Not a new lynch rope
Devoted Reader Bob B. sends his impression of the comments by the head of the Miami-Dade NAACP on The O'Reilly Factor" this past Tuesday night:
I hope you caught the President of the Miami NAACP on "The O'Reilly Factor"...He was vehemently opposed to Florida's mandatory exit - or competency - testing program for HS seniors.
After hearing him use the term "High Stakes Testing" repeatedly, I have a better appreciation for what you are up against. He simply could not accept the obvious fact that people unable to pass - (make that "get a 40 on" a "watered down" exam even when given 8 chances) were not sufficiently educated to be given a diploma.
He ranted, he raved, he used questionable anecdotal evidence - but basically it was just another demand that we once again lower standards so we could pretend that people who are not "making it" really are.
Ultimately though, I think he managed to turn off the vast majority of
the audience. And while that's good, I'll still bet that he will eventually succeed by hanging raciest labels on all of us who still think that diplomas should mean something more than "occasionally attended".
Anyone else see the show, or get this impression? I certainly found this official statement on the NAACP website to be rambling and meaningless, if not downright incorrect:
Today we are faced with tremendous challenges. In education, high stakes testing such as the FCAT is being misused for, and the attacks on affirmative action are today's equivalent of yesterday's lynch ropes. The median net worth for a Black family is $7,073 and for a white family $49,030.
"Misused" for what? And why would high-stakes testing be something the NAACP should oppose? When Florida's state colleges and universities ended race- and gender-based admission policies in 2000, the number of minority students entering the system increased by 12 percent. How is that equivalent to a "lynch rope?"
The part about the net worth is probably correct, although the figure given on the NAACP site for the median net worth of black families is smaller than the figure given for black families eight years ago. The only online figures I could find were for The ironic part, though, is that research organizations such as the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research specifically note that education is related to income. And yet the Miami-Dade NAACP is fighting a valuable tool that can be used to increase the quality of education for Florida's students, and are in effect fighting for the right to allow students who aren't proficient in English and mathematics to graduate from Florida's high schools. They're shooting themselves in the foot with that attitude.