Peacemaker: Black male achievement gap questioned by experts

Another timely article in the most recent Carolina Peacemaker questions the use (or misuse) of test scores to classify our children.

At issue is a recent talk given by local academicians on the attempts to close the achievement gap among students of color and why NCLB-test scores may be misused.

There's some validity to what's being said in this article.

Peacemaker:

School officials often say they are working hard to close the achievement gap which shows the disparity of the test scores between Black and White students. But, Tuesday night, some questioned the very issue of the gap.
When [Ed] Whitfield asked the audience, “Whose achievement gap is it anyway?” silence loomed over the audience. “Standardized tests are not a good measure of the whole of what we are trying to facilitate in the development of our youth. The only gap that anyone should be concerned about closing is the gap between what parents want for their children and what they are getting in schools,” Whitfield said. “There are issues of racism in the classroom because of teacher’s attitudes, curriculum and testing. Schools are only teaching standardized tests. The high achieving young people are not prepared for the actual challenges of the society that we live in,” Whitfield continued.

On Mr. Whitfield's thoughts about testing, he's right.

And yet, we continue to test our children to death...for what?

E.C. :)