Politically Correct School Board Spikes Controversial Report [Reader Post]

From the Liberals Hurt Our Kids File.

Via the Washington Post.

Fairfax County School Board members said they are likely to abandon a staff report that showed racial and ethnic gaps in some measures of student behavior, including in the demonstration of “sound moral character and ethical judgment.”

The board had delayed an April vote to approve the report after concerns were raised that findings were based on subjective measures, such as elementary report card data, and that they would fuel negative stereotypes.

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The school system’s report was an early attempt to measure progress on a host of goals the board considers “essential” for success in the workplace. It identified disparities among groups of students in several skills, including the ability to contribute effectively in a group, resolve conflicts and make healthy choices, and in the demonstration of moral character and ethical judgment.

Such a target-rich environment.

The School Board asked for the report, which was paid for by the taxpayers. When normal people ask for a report measuring student behavior, they are usually interested in, well, measuring student behavior. If they already knew the answers, they wouldn’t waste the time or money on the study. Democrats (who run Fairfax County) request a study and apparently demand that the outcome comport with their liberal world-view, which should never be confused with reality. If they don’t like the results, the report goes right into the shredder.

So rather than addressing the problem (the purpose of the study), they attack it as flawed. They are concerned “that findings were based on subjective measures, such as elementary report card data, and that they would fuel negative stereotypes.” So now the teachers, whose judgment we are supposed to trust (they are members of the vaunted NEA), are suspect because their assessments are too subjective (they are, of course, subjective by definition). I guess those subjective assessments were what? Racist? Stereotypical?

But while any kid can get a bad teacher who dislikes him more than other teachers, the sum total of all of the teachers’ evaluations over the years, turns one subjective assessment into an objective picture of the student. The School Board had objective findings and chose to define them as subjective in order to torpedo the report.

But the board’s real issue is the second one: the results might fuel negative stereotypes. And that is Political Correctness. The actual results must be ignored, to the detriment of the very students they were studying, because somebody might be offended.

Here is the offended guy.

The staff report on student behavior recently drew criticism from the chairman of the Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee.

In a letter to School Board Chairman Daniel G. Storck (Mount Vernon) last month, Ralph Cooper wrote that the report and some recent school system budget decisions had “damaged any credibility [the School Board] may have had in improving minority student achievement.”

Umm, wasn’t the purpose of the report to see if students needed help in reaching these “goals the board considers ‘essential’ for success in the workplace.”

Then we have this substantive and logical critique by one of the geniuses on the board.

Board member Martina A. Hone (At Large) said that the original report is “fatally flawed” and that it doesn’t make sense “to work on fixing it.” She said she is pleased with the way the board is rethinking it. “I think we have come out a stronger school board,” she said.

Translation from the Liberal Dictionary: The results offend us and are, therefore, fatally flawed. Since you can’t “fix” results, don’t bother trying. By burying this offensive report and taking no action to help the students, we can feel better about ourselves because we protected the students from being offended. After all, nothing must come in the way of the goal of phony, unearned student self-esteem.

Unfortunately for the kids, the real world couldn’t give a rat’s rear-end about their self-esteem. What the real world cares about are “the ability to contribute effectively in a group, resolve conflicts and make healthy choices, and in the demonstration of moral character and ethical judgment,” the very attributes with which the Fairfax County School Board has declined to help them.

Also find Bill Dupray at The Patriot Room