Dr. Ebbie Parsons III Writes About Learning Expectations In Black Schools Dr. Ebbie Parsons III has made it his personal mission to improve the institution of education and has proudly impacted the lives of more than 100,000 children around the world while delivering unprecedented business results to the organizations in which he has served. The co-founder of Yardstick Learning has recently penned a profoundly eye-opening piece for HuffPo on the educational expectations placed on Black youth vs. white youth in our schools today. The basic point of my argument is that “proficient” is such a low standard that not a single child who scores “proficient” in all areas according to the standards will actually be college or career ready upon matriculation from high school. The expectations are too low for any of these kids to rely on “proficiency” to help them get admitted into a competitive college and there’s nothing about any of these standards that are actually preparing these kids to be career ready for any type of position deemed to be on a “career track” by any American standard. These standards aren’t good enough for White students so why should schools be allowed to tout them as success for low-income Black and Brown students? How many times have you seen schools say that they’ve transformed or turned around a school by getting up to 70% proficient? Or what about the schools that brag that 100% of their kids are proficient? I implore you to peel back the onion to find out what percent of those kids are advanced proficient. And trust me, if that number is less than 10% and they’re touting 100% proficiency then you should know that the school is nothing more than a testing mill preparing kids for standardized assessments. Dr. Parsons goes onto argue that affluent communities (more likely to be disproportionately white) tend to teach analysis, critical thinking and offer more advancement opportunities to their students. Affluent communities try to build critical thinkers who are exposed to a vast array of opportunities and curriculum that explores all of the core content areas with a critical eye. They’re not teaching rote memorization of a standard so that kids can do well on an assessment. They’re teaching kids to actually “get it”. Many of them may even have fewer students that score proficient but nearly all of the students who are proficient actually score “advanced proficient” on an assessment because they have a firm understanding of the material. We must choose our children’s education “eyes wide open” and understand when the wool is being pulled over our eyes. The institutional racism that is “proficient” only continues to keep Black and Brown children from ever experiencing the real American dream. We need to understand the standards in order to challenge the standards. This is our responsibility as this determines our future! Do you think the standard is set too low for many students in Black communities so that their skill set leaves them in a position to just be “proficient” or far below their white peers??
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Race Matters: Black Children’s Educational Expectations Are More Likely To Be Underestimated Than Whites
