From the Liberals Hurt Our Kids File
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4065
by Bill Dupray
Via the Washington Post
“http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2073 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.”
“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 definiton). 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.