There is a very clear reason school administrators are implementing these changes, and it has everything to do with race. As the last slide states, “Oak Park and River Forest High School administration and faculty will examine grading and reporting practices in academic and elective courses utilizing evidence-backed research and the racial equity analysis tool.”
The phrase “racial equity analysis tool” has a specific meaning.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 1 year ago
The map is not the territory.
This is a phrase from Polish-American scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski, encapsulating his view that an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself.
The territory of school isn't to get grades. The territory is the competence an individual gains in the subjects being taught. Grades are the map to tell us where the territory lies and what fronts we need to work harder towards.
Now, you could argue for a "racial equity tool" if the research showed that people of different races at the same level of competence did worse on the same tests, but I've never heard that claim being made. They're looking just at the fact that people of certain race do worse period. Without testing, how would you objectively even determine competence?
This would be as if the US was invaded by China, and when China started gaining ground in the continental US, we just drew another continent next to America that doesn't actually exist equal in size to the ground China had taken, so on the map it appears that America isn't losing ground. The problem is that if anyone tried to take a boat over to America II, they'd quickly find that they're stranded in the middle of the ocean.
In a similar way, by drawing a competence map showing individuals have a bunch of skills they don't have, you're lining up students to fail by using that map to put them into situations they aren't competent to challenge.
admin@exploding-heads.com 1 year ago
I think they are trying to cover up how badly the schools are run and the poor job they do teaching kids - which is their primary responsibility
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 1 year ago
Honestly, that does make the most sense.
We keep hearing about teachers thinking that it's their job to teach a bunch of weird shit to kids, and yet those exact same kids are coming out of high school illiterate. The only way that you can get away with this for long is to move the goal posts so no one realizes there's a problem.