Pennsylvania School Experiments with Segregation

[Stand Your Ground]

Sorry if this has been posted before, saw it awhile ago and forgot to post it here:



A Pennsylvania high school says some students are separated by race, gender and language for a few minutes each day in an effort to boost academic scores, raising controversy over the historically contentious issue of segregation in schools.
The initiative is a pilot program intended to capitalize on "enriching students' experiences through mentoring" and is derived from school research "that shows grouping black students by gender with a strong role model can help boost their academic achievement and self esteem," according to a statement from McCaskey East High School in Lancaster.


http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-27/us/pennsylvania.segregation_1_segregation-neighborhood-schools-system-students?_s=PM:US

[Mr. Contradiction]

It seems to me that the biggest obstacle to the students' academic achievement and self-esteem is being forced to participate in the Lancaster school system.

[Zav]

Any correlation between segregation and academic success is likely caused by racist, sexist, etc. views held by the particular group studied.

[BankHeist]

I wouldn't blame the racism of the participants, so much as the racist/sexist society we live in.

With everyone being conditioned to a white, cisgendered male narrative of success; no wonder Black kids, for example, work better among other Black kids; free from the white supremacy they're forced to experience in every other aspect of their lives.

Besides, desegregation as its defined by that article, is a misnomer. Putting kids of different racial/socioeconomic backgrounds in a room to learn together isn't desegregation, so long as the curriculum being taught is inherently linked to capitalism, white supremacy and the heteropatriarchy.

[BankHeist]

I wouldn't blame the racism of the participants, so much as the racist/sexist society we live in.

With everyone being conditioned to a white, cisgendered male narrative of success; no wonder Black kids, for example, work better among other Black kids; free from the white supremacy they're forced to experience in every other aspect of their lives.

Besides, desegregation is a misnomer. Putting kids of different racial/socioeconomic backgrounds in a room to learn together isn't desegregation, so long as the curriculum being taught is inherently linked to capitalism, white supremacy and the heteropatriarchy.

[timbaly]

The real problem is the internalized racism and sexism that comes from ones socialization. There is an academic study that shows SAT scores of black students are consistently higher when the exam proctor is black and consistently lower when the proctor is white. I don't believe that finding was effected by racist or sexist views of the researchers.

I actually know quite a few people who went to that high school in Lancaster within the last 5 years. They were all shocked when they heard about the new program. It seems a bit misguided and I do believe the school should be taking a more combative approach by teaching the students about the research that prompted the program to be created.