I remember how it was -- JR
Leftist Racism to destroy high performing public schools
Hatred of Asians to dictate new admission policies. Without selective admissions, the schools will no longer be high performing
San Francisco’s Lowell High School is one of the top public high schools in California. Beginning with its 2021 freshman class, Lowell plans to switch from a merit-based admission system to that of a lottery.
How good is Lowell? It was ranked 68th nationwide by U.S. News last year.
About the school’s reputation for academic excellence, The San Francisco Unified School District website says: “(Lowell) has been recognized 4 times as a National Blue Ribbon School, 8 times as a California Distinguished School, and one time as a Gold Ribbon School. Lowell has been consistently ranked #1 in the Western Region for the number of Advanced Placement Exams given.”
How did students get admitted to Lowell? The SFUSD website still says: “Admission to Lowell is competitive and merit-based, serving students from throughout the city who demonstrate academic excellence and are motivated to pursue a rigorous college preparatory program.”
About 60% of the student body is Asian, 18% white and 1.8% Black. This is apparently a problem and explains why the SFUSD recently unanimously voted to admit students via this lottery system.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the “problem” is Asian American excellence: “One school board commissioner, Alison Collins, has called merit-based admissions ‘racist.’ The real problem progressives have with Lowell is that too many Asian-Americans are passing the entrance exam.”
This brings us to Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology in Fairfax, Virginia, often the top-rated public high school in the country. TJ also plans to drop their admissions test and are debating on how to replace it. The problem? Over 70% of the student body is Asian American. Fairfax County Public School Board Superintendent Scott Brabrand proposed a “merit-based” lottery for 400 of the 500 spots in the school’s classes. About that alternative, The Washington Post said: “The lottery proposal spurred controversy from the moment Brabrand introduced it on Sept. 15. He promised it would cause TJ’s student body — which is more than 70% Asian and about 20% white, with single-digit percentages of Black and Hispanic students — to more closely resemble the demographics of Fairfax County.”
So much for merit. So much for a colorblind society.
Let’s assume that Lowell and TJ’s competitive merit-based admissions policy resulted in a student-body population that is predominately Black, as is the case with the National Basketball Association. In 2020, the league that prides itself on its racial “wokeness” consisted of 81% Black players and 18% white players. In the NFL, in 2019, approximately 59% of players were Black. As to Major League Baseball, UPI, in 2019, wrote: “By 2017, 27.4 percent of MLB players were Latinos, according to the date compiled by the Society of American Baseball Research.” This is roughly 50% more than percentage of the population of Latinos in America.
To correct for these “racial imbalances” and the “underrepresentation” of some groups, suppose professional sports organizations decided, like Lowell High, to use a lottery system? The new rules would prevent the Black player-heavy NBA, the Black player-heavy NFL and the Latino-heavy MLB from drafting the best college players, provided, of course, they had the misfortune of being born Black or Latino.
In 2012, Pew Research Center polled Asian Americans and asked their reaction to the statement, “Most people who want to get ahead can make it if they’re willing to work hard.” Sixty-nine percent of Asian Americans agreed, as opposed to 58% of the general population. Pew explained: “Compared with the general public, Asian Americans stand out for their success in education and career. Most also believe that the U.S. offers more opportunities and freedoms than their countries of origin. A large majority of Asian Americans believe that hard work pays off and most place a strong emphasis on higher education, career and family.”
Why punish the best college players because “too many” Blacks excel in sports? Why punish Asian American students for the crime of working hard and outperforming others academically?
Ask the San Francisco Unified School District and Fairfax County Public School Board.
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DeSantis: No Woke Racism in Florida Schools
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced during a press conference Wednesday that his state’s schools will “expressly exclude” teaching the Marxist-infused Critical Race Theory (CRT) in classrooms. “There’s no room in our classrooms for things like Critical Race Theory,” DeSantis contended. “Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money.” Can we get an “amen”?
Instead, DeSantis explained, “Florida’s civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials, and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like Critical Race Theory and other unsubstantiated theories.” In order to facilitate educating students in accurate American civics, DeSantis proposed a program to offer a $3,000 bonus to teachers who complete a civics education course that specifically focuses on “foundational concepts.” He added, “So we will invest in actual, solid, true curriculum, and we will be a leader in the development and implementation of a world-class civics curriculum.”
As National Review explains, “Critical race theory ‘presupposes that racism is embedded within society and institutions.’ The theory’s implementation in classrooms nationwide has drawn outcry from parents, some of whom have received emails from their children’s schools about ‘Decentering Whiteness at Home’ or have elementary-school aged children who have been read ‘a book about whiteness’ that suggests ‘color matters’ and encourages them to dissect ‘the painful truth’ about their ‘own family,’ regarding potential racist behavior.” CRT is racist by design.
DeSantis is following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, who last September issued an executive order directing federal agencies to “cease and desist from using taxpayers dollars to fund” CRT training, which consists of “divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions.” Joe Biden has subsequently reversed Trump’s CRT ban.
Governor DeSantis is showing Republicans how to boldly stand up and fight against the leftist anti-American culture war. The Left’s intentionally divisive actions are designed to undermine the very values of individual Liberty the U.S. is built upon in order to make way for the radical transformation of the country into a socialist state. Conservatives must oppose them head-on.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/78514-desantis-no-woke-racism-in-florida-schools-2021-03-18
********************************************Virginia Teachers and Public Officials Colluded to Demonize—and Even Hack and DOX—Parents Who Question Critical Race Theory
According to a disturbing investigative report from the Daily Wire, a group of current and former teachers, activist organizations, and public officials in Loudon County, Virginia, compiled a list of parents suspected of disagreeing with a curriculum based on critical race theory. Luke Rosiak, the investigative journalist for the outlet, reports:
A group of current and former teachers and others in Loudoun County, Virginia, compiled a lengthy list of parents suspected of disagreeing with school system actions, including its teaching of controversial racial concepts — with a stated purpose in part to “infiltrate,” to use “hackers” to silence parents’ communications, and to “expose these people publicly.”
Members of a 624-member private Facebook group called “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County” named parents and plotted fundraising and other offline work. Some used pseudonyms, but The Daily Wire has identified them as a who’s who of the affluent jurisdiction outside D.C., including school staff and elected officials.
The group also includes elected leaders and activist organizations:
According to the members list, the Facebook group appears to include school board members Denise Corbo, Leslee King, and Ian Sorotkin; commonwealth attorney Buta Bibaraj; county supervisor Juli Briskman; NAACP Loudoun branch president Michelle Thomas; and Gazal Modhera, a lawyer with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While these individuals were listed in the group, The Daily Wire saw no evidence that they were involved in the doxxing effort.
Several other group members appear to have a vested financial interest in the delivery of critical race theory programs. The district paid a half-million dollars to train teachers in a program called “Equity in the Center,” which was not the end of the gravy train. This pattern is similar to what we see in corporate America. The Federalist reported that a race-baiting white woman, Robin DiAngelo, made $12,000 for a two-hour training and charged $320 an hour for a phone consultation to tell other white people how racist they are.
Quite a racket if you can coerce institutions into paying so they can avoid accusations of racial insensitivity. Similar coercion brought so-called “diversity” training into the workplace beginning in the 1980s. Activist groups would threaten companies with bad PR if they did not engage with it. By 2003 it was an $8 billion industry that has gone nowhere but up.
It seems the activist teachers and public officials used similar tactics to attempt to coerce parents who had questions or objections. A parent asking what was particularly problematic about Dr. Seuss was put on a list as unforgivably racist to the activists, public officials, and teachers in Loudon County. Loudon County launched the canceling of Dr. Seuss earlier this month.
The story is disturbing on several levels. Loudon County is the country’s wealthiest, one of the few where incomes rose following the 2008 recession. Rosiak reports that the median income for black residents is $112,000. The school district is in the top 5% nationally and is majority-minority. They have a 94.6% graduation rate, which is higher than the 85% rate nationally. It profiles like most districts in wealthy suburbs—hardly one teeming with racial strife, significant poverty, or lack of opportunity.
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Yet, the community is melting down over a divisive curriculum that categorizes children by their immutable characteristics and assigns motives and behaviors to them based solely on that observation.
A recent case in Las Vegas illustrates the absurdity of this type of curriculum. Gabrielle Clark, a black mother, is suing her biracial son’s charter school for failing him when he refused to confess his “white dominance” in a mandatory class called “Sociology of Change.” No one should force children to admit such a thing. It is an intolerant form of compelled speech that violates children’s rights and fails to acknowledge their unique individual gifts.
The most astonishing aspect of the Loudon County story is that public officials and teachers have forgotten who they work for. It is not their job to shove their worldview down the throats of parents and children. Instead, they are paid to serve the interests of parents, children, and the community. Teachers and public officials have an obligation to listen and respond to concerns, not attack and demonize. The fact that any of them thought demonizing and attempting to destroy the reputations of concerned parents in service of their preferred agenda demonstrates they are unsuitable for public office and have no business in the classroom. Every single official should get voted out, and every current teacher involved, fired.
The excellent news is that Loudon County residents saved a small school district in Texas from a similar fate. The superintendent who set up all these programs tried to flee for a position with a smaller district in Texas. Frustrated and angry parents from Loudon County informed the community, and the school board took action:
Clear Creek ISD’s instructional resources now include policy language effectively prohibiting the use of critical race theory in classrooms, after concerns about the theory were raised related to its use at Superintendent Eric Williams’ former school district.
Clear Creek’s policy language should serve as a model for parents and school boards around the country interested in teaching tolerance, respect for the individual, and that character matters:
The CCISD policy amendment uses language specifying that district educational resources “shall not promote or endorse race or sex stereotyping or race or sex scapegoating.” Race or sex stereotyping is defined in the document as ascribing character traits, values, moral and ethical codes, privileges, status or beliefs to a race or sex, or assigning them to an individual because of his or her race or sex. Race or sex scapegoating is defined as assigning fault, blame or bias to a race or sex, or to members of a race or sex because of their identity.
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The secret of the British state school that has more success than Eton
A selective school to start with but well run as well
Why do some state schools thrive while others flounder? Brampton Manor Academy, a selective sixth form with academy status in Newham, east London, one of the country’s poorest boroughs, announced yesterday that 55 of its teenagers have received offers from Oxford and Cambridge, placing it ahead of Eton College. Brampton's sixth form accepts 300 to 400 pupils each year, some of whom travel for two hours each way to reach classes.
It marks a meteoric rise; in 2014, the year its first cohort of students took A-levels, the school received just one Oxbridge offer.
Intake shows 18 per cent of pupils are currently on free school meals (a mark of deprivation), only slightly higher than the England average of 17 per cent. But most of the teenagers with Oxbridge offers are the first in their family to attend university; many hail from difficult circumstances. There’s Afrin, for example, who has caring responsibilities at home and now holds an Engineering offer from Cambridge; or Chloe, who qualifies for free school meals and now holds a Natural Sciences offer from Cambridge.
So, what is Brampton Manor doing right?
Brampton Manor’s success tells a wider story about how British education has changed since the 1980s, when the worst performing schools tended to be in the inner regions of large industrial cities. Back then, the phrase “inner-city comprehensive” was met with shivers of dread from middle-class parents, who fought tooth and nail to get their children into leafier catchment areas.
Now, that situation is reversing. The country’s top social mobility hotspots are now found in the inner London boroughs of Newham (in which Brampton sits), Hackney and Tower Hamlets, according to the Government’s 2017 report on social mobility. Meanwhile, communities at Britain's outer edges - deprived coastal areas like Hastings, Blackpool, and Great Yarmouth - have become “social mobility coldspots ...[at risk of] being left behind economically and hollowed out socially”, says the government.
Much can be explained by the supply of talented graduate teachers, who are far more likely to apply to challenging schools in cities than in deprived coastal towns. When I interviewed Brampton Manor’s headmaster, Dr Dayo Olukoshi, in 2019, he told me one of his tricks is to deliberately over-staff the school in a “number of curriculum areas to make sure that our students are constantly being taught by high-quality graduates”.
This feat would be impossible somewhere like George Pindar School in Scarborough, once considered one of the most challenged schools in Britain. It is now undergoing a transformation under its new headteacher, Lesley Welsh, who told me in 2019 that the school still struggles to attract and retain teachers from outside Scarborough.
Brampton Manor also has a large number of second-generation immigrant pupils, and a much higher than average number of pupils who speak a language other than English at home, according to the school's 2018 Ofsted report, which ranked it 'Outstanding' in all categories. Second-generation immigrant pupils tend to perform better, on average, than white working-class pupils whose families have been in Britain for generations (this group’s poor academic performance is now the focus of a Parliamentary enquiry). The Sutton Trust, an education charity, points to a “strong cultural appreciation of education” among some ethnic minority groups to explain this success.
Others point to London’s diversity: almost every postcode in London has pockets of wealth and pockets of deprivation, in contrast with other parts of the country (which tend to be more segregated). This means that virtually every school in London receives its fair share of those sharp-elbowed, ambitious parents who have proved so crucial to a school’s success.
Tough on pupils
Olukoshi says his disciplinary style is inspired by that of by Sir Michael Wilshaw, the super-strict headmaster who, in the early 2000s, transformed Britain’s worst-performing state school – Mossbourne, in the neighbouring borough of Hackney – to one of the highest-achieving in the country.
“Sir Michael believes, as I do, that there is no secret, there are no big fixes, and what you need is a clear discipline structure, where the boundaries are clear,” Olukoshi told me in 2019.
The school day starts officially at 8.15am, but sixth-formers are encouraged to work in the study centre from 6am. By 6.15am, Olukoshi claims he can usually see 80 students already at their desks, working in silence.
Sixth-formers must dress formally (plain black suits for both boys and girls), and Olukoshi practically scoffs at the idea that pupils would ever call teachers by their first name, a practice adopted in some trendier quarters over the last decade.
Tough on teachers
The school takes an equally rigid approach to its staff. Olukoshi claims the staff car park is nearly full by 7am, and by 7pm he is “actually chasing them to leave – the teachers don’t want to go home”.
It is a culture not suited to everyone. One former employee told The Telegraph in 2019 that, thanks in part to near-constant lesson monitoring by fellow teachers, there was a “general culture of fear” among staff, who routinely put in 12-hour shifts on site: “The atmosphere in the staff room was best described as oppressive,” they said. New recruits at Brampton Manor have been known to last barely a week in their post before fleeing from the stress.
Tough on parents
Just as Sir Michael famously took out restraining orders against badly behaved parents at Mossbourne, Olukoshi has adopted an equally formidable approach to mums and dads at Brampton Manor, summoning them to special meetings if he believes they are “making excuses” for an absent child.
“We absolutely challenge that excuse culture. They might say things like: ‘Well, my daughter was revising until very late, so I allowed her to lie in.’ Well, that’s not acceptable. We challenge our parents, and our parents overwhelmingly are very supportive of what we do here.”
He also stages interventions with any parent he thinks might be holding their child back from attending a top university. “We have had some cases, especially among the female students, where the parent basically says they’re not going to support their daughter moving out of London. [There are] incredibly able students who have secured amazing offers from Durham University, and the parents will say: ‘Well, I’m sorry, our daughter’s not leaving home. The University of East London is not far from where we live, why can’t she just go there?’ We have constant battles with the parents, and we win most of them.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education-and-careers/2021/03/11/secret-state-school-has-success-eton
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