4 ms·
I've never understood this approach of "eliminating gifted programs" due to equity concerns. Why not just implement something along the lines of affirmative act
by superb-owl 4y ago
I've never understood this approach of "eliminating gifted programs" due to equity concerns. Why not just implement something along the lines of affirmative action policies - make sure the demographics gifted programs roughly match the demographics of the school district?
- jaywalk 4y agoHow does shoving a student into a gifted program they aren't otherwise qualified for solely due to their race actually help anything?
- superb-owl 4y agoThis assumes that current admissions are purely meritocratic, when, as the article points out, they're not: > Black students are 66% less likely to be identified as gifted compared to white students with similar test scores But even if we supposed that the top 10% of Black students were slightly less qualified than the top 10% of White students (say, due to socioeconomic factors), the program would simply adjust towards the mean student. So maybe the program slows down a bit, but it's still an accelerated program, and now it's helping to correct those socioeconomic disparities. The only case where this argument would break down is if the top 10% of Black students were _severely_ less qualified than the top 10% of White students, in which case the program would likely fail. But it seems pretty clear that this isn't the case.