‘Will liberals learn the lesson’
Leftists across America are ignoring the success stories for black students in conservative states, and a commentator for the Washington Examiner is wondering why.
It is in an opinion piece by Corey Walker, who focuses on education among other topics in reporting, that the problem is raised: “Black students are thriving in red states and blue states fail them.”
The article cites Mississippi and Texas successes.
In “deep-red Mississippi, America’s poorest state,” reading achievement scores have soared in recent years, the report says.
That boost followed a decision to teach students using a phonics-based reading method, a “direct contrast to the ‘whole word’ method touted in liberal states. The state also dispatched coaches to work with teachers at schools with especially poor results,” the report said.
The plan requires third graders to pass a reading exist exam to move up, with additional exams and summer classes available to help.
According to the report, the state’s “NAEP scores soared from near the bottom of the nation to around the middle of the pack. Moreover, Mississippi ranks 46th in public school spending, showing that shoveling more money into the school system is not necessary to yield positive results and that poverty is not necessarily a barrier to academic achievement.”
In Texas, it’s the work of Dallas educators that has produced results.
There, they worked to shift advanced math courses from “opt-in” to “opt-out,” meaning that students, with high enough scores, automatically are placed in advanced math courses.
“Those who desire to drop down to a lower track in math must secure permission from a parent. The policy shift has led to higher rates of black students in sixth grade honors math, soaring from 17% in 2018-2019 to 43% in 2022-2023. Encouragingly, black students are also persisting in the course, with 91% passing the state standardized test and 65% scoring at grade level,” the report said.
Ben Mackey, a school board trustee in Dallas, pointed out in an interview, “Within two years of this policy, 94% of eligible students are taking these classes. It makes such a drastic difference in terms of whether the student will be college ready and career ready. We need to give every single person a chance to be successful in life, so when they leave us, they are not three steps behind.”
The commentary asks, “Will liberals learn the lesson of Mississippi and Dallas? The answer, for now, seems to be ‘no.’ For instance, Evanston Township High School, located in deep-blue Illinois, has even brought back segregation in math classes, a bizarre attempt supposedly to help black students improve performance.”
Other leftist efforts mainly focus on dumping more dollars in such districts, using “affirmative action policies,” or even abolishing advanced coursework, tossing tests and claiming “racism” is at fault.
Such schemes not only fail students, but destroy the public’s faith in public schools, the article pointed out.
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