Uncommon Core Heightens Race and Class Math Divide
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| ASSOCIATED PRESS |
The uproar over high-stakes testing associated with Common Core in New York State and complaints that children are being tested on things they were not taught, has obscured the deepening of racial, ethnic and class divisions in education in New York and the United States. Not only are the tests unfair, but according to a new study by the National Urban Research Group (NURG), math instruction and the educational system in the United States are deeply unfair, especially to Black and Latino students from poorer families.
The study conducted by the National Urban Research Group , The Common Core Promise: A Baseline Assessment of New York City's Implementation of Common Core Learning Standard, utilized data from 198,556 students in New York City Public Middle Schools who were administered the Common Core math assessment in Spring 2013. Based on their analysis of the data, NURG concluded, "If the 2013 Common Core math assessments are sensible proxies for grade-level expectations, then too many students in the New York City public school system are not prepared to meet the rigorous learning benchmarks. This is particularly the case for black students, Hispanic students, and students living in poverty."
The results on the Common Core Math tests are disturbing for all students, but especially disturbing when broken down by race, ethnicity, and social class. While the percentage of New York City middle school students scoring at proficiency level (Level 3 and 4) dropped for all grades and all groups, it was much steeper for students from minority and poorer families. For example, in the sixth grade, Hispanic students recorded the steepest declines. Their proficiency rate dropped from 50.4 percent in