In a message to Chuck Beams you wrote:
-> Their point was that minority students were unjustly being excluded
-> from Honors and Advanced Placement curriculum choices by having
-> prerequisite curricular and grade point requirements in place.
I know that in some of the local public California high schools,
prerequisites for the Honors and AP courses are either very lax or
non-existent. It goes back to the same thing that Tom is bringing up:
evidence that students from minority races were being disproportionately
represented in such courses lead to charges of discrimination. Whether
there were any actual court cases in California or not, I'm not certain.
It could be that the Arkansa case is simply affecting us here? So now,
pretty much anyone who wants to is allowed to sign up for these courses,
at least in some of the public high schools nearby.
-> I think Shiela pointed out one possible downfall would be that lesser
-> districts would not want to adopt such standards.
That's not exactly what I said. I think you've changed my point a bit. I
said that districts not using such standards would probably be unlikely
to educate parents as to what the standards are. To do so would likely
only encourage discontent with the school. That doesn't mean that such a
school would not strive to improve and reach for those standards,
however. As a matter of fact, I would think that well known, publicized
and widely accepted standards would put pressure on schools. Not only
would they community (were they aware of the situation) likely put
pressure on the schools to improve, but applicants for (especially)
administrative positions such as principal would almost of necessity be
forced to discuss the standards in their hiring interviews and their
plans for bringing the school up to the level of the standards. I do not
see National standards (again, note: I do not use the words "curriculum"
nor "federal") would in any way cause poor schools to worsen. I can only
see good things coming from such a set of standards.
Sheila
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