Recent report that shows black and Hispanic students have lower moral character than whites and Asians, but school board wants it quashed. Don’t let them do it.
Background: In 2006, the board decided to incorporate “character education,” or the teaching of emotional and social skills, into school practice. To this end, the board came up with a list of Essential Life Skills that students should learn, such as taking responsibility for one’s actions, keeping promises, respecting others, and so forth.
The board then set out to study the character of the students in the county. The recently released results of the study showed racial disparities in moral character that were entirely predictable for race realists, but troubled the board. It turns out that black and Hispanic third-graders show lower moral character than whites and Asians. Ninety-five percent of Asian and white students were graded as having a “good” or “outstanding” moral character, as opposed to 82 percent of blacks and 86 percent of Hispanics.
Given the controversial nature of the findings, the board is hesitant to accept the report.
The primary advocate of rejecting the report is a black board member named Tina Hone who complains that it is “potentially damaging and hurtful” because it might promote negative stereotypes of blacks and Hispanics and discourage them. On Friday, the board decided to postpone voting on whether to accept the report until it had been analyzed further.
To rationalize their efforts at censorship, Hone and other board members are raising bogus objections to the methodology of the study. The data behind the report, summarized in this article, seem quite reasonable: students were graded on their level of absenteeism and teachers’ evaluations. Although they cite no evidence for this charge, the board is suggesting that teacher bias might be responsible for the results. In today’s inverted world, there must always be a scapegoat for racial differences, and the board may make teachers to take the fall. Beyond that, there are the usual complaints that the study of racial differences is inherently divisive and pernicious.
Please protest censorship of the facts about race and the scapegoating of teachers by sending the e-mail below or one of your own composition to Daniel G. Storck, the chair of the school board, at daniel.storck@fcps.edu. If you live in Fairfax County (as I do), be sure to mention it in your e-mail. Contact information for other school board members is here.