Wednesday, November 11, 2015

It isn't as though the USA doesn't have it's own problems to solve.

November 9, 2015
By Alan Gottlieb

Well over one-quarter of all white students (click here) in Denver Public Schools were classified as gifted and talented last school year, more than twice the percentage of gifted and talented Hispanic students and three times the percentage of black students who carried that label.
District officials acknowledge that the numbers are inappropriately and “highly skewed” in favor of white students, reflecting testing and cultural biases....

The bias in the USA against minorities is as much cultural as well as economic. Educating children has to be sensitive to the economically disadvantaged as well as those outside the loop culturally. 
  • 95% of teens (click here) have felt inferior at some point in their lives.  When asked why they have felt inferior, students selected their top three conditions.  The main reasons students have felt inferior are:
    • Appearance:  59%
    • Ability in some activity:  49%
    • Intelligence:  38%
    • Size:  35%
    • Age:  21%
    • Race:  13%
    • Gender:  13%
    • Family economic status:  12%
    • Religion:  6%
    • Sexual Orientation: 6%
  • 84% of teens have felt superior to another person.
  • 41% of students have purposely tried to make another person feel inferior.
Cultural separation requires PURSUIT of the demographics unaware of how the process of an educational system works. Pursuing parents unaware of their own ability to promote their children within an educational system requires local town hall meetings where parents live and children grow.

Passing out flyers in the general mail or handouts with children can begin to serve initial steps to move minority children forward. Be prepared to call up drug treatment and help through social workers to educate parents about their importance in achieving better economic standing. No jail. No prison. No aggression, it is about children and not the failure of adults to thrive in the USA. Minority parents will understand "Children at risk for life long failures."

...Boasberg said biases and inequities explain some of the disparities: “It’s a result both of some systemic biases … and it’s a result of the privileges that students of different races grew up with and bring with them when they first, for example, have the opportunity to be assessed for those programs at age 5.”

The pipeline that begins at age 5 is the district’s longstanding Advanced Kindergarten program. While Advanced Kindergarten is not a gifted and talented program, it is where sorting of various kinds can begin. Students are tested at parent initiative, giving an advantage to families who understand the system and how to use it to their best advantage.

Preschoolers who demonstrate a mastery of kindergarten-level work while still in preschool qualify for Advanced Kindergarten. Advanced Kindergarten numbers are least as skewed as the gifted and talented statistics....