Teh One Who Knocks
12-05-2023, 03:00 PM
By Melissa Koenig - New York Post
https://i.imgur.com/XgjFz0M.png
Civil rights attorneys have called out a Chicago-area school district’s program to racially segregate English and math classes to boost minority students’ scores, saying it is “unconstitutional.”
“There is no way that could possibly pass legal muster if someone sued,” legal expert David Bernstein told the Washington Free Beacon of Evanston Township High School’s two programs to offer separate Algebra 2, pre-calculus, Advanced Placement Calculus and English seminars for Black and Latino students.
He added that the AXLE (Advancing Excellence, Lifting Everyone) program for Black students and the Ganas program — from the Spanish expression meaning “giving it all you got” — for Latino students is “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Bernstein pointed to the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees everyone “equal protections under the law.”
In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that the Amendment forbade segregation, which it said is inherently unequal.
https://i.imgur.com/BbX8jC1.png
Those in favor of the AXLE and Ganas programs argue that they are optional courses for students in the minority-majority district, which has only 44% white students.
They provide students of color “a different, more familiar setting to kids who feel really anxious about being in an AP class,” Superintendent Marcus Campbell told the Evanstonian.
He added that equity guides many of the decisions made by the Evanston Township school board, which says in a stated goal: “Recognizing that racism is the most devastating factor contributing to the diminished achievement of student achievement of students, ETHS will strive to eliminate the predictability of academic achievement based upon race.”
But students do not have to be either Black or Hispanic to participate in the AXLE or Ganas classes, district officials clarified following backlash earlier this year.
They removed the term “restricted” from course descriptions, replacing it with, “while open to all students, this option section of the course is intended to support students who identify as ‘latinx’ or ‘black,’” according to the Evanstonian.
“That changed because what was written doesn’t reflect the practice,” Campbell said. “It’s just not restricted. The courses are open to everyone.
“If push came to shove and you look at the master schedule, and a kid needs calculus that period and there’s nothing else that works and that kid is white, of course we’ll put them in the affinity class.”
There are now 105 students enrolled in the Ganas program, and another 86 enrolled in AXLE courses, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Many students in the programs say they offer them a sense of belonging.
“I feel like I represent me and not the whole black race in this AP class,” an alumnae of the program said.
“It’s a safe space,” he added. “In AP classes that are mostly white, I feel like if I answer wrong, I am representing all black kids. I stay quiet in those classes.”
A student in the Ganas program also said she feels “accepted for the first time in a long time.”
In total, a recent survey found that 56% of ETHS students felt a “sense of belonging” at the school, according to Evanston Now.
By race, that represented 62% white students and 49% Black students.
The programs also seem to be helping, with students of color showing higher results on AP tests than in years passed.
https://i.imgur.com/m1OfZjM.png
But William Trachman, a former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, argued that the Title IV law, which bans race discrimination in federally-funded programs, “does not distinguish between mandatory and optional activities.”
A racial equity consultant who worked for the school for more than a decade also admitted it would be better if they didn’t need the program.
“The ultimate goal is not having an affinity section of algebra, it’s having no disparity,” Glenn Singleton said.
For now, though, Black and Hispanic students are continuing to underperform.
“Our Black students are, for lack of a better word — and I hate using this word, but they are at the bottom and they are being outperformed constantly,” school board vice president Monique Parsons said at a meeting last month.
“It’s not good,” she said. “We’re always chasing this and trying to figure it out.”
https://i.imgur.com/XgjFz0M.png
Civil rights attorneys have called out a Chicago-area school district’s program to racially segregate English and math classes to boost minority students’ scores, saying it is “unconstitutional.”
“There is no way that could possibly pass legal muster if someone sued,” legal expert David Bernstein told the Washington Free Beacon of Evanston Township High School’s two programs to offer separate Algebra 2, pre-calculus, Advanced Placement Calculus and English seminars for Black and Latino students.
He added that the AXLE (Advancing Excellence, Lifting Everyone) program for Black students and the Ganas program — from the Spanish expression meaning “giving it all you got” — for Latino students is “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Bernstein pointed to the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees everyone “equal protections under the law.”
In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that the Amendment forbade segregation, which it said is inherently unequal.
https://i.imgur.com/BbX8jC1.png
Those in favor of the AXLE and Ganas programs argue that they are optional courses for students in the minority-majority district, which has only 44% white students.
They provide students of color “a different, more familiar setting to kids who feel really anxious about being in an AP class,” Superintendent Marcus Campbell told the Evanstonian.
He added that equity guides many of the decisions made by the Evanston Township school board, which says in a stated goal: “Recognizing that racism is the most devastating factor contributing to the diminished achievement of student achievement of students, ETHS will strive to eliminate the predictability of academic achievement based upon race.”
But students do not have to be either Black or Hispanic to participate in the AXLE or Ganas classes, district officials clarified following backlash earlier this year.
They removed the term “restricted” from course descriptions, replacing it with, “while open to all students, this option section of the course is intended to support students who identify as ‘latinx’ or ‘black,’” according to the Evanstonian.
“That changed because what was written doesn’t reflect the practice,” Campbell said. “It’s just not restricted. The courses are open to everyone.
“If push came to shove and you look at the master schedule, and a kid needs calculus that period and there’s nothing else that works and that kid is white, of course we’ll put them in the affinity class.”
There are now 105 students enrolled in the Ganas program, and another 86 enrolled in AXLE courses, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Many students in the programs say they offer them a sense of belonging.
“I feel like I represent me and not the whole black race in this AP class,” an alumnae of the program said.
“It’s a safe space,” he added. “In AP classes that are mostly white, I feel like if I answer wrong, I am representing all black kids. I stay quiet in those classes.”
A student in the Ganas program also said she feels “accepted for the first time in a long time.”
In total, a recent survey found that 56% of ETHS students felt a “sense of belonging” at the school, according to Evanston Now.
By race, that represented 62% white students and 49% Black students.
The programs also seem to be helping, with students of color showing higher results on AP tests than in years passed.
https://i.imgur.com/m1OfZjM.png
But William Trachman, a former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, argued that the Title IV law, which bans race discrimination in federally-funded programs, “does not distinguish between mandatory and optional activities.”
A racial equity consultant who worked for the school for more than a decade also admitted it would be better if they didn’t need the program.
“The ultimate goal is not having an affinity section of algebra, it’s having no disparity,” Glenn Singleton said.
For now, though, Black and Hispanic students are continuing to underperform.
“Our Black students are, for lack of a better word — and I hate using this word, but they are at the bottom and they are being outperformed constantly,” school board vice president Monique Parsons said at a meeting last month.
“It’s not good,” she said. “We’re always chasing this and trying to figure it out.”