Parents in Detroit are calling for their kids’ teachers to be imprisoned for their low test scores. And, frankly, it’s hard to argue with their logic if you believe that there are no differences in average intelligence between the races. We’ve tried everything we know how to do, no matter how costly or ridiculous, and the black/white achievement gap just keeps on chugging along like the Energizer bunny, even when adjusted for income, family status, etc. Everyone swears up and down that black kids are just as smart as white kids, but the average black kid graduates from high school 4 grade levels behind the average white kid. If we’re all equal, this can only be the result of some criminal mischief. Even “conservative” Newt Gingrich says that closing the Achievement Gap is THE civil rights issue of the 21st century. If that’s true, then why shouldn’t teachers go to jail if their black students do poorly in school, as it’s a violation of their civil rights?
Detroit parents want DPS teachers, officials jailed over low test scores
Bobb asking for 100,000 volunteer hours to help children with reading
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit — Impassioned parents demanded jail time for educators and district officials Saturday following the release of test scores that showed fourth- and eighth-graders had the worst math scores in the nation.
City students took the National Assessment of Educational Progress test this year, and 69 percent of fourth-graders scored below the basic level in math and 77 percent of eighth-graders scored below basic.
The Detroit scores on the progress test were the lowest in its 40-year history. The sample of students included 900 of Detroit’s 6,000 fourth-graders and 1,000 of the district’s 6,000 eighth-graders.
Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, called for jailing and civil lawsuits against anyone in the city’s educational system that is not doing his or her share to help properly educate children.
“Somebody needs to go to jail,” she said in a tearful address to 500 parents gathered Saturday for the organization’s annual breakfast forum. “Somebody needs to pay for this. Somebody needs to go to jail, and it shouldn’t be the kids.” Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb told the crowd the test scores weren’t the result of children who were incompetent or parents who didn’t care. He blamed the scores on the district not doing its job.
“This is an abysmal failure,” Bobb said. “It is not the fault of our kids individually, and it is not the fault of our kids collectively. It is not the kids’ fault. It is the adults’ fault. It is a failure of leadership.”
The scores were so low that DPS parent Tonya Allen said she thinks students could have stayed home and done just as badly on the tests.
“No other city in the history of this test has done this bad,” said Allen, a founding member of the 7-year-old network. “They could have took this test in French and done just as bad.”
Celia Huerta, also a DPS parent, said the scores show how much work is needed in the schools.
“I am hoping and praying there will be investments in the schools, but I am not seeing it,” she said. “Our kids are smart, the problem is the way they are being taught.”
Bobb said he is going to announce a new reading initiative Monday in which he will be calling for 100,000 volunteer hours to help children with reading. Reading was one of the reasons cited for the low math scores.
This is what we get for 50 years of telling blacks that their problems are all white people’s fault.
And are there really 100,000 adults in Detroit who could serve as reading tutors?
Are there even 100,000 people in Detroit who are functionally literate?