No one cares about low-income kids!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016

Except perhaps maybe as click-bait:
What explains our very large "racial"/ethnic achievement gaps? We refer to the types of gaps which obtained on the 2012 PISA, which tested 15-year-old students:
Average scores, Reading Literacy, 2012 PISA
United States, Asian-American students: 550
Japan: 538
South Korea: 536
Finland: 524
Taiwan: 523
United States, white students: 519
United States: 498
United States, Hispanic students: 478
United States, black students: 443
According to PISA-connected Amanda Ripley, 39 points on the PISA scale is considered to be the rough equivalent of one academic year.

Applying that very rough rule of thumb, white kids in the U.S. basically matched miraculous Finland—not that you'd ever learn such a thing in the mainstream press. On average, black kids in the U.S. would have been several years behind. Asian-American kids outscored all the world's public school superpowers.

The gaps seem to be larger on some tests. What explains these gaps? How can we confront them?

During our recent series, Where the Test Scores Are, we said that different people are inclined to answer those questions in different ways. We also mentioned the fact that no one actually cares.

What did we mean by that last award-winning comment? Consider the two paragraphs Slate devoted to public school issues today. The two grafs were written by Marissa Martinelli, who seems to be straight out of college, as is completely appropriate.

This was her entire piece, except for the tape of John Oliver:
MARTINELLI (10/31/16): Though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 invalidated laws that kept black and white students in separate schools, racial segregation in America’s school systems is still very much alive and well. John Oliver kicked off his Last Week Tonight segment on the subject with an admonishment for his more liberal white viewers, who might think the issue only applies south of the Mason-Dixon: “If you’re in a city like New York, you’re probably thinking, ‘Oh, splendid, I know where this is going: a story vilifying the backwards and racist American South. Let me just grab a handful of kale chips that I can munch on while feeling superior.’ ”

Not so fast, Oliver warns, because the New York school system is actually by some measures the most segregated in America, especially because of schools in New York City, where discriminatory housing policies and selective admissions processes have kept black and Latino students separate from their white counterparts. And since funding tends to follow white people “the way white people follow the band Phish,” this hurts minority students—just as, Oliver argues, it hurts white students, too.
That was the entire piece, except for the tape of Oliver.

Does John Oliver know what he's talking about? How about Martinelli? Is it possible that Oliver is just munching a handful of chips while possibly feeling superior?

We'll guess that, on balance, the answers are probably no and maybe possibly yes.

It isn't that professors haven't encouraged us to feel superior while repeating talking points about "segregation" in New York City schools. And it isn't that the New York Times hasn't chipped in this year with several heartfelt but puzzling, kale chip-inflected pieces on this topic.

Here's the problem. The iconic study to which these pieces refer comes from UCLA. Are discriminatory housing policies and selective admissions processes keeping black and Latino students separate from their white counterparts in the New York City schools?

We're not even saying the answer is no. But for starters, consider what one of the New York Times reports said about Gotham's student population:
HANNAH-JONES (6/12/16): The New York City public-school system is 41 percent Latino, 27 percent black and 16 percent Asian. Three-quarters of all students are low-income. In 2014, the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, released a report showing that New York City public schools are among the most segregated in the country. Black and Latino children here have become increasingly isolated, with 85 percent of black students and 75 percent of Latino students attending ''intensely'' segregated schools—schools that are less than 10 percent white.
In New York City, are 85 percent of black students attending schools that are less than 10 percent white? In that sense, are they "increasingly isolated?"

Let's assume they are! That said, the student population in New York City is less than 15 percent white overall!

New York City's public schools don't have a profusion of white kids. Here's part of what that iconic report said about Gotham's schools:
ICONIC UCLA STUDY (2014): Across the 32 Community School Districts (CSDs) in New York City, 19 had 10% or less white students in 2010, which included all districts in the Bronx, two-thirds of the districts in Brooklyn (central to north districts), half of the districts in Manhattan (northern districts), and only two-fifths of the districts in Queens (southeast districts).
All districts in the Bronx had ten percent or fewer white students. If you had distributed all the white kids in those districts (or in that borough) in a perfectly even fashion, all black and Hispanic students would have been attending "intensely segregated schools!"

When we say that nobody cares, we're thinking of peculiar academic reports like this, and of the people who recite their puzzling frameworks and conclusions without so much as blinking an eye. We also think of mags like Slate, which give young people two paragraphs on this topic, but mainly so they can link to John Oliver, who may not know what he's talking about. (We didn't watch his tape.)

People don't care about low-income kids! Editors do care about clicks, and we humans do like to feel superior. In our view, all three facts are made quite clear day after day after day.

24 comments:

  1. John Oliver talked about integrating suburban schools with urban schools. In NYC, it is hard to think how suburban kids could be integrated with urban kids without some very long commute times. That may be true for many large cities or maybe it is only true for those areas where segregation is intransigent.

    I think it may be worthwhile to consider Oliver's other assertion -- that money tends to follow white kids. If that is true, the problems can be substantially addressed by finding better ways of funding urban schools. No one talks much about rural schools.

    Oliver mistakenly tied low self-esteem to segregated schools. Studies have contradicted that -- self-esteem is lower for minority kids in integrated schools compared to those in segregated schools, and black and Hispanic segregated schools work hard to provide positive role models and images for students. Further, there is no correlation between high self-esteem and academic performance (as the State of California discovered). But providing equal resources seems like a no-brainer.

    Would it be fair to prohibit wealthy parents from buying stuff for their kids schools? Can we require public schools to match parent contributions in all schools. If not, how do you achieve equality?

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  2. I had to check out the Oliver piece. It's really quite good, in its promotion of desegregation, but Bob is absolutely right that Oliver seems completely unaware of the stats concerning the makeup of the public school population in New York.

    And can't help but notice, the Times does do some good reporting now and then.

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  3. I didn't click through to the study, but I notice Staten Island's absence in the paragraphs above.

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  4. @1916 CDT - Fairness is beyond the scope of most people in America. I would say 'no one' is asking you to deprive your precious offspring from your wealthy spending on them, but we all know someone is always out there begging for something. And then we have Donald Trump's kids to show us a perfect example of money makes ya smart. I don't even buy high scores on these tests make kids all that bright, but we have to measure achievement somehow. Equality? Please DON'T ASK US to become equal. Just HOW is that measured? On how much money spent on your kids and NO, I don't advocate some robin hood take from your wealth to throw it somewhere. Maybe the argument can get away from stealing from you. 'we have no intent of taking from you to give to someone else'. My statement; I speak for myself.

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  5. I'm watching the Oliver show right now and you're misrepresenting this episode. Watch the show. John Oliver is talking about the problems that result from residential segregation and specifically referring to Charlotte's desegregation plan in the 90s.
    Contact me Bob. Let's talk about the results of desegregation in Maryland.

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  6. Projections by the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that 120 million Hispanics will compose 28.6 percent of the U.S. population by 2060. That compares to 55 million and 17 percent of the pop. today(this figure excludes illegals who for obvious reasons don’t fill out census forms).

    Based on this, isn’t it more likely that our test scores will increasingly resemble a country like Mexico rather than a country like Finland or Japan? How do Mexico’s scores look? Fifty-second out of sixty-five countries tested (424). So I guess it’s not our government’s intention to import people from countries with better score than us so as to raise the education level of our country. Looks like they have more important priorities. Hmm...I wonder what those priorities are?

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  7. "People don't care about low-income kids!"

    Not true! The people who run our immigration policy love poor kids so much that they want to bring them here from other countries. Sounds like true love to me.

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    Replies
    1. And your posts sound like true hate to me.

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    2. Yes! I hate the idea of importing millions more poor people into our already overcrowded nation.

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    3. Jane you ignorant slut. Don't you know that our nation benefits economically from immigration? And what makes you think we are overcrowded? Been to Nevada or Montana lately?

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    4. Anonymous you ignorant slut. There are 150 countries more crowded than Mexico so they should hardly need to move to move at all, right? And stop thinking so selfishly, if Hispanic people were put on this Earth to relieve the economic suffering of the world's nations through their immigration don't you want those blessings to spread around to the other nations of the world too? Let's not hoard them all for ourselves. Let's encourage the next 100 million of these magical immigrants to spread their miraculous benefits to other less fortunate nations.

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    5. The Mexicans are our brothers and sisters. Gloucon X, I am sorry that your hate has blinded you to the possibilities in life.

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  16. TESTIMONY OF HOW I GOT CURED FROM (HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS) BY THE GREAT HEALER DOCTOR SHEDI



    Am Tanja Lapalm from England, Oxford,UK ...HIV has been ongoing in my family for long..I lost both parents to HIV. As we all know medically, there is no solution or cure for HIV and the cost for Medication is very expensive. Someone introduced me to a man (Native Medical Practitioner) in Africa called Dr Shedi. I showed him all my Tests and Results and I told him that i have already been diagnosed of HIV and have spent thousands of dollars on medication. I said I will like to try him cause someone introduced me to him. He asked me sorts of questions and I answered him correctly. To cut the story short, He gave me some medicinal soaps and some herbs(have forgot the name he called them) and he thought me how am going to use them all. At first I was skeptical but I just gave it a try. I was on his Medication for 2 weeks and I used all the soaps and herbs according to his prescription. That he will finish the rest himself. And I called him 3 days after, I arrived and I told him what is the next thing he said, he has been expecting my call. He told me to visit my doctor for another test. Honestly speaking, i never believe all he was saying until after the test when my doctor mention the statement that am, HIV negative and the doctor started asking me how do I do it....Am telling this story in case anyone may need this man’s help. you can contact him directly on this email shedispellcaster@gmail.com Thanks

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  17. I will love to share my testimony to all the people in the forum cos I never thought i will have my girlfriend back and she means so much to me. The girl I want to get marry to left me few weeks to our wedding for another man. When I called her she never picked my calls, She blocked me on her facebook and changed her facebook status from engage to Single, when I went to her place of work she told her boss she never want to see me. I lost my job as a result of this cos I couldn't get myself anymore, my life was upside down and everything did not go smooth with my life. I tried all I could do to have her back to all did not work out until I met a Man when I travel to East to execute some business that I have been developing some years back. I told him my problem and all I have passed through in getting her back and how I lost my job, he told me he gonna help me, I didn't believe that in the first place. But he swore he will help me out and he told me the reason why my girlfriend left me and also told me some hidden secrets’ was amazed when I heard that from him...he said he will cast a spell for me and I will see the results in the next couple of days..then I travel back, the following day and i called him when I got home and he said he’s busy casting those spells and he has bought all the materials needed for the spells, he said am gonna see positive results in the next 14 days that is Thursday. My girlfriend called me at exactly 12:35pm on Thursday and apologies for all she had done. She said, she never knew what she was doing and her sudden behavior was not intentional and she promised not to do that again. It was like am dreaming when I heard that from her and when we ended the call, I called the man and told him my girl friend called and he said I haven’t seen anything yet… he said I will also get my job back. And when its Sunday, they called me at my place of work that I should resume work on Monday and they gonna compensate me for the time limit I have spent at home without working...My life is back into shape have my girlfriend back and we are happily married now with a baby boy and I have my job back too. This man is really powerful...if we have up to 20 people like him in the world, the world would have been a better place...He has also helped many of my friends to solve many problems and they are all happy now...Am posting this to the forum for anybody that is interested in meeting the man for help. You can mail him to erika_raven_temple@ religious. com, I can’t give out his number cos he told me he don’t want to be disturbed by many people across the world...he said his email is okay and he also have a web site if you want to visit him there’ he will replied to any emails asap..Hope he helped u out too...good luck. His web site is ericaraventemple. webs. com

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    ReplyDelete