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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a teacher in a school system that does have significant racial inequities.  My observation is that the problem isn't that "AP-type classes (are) raciest" as much as it is that the pathway to get to AP classes begins with TAG selection in elementary grades, and the TAG identification process is without a doubt racist and inequitable.[/quote]

This.
We keep identifying problems yet refusing to address root causes. You can’t fix inequity in HS, college, or beyond by putting on band aids. 
Dumbing down AP classes helps no one. Neither does taking them away. You want more kids to be ready for AP? Fix early education.[/quote]

My (white) kids went to Title I schools that were majority-minority for elementary and middle school and I agree. Two of the problems we saw -- lower-income kids move around a lot. They may not go to the same school for more than a year or two in a row, so they spend a lot of time getting re-assessed, and the principals can't assign them to classes with teachers who will be a good fit, and they don't form relationships with counselors or others who look out for them....all the things that middle-class kids from stable households experience.

Also, the teachers in Title 1 schools don't last long either, if they have the chance to move to a different school many of them move on. Our elementary school went through four principals over the 10 years my kids attended. So again, even for the kids who do stay in the neighborhood long-term, they don't have the consistency that lets people really learn their strengths and weaknesses and provide the supports and programs they need to help them.

It's always stop-and-start, and all those breaks add up. Combined with less support at home for many of them, particularly the ones whose parents have limited education, and it means they are significantly behind middle class kids by the time they get to high school just because they haven't had a consistent, intensive focus on their development from all of the adults in their lives that wealthier kids in more affluent schools experience. [/quote]

^^I also think this is one of the things charter schools is supposed to address, although we don't have them where I live. It separates what school you go to from where you live, so even if you move your school doesn't change. Also the teachers and parents are theoretically more invested to the school because they chose to be part of it. [/quote]

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