State of Virginia bases test scores on race

[dotcom]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/11/13/1539256/with-nclb-waiver-virginia-sorts-kids-scores-by-race

It's disturbing that somebody would suggest a law like this.
It's even more disturbing that the state would actually implement and enforce it.
And it's absolutely shit hilarious how stereotypical it is.

[goxed]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/11/13/1539256/with-nclb-waiver-virginia-sorts-kids-scores-by-race

It's disturbing that somebody would suggest a law like this.
It's even more disturbing that the state would actually implement and enforce it.
And it's absolutely shit hilarious how stereotypical it is.

I am a mix of atleast three races

[Lethn]

*head desks*

[myrkul]

Well... It's got at least a little bit of scientific backing. Race is, in this country, (unfortunately) a fairly good indicator of economic status. It's also a very good indicator of cultural norms. Combined, those two things have a great deal of impact on standardized test scoring.

On the face of it, it's pretty offensive. Looked at objectively, it's still pretty offensive, but at least you can sort of see why they did it.

[farlack]

45% for blacks?
So you can get less than half the questions right and still pass, for being black? I know many intelligent black people, and they score just fine, and above average.
The blacks who fail in school are your typical 'gangsta thugs' who sit in class.... "Why do we need to know math, science, literature," for every class, and their favorite subject is skipping.

Maybe that should be evaluated over their color. I'm no doctor, but I feel if you're white, brown, black, red, orange, yellow, pink, if anyone who studies for 20 minutes will probably retain the same amount of information as long as their caught up in the subject and its not the first time you did school work in 6 months.

[myrkul]

45% for blacks?
So you can get less than half the questions right and still pass, for being black? I know many intelligent black people, and they score just fine, and above average.

Yes, but they're not the people this is aimed at! This is to help the disadvantaged! You can't honestly believe those poor souls should actually have to work to pass?

Shouldn't be needed, but just in case... [/sarc]

That said, standardized tests, such as the IQ test, are aimed at a WASP average. So cultural and economic factors will affect things a bit. Not 45%, though. That's just ridiculous.

[John (John K.)]

Okay, this is pure heresy.

82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities

I can understand the 33 percent for disabled people, but why on earth is everyone else graded differently? And they say that racism is something to be frowned upon. 

[myrkul]

Okay, this is pure heresy.

82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities

I can understand the 33 percent for disabled people, but why on earth is everyone else graded differently? And they say that racism is something to be frowned upon. 

Like I said, standardized testing is geared towards whites being the "average." In the US, at least, (I don't know the stats for other countries) that up there is the distribution of IQ scores. It looks like they've exaggerated it quite a bit, though. The real difference is not that severe, maybe 5-10 points of IQ across the whole range. Race itself is just an indicator, though. Actual skin color has nothing to do with intelligence, especially as measured by standardized testing. Socio-economic factors play a much larger role than genetics, and this malarkey is likely to just make things worse.

[John (John K.)]

Okay, this is pure heresy.

82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities

I can understand the 33 percent for disabled people, but why on earth is everyone else graded differently? And they say that racism is something to be frowned upon. 

Like I said, standardized testing is geared towards whites being the "average." In the US, at least, (I don't know the stats for other countries) that up there is the distribution of IQ scores. It looks like they've exaggerated it quite a bit, though. The real difference is not that severe, maybe 5-10 points of IQ across the whole range. Race itself is just an indicator, though. Actual skin color has nothing to do with intelligence, especially as measured by standardized testing. Socio-economic factors play a much larger role than genetics, and this malarkey is likely to just make things worse.

They should rather group students by socio-economic status like parents' income, housing area etc. Doing this purely by race is problematic. The 49 point spread is crazy.

[myrkul]

They should rather group students by socio-economic status like parents' income, housing area etc. Doing this purely by race is problematic. The 49 point spread is crazy.

Agreed. Ironically, I think doing something like that would probably cause a greater stir than doing it by race. Probably because it pulls back one of the curtains keeping the sheeple from seeing the machinery.