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Dragon Horse
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Joined: 07 Feb 2007
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Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
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 Posted: Wed 04 Mar 2009 23:08 Post subject: Ethnic minority pupils race ahead of poor white classmates |
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Ethnic minority pupils race ahead of poor white classmates in schools
By Julie Henry, Education Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:20PM GMT 01 Mar 2009
Rapid progress was being made by children from Chinese, Bengali and Indian backgrounds, while white working-class boys, in particular, were struggling, according to Sir Mike Tomlinson, the former head of Ofsted.
In controversial comments which will raise questions about the focus of Government funding, Sir Mike said that white working-class parents failed to place the same value on education as their ethnic minority counterparts.
As a result, poor white children have low expectations of what they can achieve, leading to lack of effort and low results.
"We are seeing every ethnic group progress rapidly – Chinese, Bengali, Indian," said Sir Mike. "The results that are being achieved are higher and this has improved the numbers applying to university and entering professions such as medicine, veterinary science, law and accountancy.
"A very high value is placed on education among many ethnic groups, compared with white working-class families. There seems to be different value systems at work."
Sir Mike, now chief adviser on London schools, said that if parents could not support their children, schools had to raise their expectations.
"Raising aspiration is essential," he said. "It is difficult to tap in to parents and difficult to get to them as a group.
"We have got to try and get them involved but sometimes it is a losing battle. Which is why the school has to raise aspirations, if it is not coming from home."
The Government has poured millions of pounds in to tackling boys' underachievement, yet only 15 per cent of 16-year-old white boys who qualify for free school meals – an indicator of deprivation – leave schools with five GCSEs at grades A* to C, including maths and English.
The figure for black boys from similar backgrounds is 22 per cent and for children from Asian backgrounds, 29 per cent – still low but improving.
Some critics have argued that funding ringfenced for ethnic minority pupils should be redirected.
In a report last year, researchers from Manchester University identified a cycle of underachievement in white working-class families which was endemic in some areas.
The report, which focused on how some schools were bucking the trend, said that teachers had to abandon the mindset that poor white children were doomed to failure because of their background.
Head teachers who made a difference had high expectations and often came from poor backgrounds themselves. |
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fwsweet
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| Posted: Wed 04 Mar 2009 23:13 Post subject: |
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| The above is about the UK, right? The UK has had a reverse "B/W test score gap" for many years. |
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Dragon Horse
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fwsweet
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Location: Palm Coast, FL
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| Posted: Wed 04 Mar 2009 23:30 Post subject: |
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| Dragon Horse wrote: | | Yes, it is the UK. |
The U.S. B/W test-score gap is something people are reluctant to discuss. When I lecture on the subject, someone always implies that merely studying the phenomenon is an act of "racism." But I try to stress that Afro-descent recent immigrant kids from Africa, from the former BWI, and from the Spanish Carribbean do not display a gap. Afro-descended U.S. kids raised by White adoptive parents do not display a gap until high school. And that the gap is upside-down in the UK. |
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caribj
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| Posted: Thu 05 Mar 2009 00:02 Post subject: |
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| fwsweet wrote: | | Dragon Horse wrote: | | Yes, it is the UK. |
The U.S. B/W test-score gap is something people are reluctant to discuss. When I lecture on the subject, someone always implies that merely studying the phenomenon is an act of "racism." But I try to stress that Afro-descent recent immigrant kids from Africa, from the former BWI, and from the Spanish Carribbean do not display a gap. Afro-descended U.S. kids raised by White adoptive parents do not display a gap until high school. And that the gap is upside-down in the UK. |
Is there a reverse B/W in the UK or is it confined tocomparisons involving the white WORKING class? There is enough talk about problems with black boys in the UK to make me suspect a reverse gap. British blacks of Caribbean heritage are regarded as being a lagging group in the UK, using most measures of socio-economic progress, this being especially true for males. Immigrants from Africa into both the UK and the USA come from a select group as their parents are disproportionately educated and so can eb expected to outperform. The question is when samples are controlled for this does their over performance still hold.
Also Puerto Ricans born and/or raised in the mainland dont seem to be doing so well in SAT exams. |
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fwsweet
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| Posted: Thu 05 Mar 2009 00:37 Post subject: |
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| caribj wrote: | | Is there a reverse B/W in the UK .... Also Puerto Ricans born and/or raised in the mainland dont seem to be doing so well in SAT exams. |
Please read Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, The Black-White Test Score Gap (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1998). It summarizes many dozens of peer-reviewed studies of the phenomenon. Your questions are answered there. As I implied above, many consider this topic more than controversial. I have learned not to debate it with with anyone who is not yet familiar with the basic studies on the subject. |
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caribj
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| Posted: Thu 05 Mar 2009 00:56 Post subject: |
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| fwsweet wrote: | | caribj wrote: | | Is there a reverse B/W in the UK .... Also Puerto Ricans born and/or raised in the mainland dont seem to be doing so well in SAT exams. |
Please read Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, The Black-White Test Score Gap (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1998). It summarizes many dozens of peer-reviewed studies of the phenomenon. Your questions are answered there. As I implied above, many consider this topic more than controversial. I have learned not to debate it with with anyone who is not yet familiar with the basic studies on the subject. |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1367004/Black-culture-holding-back-boys.html
http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/CMMR/NEWS/L.A.Times_Sept1_99.html
This might be of interest to you. |
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G-Man
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| Posted: Mon 09 Mar 2009 18:15 Post subject: |
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Does this improvement include ALL Asians or just the ones listed in the article? Some of the information I've come across from the U.K. shows that Pakistani males aren't doing very well academically.
The British white working class (or underclass) mirrors some behaviors found in the U.S. black underclass BTW. For more background about the former group read Theodore Dalrymple's "Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass." |
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caribj
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| Posted: Mon 09 Mar 2009 18:42 Post subject: |
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This is true and does much to inform the debate about the problems of our inner cities. Notable that the white working class in Britain and African Americans were both trapped for centuries in a caste like status until very recently. |
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