Boston - Advanced Placement Courses Cancelled because Black Kids Don't Want to Take Them

Boston Public Schools Suspends Test For Advanced Learning Classes; Concerns About Program’s Racial Inequities Linger

An analysis of the program found that more than 70 percent of students enrolled in the program were white and Asian, even though nearly 80 percent of all Boston public school students are Hispanic and Black.

www.wgbh.org

A selective program for high-performing fourth, fifth and sixth graders in Boston has suspended enrollment due to the pandemic and concerns about equity in the program, GBH News has learned.

Superintendent Brenda Cassellius recommended the one-year hiatus for the program, known as Advanced Work Classes, saying the district would not proceed with the program for new students next year.

"There's been a lot of inequities that have been brought to the light in the pandemic that we have to address," Cassellius told GBH News. "There's a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist and have policies where all of our students have a fair shot at an equitable and excellent education."

New students will be admitted in the fourth grade by standards to be determined at the school level, according to a BPS spokesman.

There will be no new students admitted in the fifth or sixth grades, the spokesman said, but those already in advanced work will be allowed to continue.

A district analysis of the program found that more than 70 percent of students enrolled in the program were white and Asian, even though nearly 80 percent of all Boston public school students are Hispanic and Black.

School Committee member Lorna Rivera said at a January meeting that she was disturbed by the findings, noting that nearly 60 percent of fourth graders in the program at the Ohrenberger school in West Roxbury are white even though most third graders enrolled at the school are Black and Hispanic.

"This is just not acceptable," Rivera said at a recent school committee meeting. "I've never heard these statistics before, and I'm very very disturbed by them."

The program was open to all students in the Boston Public Schools who took a test known as Terra Nova in the third grade and received a high score. Those students were placed in a lottery conducted by the central administration office, and lottery winners received letters inviting them to apply to the program. Last fall, 453 students received invitations, 143 students applied and 116 enrolled this year, officials said.

Students in the program have the opportunity to study subjects in greater depth and are offered more schoolwork than the traditional curriculum requires.

Cassellius says interest in the program had declined over several years and only five schools currently offered the program: the James F. Condon School in South Boston, the Jackson/Mann K-8 in Allston, the Richard J. Murphy School in Dorchester, the William H. Ohrenberger school in West Roxbury, and the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown.

Students already enrolled in the program will continue, Cassellius said, but programming decisions about how to continue will be made at the principal level.

District officials have launched a working group to determine the long-term future of the program and are expected to make a recommendation in May.

Edit: Reformatted for guidelines.

 

[NoReturn]

I honestly be stunned in 5 years if Asians were still considered "minorities". I really can't emphasize enough just how many black activists hate Asians.

Tell us more. I've run into a couple Asians recently who have apparently are going through some shit with seeing what's happening recently vs. how it's being reported and they seem genuinely surprised by all this while everyone else just looks at it and goes "No shit".

I went to college in the same city as my high school, and when I asked how many of my AP and IB credits transferred over, my college was like LOLNOPE.

Man you got gipped.

 

[queue-anon]

Public schools are slitting their own throats right before our eyes. One of the few things keeping non-fuckup kids in public schools is the opportunity to opt out of the retard-tier general education classes.

I remember in high school looking at the senior year regular English classes and seeing them reading To Kill a Mockingbird (which I read in eighth grade) at a pace of about 15 pages a day. My AP class assigned us a book every other week, and we had to set our own pace.

The title of this thread doesn't match what the article said at all. They're not cancelling any special advanced classes because black kids "don't want to take them." The "inequality" they're talking about is how most of the kids who do well on that Terra Nova test are white and Asian, hence most of the lottery winners allowed to apply to the program are also white and Asian. That's a whole other issue, and a very old one. But people would rather immediately set to jerking off their personal biases instead of reading the actual article it seems.

Also, it doesn't sound like this program is about Advanced Placement courses. It's a local program that opens up to kids as early as 4th grade called Advanced Work Classes.

Desire to go is undoubtedly a factor though. More than half the kids eligible don't apply, and I'll put money on a disproportionate number of the kids declining being black and Latino.

I went to a high school that had open enrollment for advanced courses, and, despite the school being majority minority, the advanced courses were overwhelmingly white. Kids know their limitations better than the adults wringing their hands over minority underperformance. If the schools forced eligible black and brown kids into those classes, most would grossly underperform their white and Asian peers.

 

[Salubrious]

Tell us more. I've run into a couple Asians recently who have apparently are going through some shit with seeing what's happening recently vs. how it's being reported and they seem genuinely surprised by all this while everyone else just looks at it and goes "No shit".

As far as black activists, it's literally the reason why they changed from POC to BIPOC. Ask a black activist whether or not Asians or Latinos are "people of color", and half of them will REEEEE at you.


As far as the danger of white liberals, this is from some sort of show on Netflix written by two white women. Apparently "Ginny and Georgia"? This is two biracial people yelling at each other about whose more white. I've NEVER heard biracial people talk like this, except jokingly. But white liberals think that poor minorities just wish that they were white. That's what all this "anti-racist" training is about; they are literally teaching kids that white people "have privilege."

 

[HOMO FOR LIFE]

As far as black activists, it's literally the reason why they changed from POC to BIPOC. Ask a black activist whether or not Asians or Latinos are "people of color", and half of them will REEEEE at you.


As far as the danger of white liberals, this is from some sort of show on Netflix written by two white women. Apparently "Ginny and Georgia"? This is two biracial people yelling at each other about whose more white. I've NEVER heard biracial people talk like this, except jokingly. But white liberals think that poor minorities just wish that they were white. That's what all this "anti-racist" training is about; they are literally teaching kids that white people "have privilege."

Oppression Olympics Netflix 2021-02-25.mp4

I am too old for this shit. What the fuck.

 

[Salubrious]

I am too old for this shit. What the fuck.

The ONLY time I've heard biracial people talk like this, is usually friends joking around that "it's okay, I can get credit because my mom's white." Something like that.

I've NEVER heard ANY minority or biracial people screaming at each other about privilege outside of Twitter. It just doesn't happen. And I live in a very blue state.

 

[Unpaid Emotional Labourer]

That is true. Also, neither of my parents went to college, so they were actually proud that I did. As I said early, some parents get furious.

It's not a BIG part of the black community, but it's a scary number of just how many parents get upset if their children do better than them. Again, it's "so you think your better than everyone" syndrome.

There was a movie that came out in the mid-90s called Soul Food. In that movie, Vanessa Williams is the lawyer of the family and the rest of the family is either level or strugging. Part of the movie is the tensions that arise because Vanessa is doing better than them (of course, she's a lawyer). They portray her at points as a villain that looks down on her family. That kind of thing.

Edit: Actually this is a good clip of it. Notice how Teri/Vanessa is portrayed as the villain in this scene despite the fact that the family is just presuming that she'll pay for everything and that her husband is having an affair.

Double Edit: Holy shit. I forgot the fact that Vivica A Fox's character stole Teri's boyfriend (Miles) a decade earlier and then married him and had 1.5 children. So not only is Teri's current husband having an affair with her cousin, but Teri's brother-in-law is her former boyfriend before Teri's sister stole him. Although in the movie, the justification was that Teri's didn't support Miles's music career but Vivica A. Fox's character did. Miles is the other man in this scene and the one that eventually takes the knife out of Teri's hand. Teri is supposed to be the closest thing to a villain that this movie has, yet her family keeps hitting her up for money and has stolen TWO of her significant others.

Soul Food (3_5) Movie CLIP - Teri Pulls a Knife on Miles (1997) HD-IayveLLh-HQ.mp4

I had my doubts as to your blackness but this autism proves that you are.

Sorry for doubting you, king. Stay strong.

 

[Salubrious]

I had my doubts as to your blackness but this autism proves that you are.

Sorry for doubting you, king. Stay strong.

My autism is unquestionable and above reproach. Why else would I go on an alt-right white supremacist transgender killing forum and start talking about Soul Food?

 

[Looney Troons]

I attended public schools, and was enrolled in AP classes. In my experience, they were awful. They were not any more or less challenging than normal classes, you just had 2-3x the amount of work that you would regularly be expected to do, doled out by staff who didn’t give a fuck (typically the pedo coach of the girl’s volleyball team). Other friends who attended other schools had much better, engaging experiences.

There is a reason that the demographic for participants in AP classes favors certain ethnicities. I was pressed to attend AP classes by my parents and other family members. Others just sit back and hope that their kids make it through the doors. Again, that being said, were it not for the pressure of my family, I would not have attended AP classes. It wasn’t worth the hassle. It did absolutely nothing for me in the long run. It’s really easy to chastise other ethnicities for lack of drive and motivation, but who really wants to subject themselves to more boring bookwork in order to pad a transcript? If the schools and the staff suck, fuck it. Absolutely no point.

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

We're gonna have to figure out how to culturally uplift niggers ala Krogans if we want to get to the stars.

 

[X Prime]

We're gonna have to figure out how to culturally uplift niggers ala Krogans if we want to get to the stars.

Well, I mean, technology is a product of culture, and the Sun is kind of in an upwards trajectory, if you know what I'm sayin'.

I kid but there's no incentive.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

And yet every black character in media has a 400 IQ lmaooo

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

And yet every black character in media has a 400 IQ lmaooo

While still believing that they can rebuild Wakanda from the ground up