Thursday, June 19, 2008

G&T: Everything Tweed Touches Turns to Shit

Where are those great civli rights activists Joel Klein and Al Sharpton now?
Another example of non-educator ideologues who think they know it all. Jeez, we status quoers just have to stop being so negative.


Comment by Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters.
www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/

The NY Times has a front page story today describing how the G and T admissions process this year led to a much less diverse group of students being served, both economically and racially, a fact that was pointed out on our blog as well as Eduwonkette’s weeks ago.

Months before that, when the city first proposed to centralize the G and T admissions process and base the decision solely on uniform cut off scores on standardized exams, we pointed out that this would likely restrict diversity and benefit wealthier students at the expense of poor and minority kids. Apparently others warned the DOE directly, including Joseph Renzulli, who serves as a consultant to a city task force on the gifted.

Using standardized exams for high stakes decisions has a racially disparate impact, according to the National Academy of Sciences task force on the subject – and thus is racially discriminatory.

But Joel Klein’s notion of “equity,” as it is becoming more and more clear, is not to increase diversity and opportunity for all kids – but to base all decisions on an abstract, numerical formula that he and his minions devise without input from others– like the FSF formula and the formula for school grades -- no matter what the results or the real impact on kids.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/nyregion/19gifted.html?_r=3&hp=&pagewanted=all

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So, it seems to me that they read your blog and find "inspiration" to write.
Don't get me wrong, I love your blog, but how frightening is it that you have to do the job of the reporters as well.
OOps! I forgot..you're a teacher! You're probably used to thinking for everyone else!