The employer hiring the typical black high school graduate (or the college that admits the average black student) is, in effect choosing a youngster who has made it only through the eighth grade."
No excuses
By Walter Williams
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published October 27, 2003
"Excellent schools deliver a clear message to their students: No excuses. No excuses for failing to do your homework, failing to work hard in general; no excuses for fighting with other students, running in the hallways, dressing inappropriately and so forth."
That's part of the prescription for ending educational mediocrity discussed in Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom's new book, "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" (Simon & Schuster, 2003).
It's no secret that, as the Thernstroms point out, the education achieved by white students is nothing to write home about. In civics, math, reading, writing and geography, nearly a quarter of all students leave high school with academic skills that are "Below Basic." In science, 47 percent leave high school with skills Below Basic, and in American history it's 57 percent. Below Basic is the category the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) uses for students unable to display even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level.
As dismal as these figures are, for black students it is magnitudes worse. According to NAEP findings, only in writing are less than 40 percent of black high school students Below Basic. In math, it's 70 percent, and science 75 percent. Blacks completing high school perform a little worse than white eighth-graders in both reading and U.S. history, and a lot worse in math and geography.
The Thernstroms report, "In math and geography, indeed, they know no more than whites in the seventh grade." From these facts, the Thernstroms conclude, "The employer hiring the typical black high school graduate (or the college that admits the average black student) is, in effect choosing a youngster who has made it only through the eighth grade."
At the other end of the NAEP academic scale, Proficient and Advanced, nearly half of all whites and 40 percent of Asians score in those categories in reading, compared to less than a fifth of blacks. In science and math, 3 percent of black students display more than a partial mastery, in contrast to 7 to 10 times as many white and Asians.
The dismal performance of black students translates into at least two devastating consequences. First, glaring racial double standards are needed if more than a handful of black students are to attend the nation's most prestigious universities. Second, if one hasn't mastered high school pre-calculus, high-paying careers such as engineering, medicine and computer technology are hermetically sealed for life.
These outcomes are not preordained, and the solution is not more money, as the educationists would have us believe. Were that the case, academic achievement wouldn't be a problem. In the last two decades, educational expenditures have doubled, yet academic performance has declined.
The route to greater academic excellence is nearly a no-brainer. There are three vital inputs to education: parents, teachers and students. You tell me: How much money does it take for teachers to assign homework, and for parents and teachers to see that it gets done? How much money does it take to see to it that kids get a good night's sleep, come to school on time, don't fight in school, and respect authority? If these no-brainer things aren't accomplished, there's no amount of money that's going to make much difference.
The education establishment likes to blame poor parenting and rowdy and lawless students for educational mediocrity. Without a doubt, that's part of the problem. But incompetent, uncaring teachers are also a part of the problem.
The NAEP findings clearly point to one fault that lies solely at the feet of the education establishment — that's the granting of fraudulent diplomas. After all, isn't it fraud to confer a high school diploma upon a student, attesting he has mastered a 12th-grade level of education, when in fact he hasn't mastered a seventh- or eighth-grade level?
No excuses: Part II
By Walter Williams
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published November 2, 2003
Last week's column discussed parts of Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom's new book, "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning." It's a gap that finds the average black high-school graduate having achieved only what the average white youngster has achieved by the seventh or eighth grade.
Popular recognition of the education meltdown has led to calls for student testing as a condition for high-school graduation. The public education establishment resists such tests. Theodore Sizer, former Harvard Graduate School of Education dean, in his opposition said, "The myriad, detailed and mandatory state curriculum frameworks, of whatever scholarly brilliance, are attacks on intellectual freedom," adding, "High stakes tests arising from these curricula compound the felony."
Deborah Meier, founder of New York's Central Park East schools, condemned standardized tests as failing to "measure the only important qualities of a well-educated person.... Life scores [not math scores] based on living" should be the educator's concern.
Peter Sacks, another educationist, argues that testing is "abusive," "inaccurate," "meaningless" and "a highly effective means of social control." Mr. Sacks concludes that tests amount "to the academic lynching of children of color." Opposition to tests, as a condition for graduation, has supporters among most members of the faculty at the leading graduate schools of education.
The education establishment also has opposed teacher certification tests and often labeled them as racially discriminatory. Perhaps it's because of the large failure rate among prospective teachers, particularly minority teachers. In 1998, of 1,800 Massachusetts teachers taking the test, 60 percent failed.
According to Education World, "Seven states use the National Evaluation System's tests, 27 use the National Teachers Exam, 43 ask new teachers to pass basic skills tests, and 32 require teachers to demonstrate proficiency in the subjects they teach. Teachers have not done well on those tests. Failure rates are between 20 and 30 percent on the basic skills and proficiency tests and 50 to 55 percent on the National Teachers Exam."
Keep in mind that to pass the teacher certification test you need only eighth-, ninth- and, at best, 10th-grade skills. For example, a multiple choice math question asks: "Amy drinks one-and-a-half cups of milk three times a day. At this rate, how many cups will she drink in one week?"
America's public education rot goes beyond incompetent teachers. According to the Sept. 2 New York Post, in the school year 2002-03, "1,495 Department of Education employees and other school workers were arrested — 228 more than the previous year — an 18 percent increase." Those arrested included teachers (371), custodians (243), paraprofessionals (181) and school aides (106). Among the charges were assault (313), drugs (435), robbery (180), weapons (88), sex abuse (36) and falsifying documents (74). How representative New York's school system is of other big city school systems is hard to say.
Where is educational rot the worst? If you said at predominantly black inner-city schools, go to the head of the class. Inner-city schools are home to the least-qualified teachers. For example, in a dozen Chicago schools, 40 percent of the teaching staff flunked one or more tests. One teacher flunked 24 out of 25 tries, including all 12 of the tests in the subject she taught. Nevertheless, she is still teaching. None of this is to say there aren't a few competent and dedicated inner-city teachers battling tremendous odds.
Here's my question: Do parents, particularly black parents, know or even care about what's being done to their children in the name of education? Do they know that the A or B on their children's report card is worthless?
Don't say the solution lies in more money unless you're prepared to show me great results with expenditures of $15,000 per student in Massachusetts and $13,000 in Washington, D.C., and skyrocketing education budgets elsewhere.
Walter Williams is a nationally syndicated columnist.
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