Are some children more valuable than others? Colorblindness necessary to fix education in U.S.

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Let us, for just a moment, remember back to oh, let’s say, the year 1980.

The U.S. boycotted the summer Olympics, Jimmy Carter bailed out the Chrysler corporation, Mt. St. Helens erupted in Washington state, and Bruce Springsteen’s latest hit "Hungry Heart" was playing on seemingly every radio across the country.

Some might remember these as "the good old days" when things were as easy as, well, black and white.

Yes, back then the number of people who identified themselves as Hispanic to the U.S. Census was 14.5 million, about 6.5% of the population as compared to African-Americans who in that same year numbered 26.5 million and were 11.7% of the U.S. population.

That would have been a more appropriate time for the National Center for Education Statistics' new report, "Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress."

By 1988, however, Hispanics had multiplied by more than one-third since the 1980 census, growing nearly five times faster than the rest of the population, clocking in at about 19.4 million Americans of Hispanic background, representing 8.1% of the population.

The most recent numbers show the U.S. African American population at 14% and Hispanic at 15%.

My point?

It is the year 2009, folks, there is absolutely no reason why the National Center for Education Statistics should be releasing a report about a Black/White achievement gap for U.S. school children to the exclusion of Hispanic students, not to mention Asian and many other ethnicities.

And no reason why newspapers and television and radio stations across the country should be reporting on this admittedly sad state of affairs (see Illinois numbers here) while excluding the context of every other struggling kid in the U.S. – be they poor and white, from a foreign country, or Latino.

I could point out that it has been widely reported for about two years now that by 2050 Hispanics will be 30% of the U.S. population and African Americans 15% and argue for a special report highlighting Hispanics.

But that would be silly – you can already easily find such reports (Google it). But just try getting the mainstream media to put those in the headlines and I’ll personally bake you a dozen chocolate chip cookies.

There is no need to harp on the fact that, despite the very real challenges and biases African American students face in our abominable school system every day, there are now approximately 10 million Hispanic students in the nation's public kindergartens and its elementary and high schools, making up about one-in-five public school students in the United States.

Rather, it is high time to put the race and ethnicity issue – as it relates to student success in this country – in a coffin and bury it forever.

Any intelligent argument about success factors for U.S. children must center around familial wealth (lack thereof, actually) and kids’ access to decent schools, learning materials, and teachers – regardless of skin color.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released a statement Tuesday in which he said: "This report makes clear that … when schools serving children of color are primarily staffed by less experienced, less effective teachers, the effects are tragic."

He is wrong because the part about less effective teachers is a true statement for every child, even poor white or Asian ones.

And that’s how we need to look at this problem if we have any hope of fixing it. Enough of trying to overhaul our education system while looking at the issue through the prism of a black/brown/white/blue-eyed/brown-eyed divide.

We are almost a full decade into the new millennium. No one child is more valuable than any other and, certainly, none of them deserve to be more or less valued in the academic research we’ll need for building a first-class educational system for the next thousand years of this nation’s history.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

[Dave]

As I read Esters comments, I have to admit that it seems,she may be trying to use a scare tactic with numbers. Well,I may be wrong but, she seems to be trying to say if everybody don't pay attention to hispanics when we grow up we are going to beat everyone up because it is more of us. I think she has been working her math well..but PHYSICS would have been better. LET's try NEWTONS THIRD LAW.

A force is a push or a pull upon an object which results from its interaction with another object- let's say more than one race. Forces result from interactions! Let's say-Hispanics like to live and make their own communities and shop mostly there group of people, well known fact.

As some forces result from contact interactions (normal, frictional, tensional, and applied forces are examples of contact forces) and other forces are the result of action-at-a-distance interactions (gravitational, electrical, and magnetic forces). According to Newton, whenever objects A and B interact with each other, they exert forces upon each other. When you sit in your chair, your body exerts a downward force on the chair and the chair exerts an upward force on your body. There are two forces resulting from this interaction - a force on the chair and a force on your body. These two forces are called action and reaction forces and are the subject of Newton's third law of motion. Formally stated, Newton's third law is:

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

So, what I am trying to get across is that more WILL not make a big difference. Accept in one groups eyes. So don't use the old we will be many or else.

Look at Russia, they build more weapons than the USA, we build less..but better. So, don't keep harping on 30 million. Put that beside 200 million other people together and tell me something good. Then understand Newtons Third Law.

Also with 30 million comes,more poor for the welfare system,more inmates for the prisons,more crime,more illiteracy, more diseases, more gangs,etc.etc..

Unless all 30 million will be millionaires, and perfect people from heaven or something, if not. I don't see anything to brag about.

Or maybe, with the 30 million more they can help pay down the deficit, by paying taxes.

I am no where near a racist either.

[Timothy Cruickshank]

Esther, Welcome home. Regarding the racial breakdown of test scores and reasons for the disparity, I think it is critical that these statistics are maintained. When there is a breakdown in ANY system, the overall performance cannot be improved unless the leading causes of failure are identified, studied and then improved through careful planning. When a number of students are tested and one race of kids are found to fail at a relatively high rate, it does those children no good to simply throw the scores together a compute an overall average. Without a racial breakdown, communities and their leaders have no concrete evidence to look "within" for specific reasons and form solutions. I think you missed the most obvious reason for this higher failure rate among black children - the breakdown of the family - single parent households. There is a lack of "family values" condusive to learning. It is too easy to continue to blame teachers for kids not learning. Perhaps if the teachers I've spoke to weren't so busy performing parental duties lacking in the home (teaching their children manners, kindness, helping others and discipline), they could concentrate more on subjects the students are actually tested on.

[blackmamba]

From a pure biological perspective there is only one human race in existence today. There are recogizable racial population differences within this race represented by Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Australoasian and Aboriginal.

The notion that Hispanics who can be a member of any one of these races or an admixture of them constitute a race rather than a linguistic and cultural designation is not recognized anywhere but in America. It makes no sense because Hispanics who are volountary immigrants to America just like Europeans, Asians and post slavery Africans can fit into the traditional race categories. Why white Hispanics would be viewed any differently from any other white people makes no sense. When national origin and ethnicity are placed on top of this the notion that you have a unique brown racial category is simply false.

Africans were enslaved by all of the European powers who had colonial or business interests in the Americas. Native Americans were conquered and colonized by all of the same powers. Racial mixing also took place along with cultural/linguistic mixing. These are unique historical factors that are deeply embedded in American history. One drop of Native American or African American blood determined your legal status and fate.

For centuries slavery and legalized discrimination were the lot of Africans in the New World Americas/Carribbean. And because the Spanish tended to not bring their women there was a lot of racial mixing with the Native American population who became colonial vassals. There was discrmination against Hispanics, Asians, the Irish,the Italians and Jews but that pales in comparison to what happened to the Natives and the Africans.

Anglo is the proper analog to Hispanic. This would include all of those people of English linguistic and cultural heritage regardless of race, nationality or ethnicity. But this ignores American historical reality and the present still lingering impact of that reality. White, Black and Native American as defined in America would reflect that reality.

[Sara]

Esther, you make a good point, and it is well taken. However, I do not agree with the manner in which you phrase it. The "black/white learning and achievement gap" is significant not because of race alone, but because the evaluation serves as a proxy in evaluating the openness and accessability of opportunity in America..... which stems from efforts to reduce and or eliminate the effects of slavery and unfair laws upon African Americans. It is because of structural inequity (written into law) that African Americans have had many challenges. Some Latinos, however, belong to the wider group of "immigrants" and despite large numbers, the U.S. government does not have an obligation to specifically address this community in the same way.

Again, I think that you raise some thoughtful points. But your way of phrasing the argument perpetuates a harmful "black vs. brown" dynamic that does not get us anywhere. The first black president nominated what will be the first Latina Supreme Court justice. So please stop making this an issue of Latinos being ignored. That way of viewing the achievement gap is both divisive and wrong.