Educators Alarmed: Black, Latino High School Students Perform at Levels of 30 Years Ago

America has thrown good money after bad trying to buy a solution to the ever-increasing education performance gap between Blacks and Latinos, compared to White students. And year after year this has proved to be an epic fail and a huge waste of money. Instead of admitting the cause (lower IQs), they paper over the cracks with even more money in the hopes that one day they'll wake up and bingo, there's a beautiful wall-paper on the walls with no more cracks. When that day comes, we'll know for sure that we've entered liberal utopia la-la land where the unicorns and fairies play. Far cheaper would be to admit that the more money, the worse the performance. Blacks and Hispanics, generally, don't want to study. They'd rather play sport, be gangsta's, do crime, make babies, hump anything that moves.....I think you know where I'm going. They have no interest in opening a book and studying how to build a bridge or design a car, or how to get to Mars. So why force them? We force them because we have liberals amongst us who believe that the world should be equal for everyone and if that means they have to take from the haves to give to the have-not's - who have not earned it - then so be it (just don't think of touching their money of course!). So, why should education be any different. To close the gap, the liberal answer would be to drop the standard so that everyone is once again equal (just not at the private schools their kids attend). As we've seen in South Africa, this usually back-fires as the more you drop the standard, the dumber the students produced and the more you have to drop the standard - a vicious circle. In any case, the article below lists why educators think the gap is increasing and, shock, horror, not one of them admits to the lower IQ issue. Tap dance people, tap dance.

WASHINGTON—Educators are expressing alarm that the performance gap between minority and white high school students continues to expand across the United States, with minority teenagers performing at academic levels equal to or lower than those of 30 years ago.

Despite the hope that improving education for children of color would propel them to better life outcomes, Latino and African-American students are not being prepared in high school classrooms for brighter futures. While achievement levels have improved considerably for minority elementary and middle school students, educators say their academic performance drops during high school years.

How prevalent is the achievement gap at the high school level?

On average, African-American and Latino high school seniors perform math and read at the same level as 13-year-old white students.

“We take kids that start [high school] a little behind and by the time they finish high school, they’re way behind,” says Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at the Education Trust, a Washington-based educational advocacy group. “That’s the opposite of what American values say education is about. Education is supposed to level the playing field. And it does the opposite. . . .While many people are celebrating our postracial society . . . there is still a significant hangover in our schools.”

The Education Trust says African-American and Latino students have made little to no progress in 12^th-grade reading scores since 1994, continuing to lag behind white students. Math achievement has also remained flat, with the gap between white students and those of color widening.

Educators cite these causes for the disparity in performance:

• Lowered expectations for students of color
• Growing income inequality and lack of resources in low-income school districts
• Unequal access to experienced teachers
• An increased number of “out of field” teachers instructing minority students in subjects outside their area of expertise
• Unconscious bias” by teachers and administrators.

These factors, experts say, produce an opportunity gap for students of color.

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