The true meaning of "equity"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I am a child of poor immigrants. I took advantage of the resources offered to me at school. I think giving everyone the opportunity should be good enough.

+1

Unfortunately, our SB has never heard the axiom: "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink."

I've been saying for years that there are two ways to close the achievement gap--from the top or from the bottom. It is a lot harder to close it from the bottom. It takes hard work and instruction. So, our SB is choosing to close it from the top. "Equity" is equal outcomes. No one said the outcomes had to be good.

Your daily reminder that TJ, properly understood, is an opportunity and not an outcome. The same goes for colleges.

It is both an opportunity and an outcome, as you are well aware. Come on. Kids work hard to get into TJ and good colleges.

[Anonymous]

Basically the rich parents who can afford to test prep their kids from 1st grade NNAT up until the TJ test are all pissed that they no longer can reliably get their kids a quality private high school education with public dollars. Why we are spending public money on a school like TJ and at the same time all the other schools are overcrowded and can't afford to pay enough to keep teachers and subs will never make sense to me.
My son's 2nd grade teacher told us that over half the kids were in Kumon, Sunshine Academy, and other math prep (and CogAT prep) courses when she asked if kids had seen questions like these during the CogAT pre-test examples a couple years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basically the rich parents who can afford to test prep their kids from 1st grade NNAT up until the TJ test are all pissed that they no longer can reliably get their kids a quality private high school education with public dollars. Why we are spending public money on a school like TJ and at the same time all the other schools are overcrowded and can't afford to pay enough to keep teachers and subs will never make sense to me.
My son's 2nd grade teacher told us that over half the kids were in Kumon, Sunshine Academy, and other math prep (and CogAT prep) courses when she asked if kids had seen questions like these during the CogAT pre-test examples a couple years ago.

Sounds like an opportunity to increase rigor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of postings over the last few weeks on the 2nd grade AAP pool made me realize that many on this board don't actually know what "equity" means. It is NOT equal treatment for all. It is "right sizing" the treatment based on the needs of the population. (alt+p)

Equity means providing the Title I kids more benefits than the kids from the higher SES schools because the Title I kids theoretically need greater support to have an equal footing as the kids from the SES schools.

A more realistic depiction is that progressives spend millions to make the fence taller so no one can see over it.

[Anonymous]

Equity is one of the elements of Marxism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basically the rich parents who can afford to test prep their kids from 1st grade NNAT up until the TJ test are all pissed that they no longer can reliably get their kids a quality private high school education with public dollars. Why we are spending public money on a school like TJ and at the same time all the other schools are overcrowded and can't afford to pay enough to keep teachers and subs will never make sense to me.
My son's 2nd grade teacher told us that over half the kids were in Kumon, Sunshine Academy, and other math prep (and CogAT prep) courses when she asked if kids had seen questions like these during the CogAT pre-test examples a couple years ago.

I’m a parent that is appalled at the level of prep for the TJ test.

That being said, FCPS has clearly watered down their math curriculum at least since the pandemic. If you want your child to be prepared for future math classes, you almost HAVE to do a lot outside of school. Whether it is AoPS, Kumon, Fairfax Collegiate, buying textbooks and teaching them yourself, parents really need to be doing something to fill in the gaps. Your child can get an A in a class and not have learned the material properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of postings over the last few weeks on the 2nd grade AAP pool made me realize that many on this board don't actually know what "equity" means. It is NOT equal treatment for all. It is "right sizing" the treatment based on the needs of the population. (alt+p)

Equity means providing the Title I kids more benefits than the kids from the higher SES schools because the Title I kids theoretically need greater support to have an equal footing as the kids from the SES schools.

Your own diagram didn't show adding new boxes to the short kid - it showed taking a box away from the tall kid and giving it to the short kid. That's exactly what people are complaining about. Most don't approve of taking away awards and honors and advanced academics from hard working top performing kids to make other kids look better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basically the rich parents who can afford to test prep their kids from 1st grade NNAT up until the TJ test are all pissed that they no longer can reliably get their kids a quality private high school education with public dollars. Why we are spending public money on a school like TJ and at the same time all the other schools are overcrowded and can't afford to pay enough to keep teachers and subs will never make sense to me.
My son's 2nd grade teacher told us that over half the kids were in Kumon, Sunshine Academy, and other math prep (and CogAT prep) courses when she asked if kids had seen questions like these during the CogAT pre-test examples a couple years ago.

All the test prepping in the world isn't going to move a kid more than a couple of points. This is a false narrative, put forth by activists to delegitimize, standardized tests and TJ. They provide no evidence for these fake theories they just tell stories. Since we are into lazy empiricism, I will give my own example. My DS didn't test prep at all. He took one practice test, then took the TJ test and finished in the top 10%. He went to TJ, finished in the top 10% and is going to a top 5 college. That's the kind of kid who should go to TJ and the kind of kid who may not go there in the future thanks to these admissions changes. The concept put forth about a bunch of rich kids test prepping and getting into TJ without deserving it is false. Most of the parents at TJ are middle class or lower middle class. It's not like McLean high school. Not very many rich people. Many of them are immigrants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am equality all the way. Forget this equity nonsense

This.

Funny how so many "equity" folks supported closing schools for a year and a half.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am equality all the way. Forget this equity nonsense

This.

Funny how so many "equity" folks supported closing schools for a year and a half.

Excellent point. If the teacher unions were really about raising up the bottom performing kids they wouldn't have closed the schools. want a different theory? A lot of the equity impetus comes from the teacher unions who are pushing equity because without standardized tests, and with equity grading it is hard to show which kids have learned and which haven't and so it's harder to hold teachers and teacher unions accountable. Unions like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am equality all the way. Forget this equity nonsense

This.

Funny how so many "equity" folks supported closing schools for a year and a half.

Excellent point. If the teacher unions were really about raising up the bottom performing kids they wouldn't have closed the schools. want a different theory? A lot of the equity impetus comes from the teacher unions who are pushing equity because without standardized tests, and with equity grading it is hard to show which kids have learned and which haven't and so it's harder to hold teachers and teacher unions accountable. Unions like that.

Yup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of postings over the last few weeks on the 2nd grade AAP pool made me realize that many on this board don't actually know what "equity" means. It is NOT equal treatment for all. It is "right sizing" the treatment based on the needs of the population. (alt+p)

Equity means providing the Title I kids more benefits than the kids from the higher SES schools because the Title I kids theoretically need greater support to have an equal footing as the kids from the SES schools.

A more realistic depiction is that progressives spend millions to make the fence taller so no one can see over it.

It's also telling that the prior "equity" depiction shows a young child, an older child, and a middle-aged adult. It unintentionally reveals how the left largely infantilizes those they claim to want to help.

[Anonymous]

From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. “Equity” is communism, straight-up, no chaser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am equality all the way. Forget this equity nonsense

This.

Funny how so many "equity" folks supported closing schools for a year and a half.

Excellent point. If the teacher unions were really about raising up the bottom performing kids they wouldn't have closed the schools. want a different theory? A lot of the equity impetus comes from the teacher unions who are pushing equity because without standardized tests, and with equity grading it is hard to show which kids have learned and which haven't and so it's harder to hold teachers and teacher unions accountable. Unions like that.

Yup.

It's a somewhat predictable response to the excesses of the NCLB era in which teachers were unrealistically expected to be miracle workers. But it's swinging too far in the opposite direction and unless this is nipped in the bud kids coming out of large public school systems will learn nothing but political ideology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Equity is one of the elements of Marxism.

If by Marxism you mean a free and fair society, then sure.