Report Finds Race-based Gap in College Grad Rates

I must make my point. I read these remarks after initially planning to use this education article for my Black Reality Class, and I am shocked. What I have learned over the past few months is eye opening in some aspects but is also Bias at the same time. I have learned that the education system is what is holding black people back. The reason i say this is when you look at the current cirriculum in schools everything is based on a white past. I mainly point to History and how this country was formed. Our books talk more of the white people of importance. This is a harsh reality. The only way you learn of the black people of history is by taking a black history course which is usually not required until you go to college. It is written that most black students are given up on by their teachers. This is a failure of our society as well as our education system.

I am a white person. The modern perception by everyone is that being white is normal. Hence the reason why black people have a complex. Arthur has the same attitude as the Arthur from the movie "THE COLOR OF FEAR" . The fact is that this country is founded on white dominance and is preached to be white owned. We stole this country and enforced our beliefs on the people that inhabited it. We took this country from them. Pushing them more and more until they either failed to exist or lived on reservations we seen fit. This is the education that is not put out there to the children these days. THIS COUNTRY WAS FORMED ON SLAVERY. A harsh reality. The only way that we will ever be able to change this country is by claiming this fact. The first step is education. Regardless of what the color of someones skin is. Our education system is flawed. Our children are failing at an alarming rate. To add on to that we are assisting other countries in building schools and improving their ways of life but have not done so on the home front. This is reality!!!! And while I side with many peoples opinion Affirmative action is not the answer. It starts many years before the college age. It needs to start in the k and 1st grade. Parents, family structure, and firm teaching is what is needed. Any child can succeed. It is all about tools they are given to work with. Tools being good schools and a system devoted to assisting all children in learning the required and ass well as their respective race relation to history.

Jimmy of WI 2:45PM May 04, 2008

Actually, there is ample evidence that there is extraordinary opportunities for black Americans. The average black with an IQ of 100 is much more likely to pursue/be in college than a white with an IQ of 120. This is true in all areas of the country and schools. Does this mean that a certain number of whites more so prepared and in the case of IQ, smater will be given less opportunity to succeed? Yes.

The question is not whether children can learn. The question is whether all children learn the same and have the same capacity and potentiality. If there is a deficit in potentiality, there will be a deficit in actuality. It is a hard reality to swallow but that does not mean that we should not take the medicine to cure ourselves.

Also, I would hope that the previous poster should not be strapped by his own race. It is important for all people to voice their oppinions. I cannot take seriously the idea that because of this country's history that it is an accurate reflection of where it is today. If anyone seriously finds more bigotry, prejudice, and hatred in whites than the reciprocal from blacks towards whites, and as I know (Hispanic as you all say) than I question your grasp of reality. I cannot tell you how many whites have revealed the unbridled hatred in the looks they recieve from blacks on a daily basis, which is in reality more a result of "liberal" social philosophy than racially based/discrminatory historical events.

Jorge of NY 9:15PM May 01, 2008

Leaving aside the discursion on racism which has both valid and other points, I will say that it has become extremely hard for a poorly prepared student to do well in college, and that black students tend to be worse prepared than nonblack students. This seems to be a mixture of family support - overall there seems to be less academic support for black students than for white, although right this moment, Hispanics get the least support from their families for education, which, let me tell you, is a real problem for the involved parents of Hispanic kids who date these bozos. School support is clearly also a factor; black students are disproportionately tracked into the lower tracks at school which do NOT prepare you for college, and tend to attend poorer quality schools. Finally, black students seem to have low confidence in their ability to suceed. For example, just answering the question on ethnic group on standardized tests lowers the scores of the black students while it doesn't affect the scores of the others, suggesting that just thinking about the subject causes black students to turn off.

In addition these scores are TERRIBLE across the board. WHY are students going into DEBT for an average < 60% graduation rate? WHY aren't the colleges expected to refund their money if they are unable to teach students they accept, presumably in the belief that they are capable of handling the work? When I was in college, almost everybody who entered graduated in FOUR not six years. Now, however, not only are there a whole lot more requirements, but it is actually quite difficult to get all your courses in the order you need them to graduate on time, and nobody actually teaches anymore! They just "assess" that the student has learned. It is precisely the students who are the first in their family to enter college - like many black students - who will be screwed by this. My entering college student has ME to make her to get freshman composition, spanish 101, and calculus out of the way before entering college. She has ME to say, "Look, if you want to do that major, you need these courses, and in this order. And no, this means you can't take Ceramics." She has ME to say, "G*d*MN this, this writing is terrible! You are in high school, not Kindergarten and you will DO IT OVER. I don't care whether your teacher never corrects your papers; I AM YOUR TEACHER." Well most black kids don't have that, because their parents didn't go to college, couldn't go to college, and don't even know that teachers are supposed to correct papers and not just stick a grade on them. They just figure their kids can't cut the mustard. We asians - and my kids are adopted Hispanic - know better. Almost all kids can learn. But most of them have to be taught.

Shirin de Silva of MO 6:10PM April 29, 2008

I just want to chime in on this subject. The truth of the matter is that blacks have received the short end of the stick, thanks to the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, and segregation. As such, generations of black families have been relegated to the worst public schools, and very little economic activities, which gives rise to a whole slew of social problems. Therefore, it is silly to attribute skin color to socio-economic conditions because any race would likely fair exactly the same, were they to be put in the same conditions.

Also, to that person who wrote about the lack of technological/economic advancement in Africa - please don't forget White Europeans colonized most of the African nation and drew up arbitrary boundaries that contributed to the social strife that exists today. We can't lay blame and make rash judgments without taking into consideration the history behind it all.

TL of CT 5:51PM April 26, 2008