I guess the idea is to promote PRIVATE schools. I think while we are at it,we shouold promote equity in Sports.

CULVER CITY, Calif.—A group of parents stepped to the lectern Tuesday night at a school board meeting in this middle-class, Los Angeles-area city to push back against a racial-equity initiative. The high school, they argued, should reinstate honors English classes that were eliminated because they didn’t enroll enough Black and Latino students.

The district earlier this school year replaced the honors classes at Culver City High School with uniform courses that officials say will ensure students of all races receive an equal, rigorous education.

These parents disagreed.



“We really feel equity means offering opportunities to students of diverse backgrounds, not taking away opportunities for advanced education and study,” Joanna Schaenman, a Culver City parent who helped spearhead the effort, said in the run-up to the meeting.

The parental pushback in Culver City mirrors resistance that has taken place in Wisconsin, Rhode Island and elsewhere in California over the last year in response to schools stripping away the honors designation on some high school classes.

School districts doing away with honors classes argue students who don’t take those classes from a young age start to see themselves in a different tier, and come to think they aren’t capable of enrolling in Advanced Placement classes that help with college admissions. Black and Latino students are underrepresented in AP enrollment in the majority of states, according to the Education Trust, a nonprofit that studies equity in education.


Culver City High School eliminated honors English classes to try to improve racial equity, but many parents disagree with the move.
Since the start of this school year, freshmen and sophomores in Culver City have only been able to select one level of English class, known as College Prep, rather than the previous system in which anyone could opt into the honors class. School officials say the goal is to teach everyone with an equal level of rigor, one that encourages them to enroll in advanced classes in their final years of high school.

“Parents say academic excellence should not be experimented with for the sake of social justice,” said Quoc Tran, the superintendent of 6,900-student Culver City Unified School District. But, he said, “it was very jarring when teachers looked at their AP enrollment and realized Black and brown kids were not there. They felt obligated to do something.”

Culver City English teachers presented data at a board meeting last year showing Latino students made up 13% of those in 12th-grade Advanced Placement English, compared with 37% of the student body. Asian students were 34% of the advanced class, compared with 10% of students. Black students represented 14% of AP English, versus 15% of the student body.

The board saw anonymous quotes from students not enrolled in honors classes saying they felt less motivated or successful. One described students feeling “unable to break out of the molds that they established when they were 11.”

Tuesday marked Ms. Schaenman’s first time attending a school board meeting in person in years. She wandered the hallways of City Hall with fellow parent Pedro Frigola looking for the right room, clutching a stack of copies laying out the two-page resolution they and a few dozen other parents are asking the board to adopt.


Parents shared their concerns around honors classes being pulled from the curriculum at a school board meeting in Culver City, Calif.
PHOTO: SARA RANDAZZO/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mr. Frigola said he disagrees with the district’s view of equity. “I was born in Cuba, and it doesn’t sound good when people are trying to achieve equal outcomes for everyone,” he said.

His ninth-grade daughter, Emma Frigola, said she was surprised and a little confused by the decision to remove honors, which she had wanted to take. She said her English teacher, who used to teach the honors class, is trying to maintain a higher standard, but that it doesn’t always seem to be working.

“There are some people who slow down the pace because they don’t really do anything and aren’t looking to try harder,” Emma said. “I don’t think you can force that into people.”

For a unit on research, Emma said her teacher gathered all the reference sources they needed to write a paper on whether graffiti is art or vandalism and had students review them together in class. Her sister, Elena Frigola, now in 11th grade, said prior honors English students chose their own topics and did research independently.



Pedro Frigola opposes the district's decision, and daughter Emma Frigola is surprised by it.
In Santa Monica, Calif., high school English teachers said last year they had “a moral imperative” to eliminate honors English classes that they viewed as perpetuating inequality. The teachers studied the issue for a year and a half, a district representative said.

“This is not a social experiment,” board member Jon Kean said at a meeting last spring. “This is a sound pedagogical approach to education.”

Gail Pinsker, a Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District spokeswoman, said the shift this school year “has increased access and provided excellent educational experiences for all of our students.”

Several school districts have scaled back plans to eliminate honors classes after community opposition. San Diego’s Patrick Henry High School planned to eliminate 11th-grade honors American literature and U.S. history last year, but reinstated both after listening to students and families, a district spokeswoman said.

The school district in Madison, Wis., pulled back on plans last year to remove stand-alone honors classes and now lets students earn an honors label within general classes. A Rhode Island district made a similar move.



Those who support cutting honors classes point out that the curriculum of honors courses often doesn’t differ substantially from regular classes. Honors classes often move at a faster pace and the students complete more assignments. Some can boost grade-point averages or give students an advantage when applying for college.

Critics say attempting to teach everyone at an elevated level isn’t realistic and that teachers, even with the best intentions, may end up simplifying instruction. Instead, some educators and parents argue schools should find more ways to diversify honors courses and encourage students to enroll who aren’t self-selecting, including proactively reaching out to students, using an opt-out system, or looking to teacher recommendations.

“I just don’t see how removing something from some kids all of a sudden helps other kids learn faster,” said Scott Peters, a senior research scientist at education research nonprofit NWEA who has studied equity in gifted and talented programs.

In Culver City, Mr. Tran said he isn’t going to mandate that other departments move away from honors but that he would listen to any teacher-driven suggestions. As for English, he said he is throwing his support behind the high school’s teachers to try to elevate education for all students.

“We will keep moving forward,” he said.

Write to Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com


A sign in a yard across the street from Culver City High School.
Appeared in the February 18, 2023, print edition as 'Schools Cut Honors Classes To Boost Equity, Face Backlash'.


LINK; https://www.wsj.com/articles/t...985dee?mod=hp_trendi

Looking at the percentages given, it appears that too many minorities and not enough Caucasian people were taking AP English.

If you include Hispanics as Caucasian, then while 76% of the student body is Caucasian, Caucasians only make up 52% of the AP English students. If you include Hispanics as minorities, the 61% of the AP English students are minorities while minorities make up 62% of the student body are minorities. I think it’s a bit of a stretch to a group, Hispanics, that is 37% of the student body is a minority, while a group, whites, that is 38% of the student body is something different.

Gotta love the Asian kids who as 10% of the total student body make up 37% of the AP English students. That settles the racism question for me at that school.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

It’s happening…59 years earlier than predicted:

quote:

In the year 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. The Handicapper General's agents enforce the equality laws, forcing citizens to wear "handicaps": masks for those who are too beautiful, loud radios that disrupt thoughts inside the ears of intelligent people, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic.

Kurt Vonnegut: Harrison Bergeron

The stupid people are rising to power.

Equity is inequality.

Come to Fairfax County Schools. If mommy and daddy think their window licking potato is honors quality, the school will not say no. And the ones that deserve to be honors kids then get dragged down because the teachers have to waste time trying to get the potato up to a genEd level of education.

quote:

... board member Jon Kean said at a meeting last spring. “This is a sound pedagogical approach to education.”

Yeah, right...

Clearly racist. Eliminate honors classes and you minimize the possibility of any talented and intelligent minority child who can think for themselves being able to demonstrate superior achievement in a school setting where it can be easily recognized. Must be the progressive left’s version of “keeping em down on the farm.”

When are they going to starting passing out the participation trophies? And what is the threshold for those? Show up for class at least 10% of the time? Or is just once enough?

The class will only progress as fast as the dumbest kid.

Communism Komrad....

It is my opinion that the "soft racism of low expectations" (I don't know who originally coined the term) is the most hateful form of racism in existence.

To say a person cannot achieve a certain degree of learning because of their ethnicity or geographical origin is much more hateful than whatever bullshit games the modern-day KKK plays.

The mindless hate of a race or irrational reactions based on appearance pales in comparison to the mindful and intentional lowering of the bar.

The re-gressives have whittled down the value of education and achievement so much, that your child, who was a top achiever in high-school, numerous after school activities and high-standing in various clubs like Scouting, 4H and other organizations, they will end up getting declined at every university they apply to, because they're determined to be 'not a fit'.

This shows how the priorities of society have been all screwed up all along. Why aren't they doing away with high school team sports?

They have programs to promote athletics where gifted students are encouraged and developed while obsoleting academic programs. We need thinkers as well as people who can run fast or dunk a basketball.

Do we really need people who can run fast or dunk a basketball? I don't see any positive outcome from them.

flashguy

Wouldn't it be a hoot to gather one's friends and compel the school district to apply this "thinking" to all student activities?

Any student who wants to play a sport not only gets on the team but gets equal playing time with every other student-athlete. It's OK because the score-board can be set to assign scores on a timer always ending in a tie. There can be no winners at debate club, everyones argument must be equally valid. No blue ribbons at the art show, every student gets his/her/xer finger-painting framed. Every student gets an 'A' in calculus otherwise only smart kids could get into an engineering program (no one should stop a child's dream to build bridges). Anything done to improve oneself away from the tender mercies of faculty must be forbidden. At last, Equity.

Wow. On one hand I saw the thread title and said “fuck me” but then before it opened I said “has to be California!”

What kind of world are we living in now? I was in AP’s. High IQ, school was easy, never made less than an A- in all of public school and that A- was Spanish, as I hated the class. Everything else was A and mostly A+.

So we aren’t going to allow the gifted kids to run in an accelerated program now? I worry for our healthcare, our doctors, our lawyers (yes there are good ones out there), our gifted engineers. Dumbest shit I’ve read yet.

I remember Welcome back Kotter. High school would have been more fun with Vinny Barbarino and the sweathogs. However, there would have been little learning since you must be sure to teach the weakest link.

This is how the idiocracy gathers momentum. A funny movie, but sadly prophetic.