Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Blacks Call UCLA Biased, Seek Overhaul of Admissions

Leaders in Los Angeles' African American community called Thursday for the overhaul of UCLA's undergraduate admissions practices, charging that many black applicants were unfairly rejected by the university.

The demand for reforms follows the disclosure two weeks ago that blacks account for only 96, or 2%, of the more than 4,700 freshmen expected to enroll at UCLA this fall. That is the lowest level in more than three decades, and gives UCLA a lower percentage of African American freshmen than USC or UC Berkeley.

The call for changes was also propelled by this week's release of a report by researchers at UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies that was sharply critical of the university's freshmen admissions procedures.

In a news conference on campus, a newly formed group consisting of African American religious, civic, alumni and student leaders said UCLA's admissions practices discriminate against blacks.

The Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education rejected university administrators' frequent assertion that California's ban on affirmative action in public employment, contracting and education - mandated by the passage of Proposition 209 in 1996 - was a major impediment to bringing in more black students.

The activists called for a complete overhaul of admissions practices to bring about "immediate and demonstrative actions to increase African American admissions and enrollment." They did not offer specifics other than urging a more holistic approach that would put applicants' achievements and performance in a fairer context.

Mandla Kayise, president of the UCLA Black Alumni Assn., said the alliance holds the University of California regents and the UCLA administration responsible for "denying highly qualified African American students who have achieved some of the highest levels of academic achievement [and] personal achievement and have overcome some of the greatest life challenges of any group of students the African American community has ever produced."

"They have been accepted at UC Berkeley, they have been accepted at USC, they have been accepted to top campuses across this country and yet we find some of those same students have been denied at UCLA," Kayise said.

UCLA officials said that their declining number of black freshmen was tied to Proposition 209. Before the ban was imposed on affirmative action, "We consistently led the UC system year after year after year in both the number of admits and the proportion of our freshman classes that were underrepresented minorities," said Tom Lifka, a UCLA assistant vice chancellor.

But many of the group of about 20 black community leaders who appeared at the UCLA news conference cited the new Bunche Center report as evidence of UCLA's flawed admissions practices.

That report noted that UCLA is extending fewer admissions offers to black high school seniors despite rising percentages of African American students in the state who are meeting the minimum standards for eligibility for UC campuses and who are applying to the schools.

Darnell Hunt, director of the Bunche Center, said UCLA's admissions procedures fail to fully account for the obstacles low-income black students often face compared to affluent students who have more opportunities to take Advanced Placement courses and SAT preparation classes.

He added that UCLA's numbers of African American students have fallen to such low levels that even when black prospective students visit the campus, "It becomes a tough sell when they . don't see any other people like themselves."

Ward Connerly, a former UC regent and leading opponent of affirmative action, took issue with the Bunche report, saying that the main problem is a small pool of high-performing black high school students.

Source







Bush/Kennedy education reforms not doing much good: Harvard study

U.S. President George W. Bush's signature No Child Left Behind education policy is failing to close racial achievement gaps [Surprise!] and will miss its goals by 2014 according to recent trends, a Harvard study said on Wednesday. It said the policy has had no significant impact on improving reading and math achievement since it was introduced in 2001, contradicting White House claims and potentially adding to concerns over America's academic competitiveness. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act was meant to introduce national standards to an education system where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school, a proportion that slides to 50 percent for blacks and Hispanics.

The study released by Harvard University's Civil Rights Project said national average of achievement by U.S. students has been flat in reading since 2001 and the growth rate in math has remained the same as before the policy was introduced. The study follows results last month from the first nationwide science test administered in five years which showed achievement among U.S. high school seniors falling over the past decade -- a time when students in many other developed countries are outscoring U.S. students in science testing. The Harvard report said only 24 to 34 percent of U.S. students will meet a reading proficiency target by 2014 and 29 to 64 percent will hit a math target under current trends.

Under No Child Left Behind, children in every racial and demographic group in every school must improve their scores on standardized tests in math and English each year. Failure to achieve annual progress can lead to sanctions against schools. Children in poorly performing schools can switch schools if space is available. In extreme cases, schools can be closed. But a surge in the number of schools identified as "needing improvement," including many considered top performers in their state, has stirred opposition to the law nationwide -- from a legal challenge in Connecticut to a rebellion by state legislators in staunchly Republican Utah.

U.S. officials counter the reforms are working. "Across the country test scores in reading and math in the early grades are rising," Deputy Secretary for the Department of Education, Raymond Simon, testified in Congress on Tuesday. "The 'achievement gap' is finally beginning to close."

That differs from Harvard's study, which predicts less than 25 percent of poor and black students will hit the 2014 target in reading proficiency and less than 50 percent in math, with the overall racial achievement gap barely closing by 2014. The averages were based on the federal government's National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the most accurate test for measuring achievement in core subjects.

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


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