In a message dated 8/26/2003 8:41:14 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Does anyone know if the Minnesota data have been examined controlling > for the number of years the individual students have been attending > schools in Minnesota. For instance, the disparities could be calculated > leaving out all students who have resided in Minnesota less than one > year, then again leaving out all students who have resided here less > than two years, etc. Would the disparity drop the more years the school > system was involved? I suspect that, on average, African-American students in Minneapolis are enrolled in classes where the curriculum is dumbed-down more that in the classes they would take if attending a public school in another state. Even assuming the test scores of students who move from state to state are generally lower than average, it is doubtful that the students who went to school in more than one state are going to lower the curve in Minnesota more than in other states because scores on basic skills and academic aptitude tests for African Americans in Minnesota are also among the worst in the country. In 1998 I participated in community meetings and focus groups about the schools that were organized by the lawyers who were doing the NAACP educational adequacy lawsuit. In those meetings I heard many African Americans apparently under the age of 18 report they had recently come to Minnesota from other states. All of these self-identified immigrants said that when they transferred to schools in Minneapolis they found the material covered by there teachers in math, English and other subject areas to be less advanced than what they had been studying in Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, MI; Mississippi, etc. And I heard the same complaint from time to time when I was a school board candidate in 2001 and 2002 (I did a lot of door-knocking in several parts of the city). -Doug Mann, King Field School Board Candidate in 2002 (on the ballot in the Nov. 2002 election) TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
