Tucson Schools To Implement Race Based Punishment - Blacks And Hispanics To Receive Passes

Sounds like a blatant contravention of the 14th Amendment to me: "nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". Note that it is the person, not the group which is to be treated equally

Black and Hispanic students in the Tucson Unified School District will soon receive passes for breaking school rules if the TUSD board has its way. It proposed a two tiered punishment system for the whole district that will reduce suspensions and expulsions for minority students, even if warranted, so that in the end there is "no ethnic/racial disparities" in punishment meted out.

I wonder why they didn't just go the other direction. Say for instance a white student is 2 minutes late for class, why not expel them, that way the number of white expulsions will eventually catch up to other minority groups.

Some would say I am a racist for even covering this news story, to them I say "What the hell are you smoking?" It is not racist to point out other people in this country who are pushing for racial quotas and special favors for those of minority groups. There can be nothing more racist than giving gifts to those of one race and not to those of another. Doug MacEachern of the Arizona Republic sums up nicely what the TUSD has passed and plans to implement.

From the section of the 52-page plan titled "Restorative School Culture and Climate," subhead, "Discipline":

"School data that show disparities in suspension/expulsion rates will be examined in detail for root causes. Special attention will be dedicated to data regarding African-American and Hispanic students."

The board approved creating an "Equity Team" that will oversee the plan to ensure "a commitment to social justice for all students."

The happy-face edu-speak notwithstanding, what the Tucson Unified School District board of governors has approved this summer is a race-based system of discipline.

TUSD is known nationwide for its open policy on disenfranchising white students through special favors to all other minority groups. It's "Raza Studies" program has been covered numerous times on this website and as recently as last week when I reposted "Raza Studies, Occupied America, Mexican American Heritage And The Reconquest Of America". The "studies group" pushes the agenda of amnesty for all illegal aliens because the southwest really still belongs to Mexico. It also sows hatred of the United States in its students and a pro-racial pride agenda inciting insurrectionist thought.

It should be noted that the Raza Studies program is very well funded and the TUSD board is calling for an expansion of the program. Meanwhile, TUSD has been closing libraries, arts and music programs and laying off teachers in other areas not related to Raza Studies due to funding. You'd think that someone would be looking into where of all this funding is coming from. It is obviously not being funded by those who care about America and equality for all.

MacEachern continues and shows that not only are students are being rewarded by race, the TUSD is participating in race-based hiring.

In a year in which hundreds of district teachers received pink slips, meanwhile, TUSD spent thousands on recruiting teachers from out of state.

And it hired a coordinator at $80,000 per annum to lead the effort.

... TUSD's race-obsessing board of governors is taking racial bean-counting to preposterous extremes.

... increasing the number of minority teachers - per the summer hiring spree, which netted 14 special-education teachers and one math-science teacher.

They are actively doing so, claiming that they want the race of teachers to be the same racial makeup as students. This is illegal under federal law, yet no one is doing anything about it.

It is all quite sickening. The TUSD is populated by Liberal, "tolerance", "social justice" and "race justice" bed-wetters, yet they are the true face of hate in this country. They are too blind to see what they are doing is exactly the opposite of what "equality for all" means. They don't want an equal playing field, they want to hold one group down and promote another without merit. There can be nothing more un-American, or illegal, than that.

SOURCE







Let’s get back to worksheets

The U.S. is falling behind the world in math. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "We are lagging the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways." A special analysis put out by the National Center for Education Statistics found that the math performance of U.S. high schoolers was in the bottom quarter of the countries that participated in the most recent Program for International Student Assessment. Results of the 2009 ACT and SAT show that U.S. students are no better in math this year than they were last year. Math performance has improved in other countries while it has remained stagnant in the U.S.

These findings are disturbing in an increasingly global economy where careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are becoming progressively more important for nations to compete internationally.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the proportion of students obtaining STEM degrees from U.S. universities has dropped from 32 percent to 27 percent over the past decade. At the same time, the percentage of non-U.S. students earning these degrees from U.S. universities has increased dramatically.

In The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Friedman argues that getting more Americans to pursue careers in STEM fields is critical to the future of our nation's economy. Friedman is not alone in his opinion.

The National Science Foundation reports that non-U.S. graduates from U.S. universities accounted for more than half of the doctorate recipients in physics (58 percent), computer sciences (65 percent), engineering (68 percent), and mathematics (57 percent). The most numerous of these non-U.S. graduates were from China, India, and South Korea. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that over 40 percent of non-U.S. doctoral degree recipients intended to leave the U.S.

Not only are we losing ground to non-U.S. citizens at our own universities, but we're also falling behind other nations. The U.S. is no longer the leader in STEM education. In absolute numbers, Japan and China are producing more graduates. Our rate of STEM to non-STEM graduates is roughly 17 percent while the international average is nearly 26 percent. We're not even keeping pace with some developing countries.

President Obama has acknowledged that other countries--especially Asian countries--are performing better in math than the U.S. How does he plan to prevent us from falling farther behind?

In the U.S., we used to focus on basic computation skills when we taught students traditional math. Ever since the U.S. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics developed standards for school math in 1989, many U.S. schools starting teaching reform math.

Recently, I visited schools in Japan and Taiwan. I found they're teaching math the way we used to teach it; they're focusing on basic computation skills. Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea--all top performers in math--are also focusing on the basics. Even the cram schools, which are prevalent in Asia, focus on the basics.

The largest and most established cram school in Asia is Kumon. I visited their head office in Tokyo to interview public relations executives Mayu Katata and Shinichiro Iwasaki about the Kumon method. In a nutshell, they focus on using worksheets to help students master basic computation skills. Traditional math emphasizes basic computation skills and algorithms that lead to the correct answer while reform math places more value on the thinking process that leads to any answer.

Both of these skills are needed. However, the major problem with reform math is that it puts the cart before the horse by trying to teach students abstract concepts of math before they have built strong foundational skills. With traditional math, students often work individually on worksheets. With reform math, they often work in groups cutting, pasting, and coloring.

Sure, worksheets and algorithms are boring compared to gluing stuff and explaining how you came up with an answer that may not even be correct, but which method will better prepare our students to compete in an increasingly global economy? America, let's get back to worksheets.

SOURCE







One in 12 British secondary schools 'failing'

One in 12 secondary schools could be closed or merged unless they hit GCSE targets next year. As many as 270 secondaries, including 40 of Labour’s flagship academies, fell short of the Government’s strict exam benchmark last summer. Those failing to improve by 2011 could be shut, merged with better performing schools nearby or turned into academies, which are sponsored and run by the private sector.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, warned that academies which have been open for at least three years could also have their sponsors replaced if they did not show "clear evidence" of improving results.

The Government also announced that it would send expert advisers into a series of local authorities to raise standards. It includes Kent, which has a selective education system that includes grammar schools and secondary moderns.

Mr Balls has previously criticised academic selection, insisting pupils who did not win grammar school places at 11 were made to feel like “failures”.

On Tuesday, he said: “I've always said that non-selective schools in selective areas face extra challenges. It's harder but it's not necessarily harder because there's more deprivation or it can't be done.

“There's no doubt in my mind that if you have a new cohort of young people who have all arrived in secondary school having been told that they didn't succeed then you have greater issues around aspiration and belief.”

Under the National Challenge initiative, every school must ensure at least 30 per cent of pupils gain five A* to C grades at GCSE, including the key subjects of English and maths. They are supposed to meet the target by 2011.

Every school below the benchmark was told it would receive extra funding to help boost scores. The number of schools failing to hit the target has dropped from 638 two years ago to around 270.

Around 40 academies are still below the 30 per cent benchmark, according to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Of these, around 10 have been open for at least three years, before National Challenge began.

The DCSF said today that it had "concerns" about the performance of a "handful" of these, because their results had either stalled or fallen.

Nick Gibb, the Conservative shadow schools minister, said: “There are still far too many schools where fewer than a third of children reach the basic standard of five good GCSEs including English and maths, and it is the poorest areas that are worst affected.

“We urgently need a different approach with more powers for teachers to keep order, more highly qualified people encouraged into teaching, and making schools answerable to parents instead of bureaucrats.”

SOURCE