NAACP, Local Advocates File Discrimination Complaint Against FCPS
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Anonymous
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Of course, one can improve one's performance through practise and training. The only idiots who would call the blue sky pink are fools like Romney, Ryan and Akins.
Just ask any porn star, athlete, writer or public speaker. Performance on the AAP, SCAT, Explore, WISC, SAT, ACT, AP, WPSSI, Cognat, flying a plane, brain surgery and abc, 123 are no different. |
Anonymous
Yes. of course, if a child practices the problems on this test, he or she will get better at them. No one disputes that. But it is a test of how well a child solves problems he or she has never seen before. We don't learn anything about how a child solves a new problem when the problems are all familiar to the child already. The test problems are meant to be brand new to each child. |
Anonymous
What nonsense are you talking about? Why do you think that training and practice yields improved scores? Have you ever heard of repeating concepts, themes, and patterns that recur in math, computer science, physics, decoding and interpreting English literature? What is a "brand new test problem" if the concept, pattern or theme tested is Newton's second law of mechanics, trigonometric identities, or angle and segment relations in triangles? The "brand new probems" only test a limited number of patterns, concepts, themes, laws, and theorems! Oh, let me count the ways a "brand new problem" is served up testing one's knowledge of Newton's laws? That my dear is why practise and training (by solving problems over and over again) improves performance and scores for all alphabet soup tests (IQ, ability, achievement, aptitude or whatever flavor of rape you wish to nuance). Any educated person understands this simple concept. It works for quarterbacks, golfers, musicians, artists, writers, swimmers, killer test takers and scantron number 2 pencil bubblers! |
Anonymous
We're not talking about all those other kinds of tests which assess subject matter knowledge here, only the second grade ability tests. They are not asking second graders about Newton's Laws. No one disputes that practice improves performance, that is a given. These are tests you are not supposed to practice for. Frankly, some of what is written above sounds like an advertisement for test preparation books and courses! 
And, really, this is somewhat off the original topic of this thread. |
Anonymous
This largely explains why children of high SES generally perform better (on any of these tests)when presented with the poster's simplistic and puerile concept of "brand new test probelms". Most of us understand that most subject matter contains clearly defined threads, topics, themes, patterns and domains. The enrichment we can afford to provide for our children (by the luck of birth) -- through museums, travel, music, languages, reading, computers, games, puzzles, great schools and teachers, small classes, after school and summer academic enrichment activities -- exposes (exposes, trains, prepares, preps) our children to these repeating patterns, themes and domains of knowledge. A "brand new test problem" is simple recognition of a familiar pattern, concept, theorem, law in "disguise." Practise, training and simply doing and solving problems over and over again allows one to quickly recognise the disguises. Recognition of the "disguise" takes the "brand new" out of the test problem. Please do not deceive yourself. |
Anonymous
| Applies to second grade tests. Do not complicate matters. Familiarity comes from exposure, practise and training. If you can potty train a 1st and 2nd grader -- a school test is no different. This is not rocket science here. |
Anonymous
I'm so sick of these race games. I grew up poor. My parents could barely speak English. I worked hard and did well in school. I'm Asian though so I supposedly don't count as a minority even though there are more Hispanics and blacks than Asians. |
Anonymous
| Poor children and those from low SES can also improve their performance through training and practise -- albeit they may lack parental support, guidance and mentorship in this direction and may be at a disadvantage than their high SES peers during the young, impressionable and formative years. Many are self-taught/mentored/directed and diligent workers. And these traits can clearly over come many of the disadvantages from SES. |
Anonymous
sigh....these "me, me, me", "I pulled myself up by own bootstraps" anecdotes are so lame and not helpful to the discussion. |
Anonymous
It has nothing to do with me individually and everything to do with race and is relevant to the discussion. Based on these boards, the main issue with AAP and TJ is that there are too many Asians (overrepresented in both AAP and TJ compared to their % of the total population) and not enough black/Hispanics in AAP/TJ. What everyone seems to want is less Asians in the program so that more other minorities can be in the program. My whole point is that Asians are a minority too. |
Anonymous
Who is "everyone"? Certainly, the NAACP complaint does not state that there should be less Asians in these programs. The Asian population may well be a minority, but does not have a representation problem in AAP or TJ. Your whole point is that Asians are a minority too - ok. And? What kind of recognition are you looking for? Are you saying that if Asians can do it, black and Hispanics should be able to as well? There is a whole historical context of insitutional discrimination against blacks and Hispanics in the U.S. that is different than the history of Asians in the U.S. Of course, there are exceptions (the, "I overcame every obstacle and was successful kind of stories) for every group (low-income, black, Hispanic, Asian) and that is great, but there are obviously some challenges for the named minority groups in the case that do not exist for every group. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| 11:24 What are you talking about in terms of historical context? Since when have hispanics ever been discriminated as a group other than most recently when they've come in great numbers as illegals? Asians were discriminated during WWII which by now is somewhat historical. Blacks have been discriminated for longer, however they've their freedoms earlier than women. What is FCPS supposed to do more of? They already have the title one schools with less students per teacher, young scholar classes, longer school days, summer school classes, free meals, spanish foreign immersion, ESOL, and special ed. The reason there are more Asians at TJ is because many Asians want this for their children. Plain and simple. Once blacks, hispanics, whites, and everyone else have the same educational goals and apply themselves they will be on the same level as the asians. Truthfully though these races do not think TJ is as important as the Asians do. |
Anonymous
Wow. You are completely ignorant of American history if you think that discrimination of Hispanics is only recent. And I don't have time to give you a history lesson. All the "whites only" Jim Crow laws did not include Mexican Americans (citizens, mind you) as "white" . It won't take you long to uncover information if you are really interested. I do agree that there are some cultural elements at play, but mostly I think it comes down to SES and heirarchy of needs - food, housing, clothing, before ensuring that your child is maximizing their academic potential. |
Anonymous
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