re: Boston suspends advanced classes for 4-6 graders citing racial inequities

great retort SS

How are kids chosen for the advanced classes? Is it based on standardized testing, teacher recommendations, or grades on classroom assignments and tests?

What are the standards to be put in an advanced course? I don't doubt that the advanced classes are dominated by whites and Asians, but how do they get in the classes?

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How are kids chosen for the advanced classes? Is it based on standardized testing, teacher recommendations, or grades on classroom assignments and tests?

What are the standards to be put in an advanced course? I don't doubt that the advanced classes are dominated by whites and Asians, but how do they get in the classes?

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From my experience, it typically starts with teachers identifying advanced students. Parents of those students are contacted and asked if they are interested in having their child tested for advanced admission. The kids are given a battery of tests, and ultimately a holistic judgment is made, based on grades, teacher evals, and standardized tests.

One thing I am not sure of is the first teacher identification piece. It's possible all parents are contacted and asked if they wsnt their kids considered for advanced classes.

This 911 tweet paved the way for quite the strawman:

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Roman
@RomanthaAries
·
21h
Replying to
@Breaking911
To all the people complaining, imagine this: Student A is from an upper middle-class family where only 1 parent works. He has access to not only a private tutor, but a stay at-home parent who is also able to help him with hw & cook 3 meals a day so he's properly nourished (1/?)
Roman
@RomanthaAries
·
21h
Student B is from a working class or single-parent home where there's rarely an adult in the house, & when they're not working, they're exhausted and have little time to do anything but sleep. Student B also has to look after his younger siblings, and (2/?)
Roman
@RomanthaAries
·
21h
Even though he's food insecure and doesn't eat healthy or even even healthy, he still has to make sure his siblings are taken care of and fed. He probably has to get a part-time job to accomplish this. He also lives in a high crime area so he's constantly stressed and (3/?)
Roman
@RomanthaAries
·
21h
Worried about survival much more than school work. He also probably doesn't sleep 8-10 hrs a night like student A. Now yes, there's a test to get into advanced classes. But do these 2 kids honestly sound like they had an equal opportunity to succeed? (4/?)
Roman
@RomanthaAries
·
21h
Note that nothing I named had anything to do with aptitude or ability, but are all factors that have been scientifically proven to affect scholastic performance drastically. It's so much deeper than just "a test to get into the classes" (end)
Roman
@RomanthaAries
·
19h
The only thing AP classes do at this age is give kids a higher GPA than non-ap students. Exacerbating the educational opportunity gap for the disadvantaged kids. The kids with an inherent head start will stay ahead even if they aren't really "smarter"

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This is called Equity.



It is the opposite of equality. Do NOT confuse the two.

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This is called Equity.



It is the opposite of equality. Do NOT confuse the two.

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Here, for our proggy friends who need it in pictures: