Just a reminder that this isn't new. When I was about to enter high school in the early 90s, Oakland was trying to end-around testing standards for black studen

Just a reminder that this isn't new. When I was about to enter high school in the early 90s, Oakland was trying to end-around testing standards for black students by declaring Ebonics as a separate language so that it could classify black students under ESL standards. That blew up and they had to walk that change back, but it shows just how far back this issue goes. My personal view on this is that it's really underappreciated how self-perpetuating something like this is. I learned to read at a fairly early age and I attribute that to my mom reading to me on a nightly basis. Having someone verbalize something while you follow along just makes it so much easier to grok once you start doing it on your own. The kids referred to in this article will have parents who were the inspiration for the Ebonics idea. How many of them would have read to their kids every night?