Sunday, November 11, 2012

Florida Says It’s OK That Minorities Don’t Read Well


Last week the Florida Board of Education decided to institute a new set of standards for grading students reading prowess in their state. Florida’s new student achievement goals are designed to take into account the unique family life and socioeconomic background of different races and there effect on student reading scores. In other words different races will be graded differently because as we all know we are all products of our environment.

Florida like most states has been struggling with substandard minority reading scores for some time. Last year in the sunshine state, 69% of white students tested at grade level on the state FCAT test. Hispanics came in second at 53% while less than 40% of black students managed to prove they could read at grade level.

In an attempt to meet the terms of waivers granted to Florida (and 32 other states) from provisions of the federal “No Child Left Behind Act” (as well as bridging the minority student to non-minority student achievement gap); Florida is lowering reading standards for minority and some poor students. Apparently in Florida kids don’t have to read at the same grade level anymore especially if their black and poor. Oh brother!

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