the same classroom in order to provide equal access to quality instruction for all. While that sounds great in theory, in practice differentiation has a dark side that impedes achievement and limits opportunity. Consider the scenario that's playing out now.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board voted to eliminate advanced language arts courses next year at two of its middle schools. This comes on top of dropping similar classes for sixth-graders this year, and plans to eventually eliminate all eighth-grade advanced language arts courses. Peculiar moves, given the district's history of being one of the best, if not the best, school systems in North Carolina.
Why is Chapel Hill eliminating highly desirable accelerated courses? District officials say advanced courses lead to "tracking," or grouping of students by academic ability, which can lead to high expectations and extra opportunities for gifted students. Conversely, they believe tracking can doom non-gifted pupils to low expectations and exclusion. So instead of teaching high-performing kids in accelerated courses, the board has adopted the one-class size fits all, equality-based theories behind differentiation.
Despite the board's best efforts to keep discussion about differentiation focused on academics, the debate has become centered on race. And no wonder. It's hard to miss that the overwhelming majority of students enrolled in advanced courses are white and Asian.
This lack of racial diversity caught the attention of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP. It helped convince the board that accelerated classes were creating separate and unequal education caste systems which deny minority students equal educational opportunity. That's a polite way of saying advanced classes are racist.
That theory may have been valid back in the bad old days, but this isn't the 1950s. If there's a significant disparity in the number of African-American and Hispanic kids in advanced classes, I'll bet the mortgage it's because of individual ability, accomplishment and preparation. Not race. Chapel Hill-Carrboro is hardly a hotbed of white supremacist ideology.
However well meaning, the school board has joined with the NAACP in a racial coverup. Differentiation is a not-so-subtle attempt to blur academic disparities between white and Asian students and their African-American and Hispanic classmates. So-called academic equality is achieved by holding gifted students back instead of lifting up low-performing students.
That's why the NAACP's opposition to advanced classes is so disappointing. It would be more courageous and beneficial to ask for a frank and honest assessment detailing why African-American and Hispanic kids are so underrepresented in gifted classes. Political correctness should not prevent the asking of hard questions.
For example, why is it our children have equal access to libraries, yet minority kids read fewer books than their white classmates? Why are minority kids among the highest consumers of television?
Minority leaders must have the courage to raise these issues within our community, not just push school boards to eliminate accelerated classes. That doesn't narrow the achievement gap. It only accommodates it. Differentiation doesn't provide equal educational opportunity. It just lowers the academic bar and limits our potential.
What the minority community needs now more than ever is a new breed of leadership that breaks away from the tired and increasingly irrelevant philosophy that depends on social institutions to solve our problems.
We need leaders with the guts to tell us that true affirmative action isn't a government program -- it's reading more to our children. It's taking them to Monticello. It's turning off the television. It's sitting down with teachers and asking what it's going to take to get our kids prepared for advanced courses.
Public policies such as differentiation, although well intentioned, ultimately limit minority children. Why should we settle for equality when we can be advanced?
I mean, talk about one of your all time stupid-ass rulings. If you are interested, please read this article. It's written by a minority and he hits the nail right on the head. I'd love some of the liberals here to try and justify the stupidity in this one.
