[BretLudwig]

For Whom The Bell Curve Tolls

"This country has gone completely insane. In Houston, Texas, a high
school of 2500 students is being shut down because a few black students
cant learn math. No exaggeration; you can read about it here.

The closure of Sam Houston High School boiled down to math.

Officials with the Houston Independent School District say they tried
to solve the problem €” spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix
it €” but for five straight years, Sam Houston could not get a small
group of black students to pass the state-mandated math exam.

Now, after state Education Commissioner Robert Scott forced the
predominantly Hispanic school to close Thursday, some are criticizing
Texas accountability system as too harsh €” mandating drastic action
based on a few students. Others say the blame lies with HISD for letting
the poor performance continue.

This year, only 29 percent of the black students at Sam Houston passed
the math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Half the
Hispanic students passed, which would have been just good enough to
qualify for the states acceptable rating, if not for the black
students passing rate.

€œIn one sense, closing the whole school is a very heavy-handed
response,€� said Ed Fuller, an education researcher at the University of
Texas at Austin. €œBut then again, you have this five-year track record
of poor math performance.€�

Of the 2500 students at Sam Houston, about 110 are black. There are about
65 white kids, and the rest are Hispanic. Not that the scores of the
Hispanic kids are anything to write home about; theyre not. But to shut
down an entire high school because 3% of the class cant cut it is beyond
insane. Theyve already spent €œhundreds of thousands of dollars€�
trying to raise the black math scores, to no avail. Now theyre going to
spend hundreds of thousands more to farm out 2500 kids to a bunch of other
already overcrowded schools, all in the name of Equality. If a black kid
cant grasp the material, it cant be his fault, because were all
equal. It has to be the fault of the school. Even though theyve tried
everything they know to do to raise the black math scores:

The school also adopted a new computerized math program called Agile
Mind and worked with consultants from the respected Charles A. Dana Center
at the University of Texas at Austin.

Still, only 17 of the 59 black students tested €” or 29 percent €”
passed the math exam this year. Thats up slightly from 24 percent last
year.

Heres a black €œexpert€� who has a New Plan to get those black scores
up:

Valerie Hill-Jackson, an assistant education professor at Texas A&M
University, said teachers need to learn how to connect with black
students.

€œWe know this is a culture that is very vibrant, exuberant, likes to
talk,€� said Hill-Jackson, who is black. €œSo, if Im a math and
science teacher, how can I use that to my advantage? I can have them get
out of their seats.€�

Ask not for whom The Bell Curve tolls, America; it tolls for thee."

http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/...l-curve-tolls/
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4908

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