Author Topic: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools  (Read 1378 times)

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rangerrebew

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White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« on: August 09, 2014, 09:29:46 pm »

White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
 
 
 

Saturday, 09 Aug 2014 10:26 AM
 
The cheerful sign outside Jane Cornell's summer school classroom in Kennett Square, Pa.,  says "Welcome" and "Bienvenidos" in polished handwriting.

Inside, giggling grade-schoolers who mostly come from homes where Spanish is the primary language worked on storytelling with a tale about a crocodile going to the dentist. The children and their classroom at the Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center, near both mushroom farms and the borough's bucolic red-brick downtown in the state's richest county, are a subtle reminder of America's changing school demographics.
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For the first time ever, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children.

Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent. But the National Center for Education Statistics says minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority.

About one-quarter of the minority students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders. Biracial students and Native Americans make up a smaller share of the minority student population.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the changing population a seminal moment in education. "We can't talk about other people's children. These are our children," he said.

The shift creates new academic realities, such as the need for more English language instruction, and cultural ones, meaning changes in school lunch menus to reflect students' tastes.

But it also brings some complex societal questions that often fall to school systems to address, including issues of immigration, poverty, diversity and inequity.

The result, at times, is racial and ethnic tension.

In Louisiana in July, Jefferson Parish public school administrators reached an agreement with the federal government to end an investigation into discrimination against English language learners.

In May, police had to be called to a school in the Streamwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, to help break up a fight between Hispanic and black students after a racially based lunchroom brawl got out of control.

Issues of race and ethnicity in school can also be more subtle.

In the Kennett Consolidated School District, Superintendent Barry Tomasetti described parents who opt to send their kids to private schools across the border in Delaware after touring diverse classrooms. Other families, he said, seek out the district's diverse schools "because they realize it's not a homogenous world out there."

The changes in the district, about an hour southwest outside of Philadelphia, from mostly middle-to-upper class white to about 40 percent Hispanic was driven partly by workers migrating from Mexico and elsewhere to work the mushroom farms.

"We like our diversity," Tomasetti said, even as he acknowledged the cost. He has had to hire English language instructors and translators for parent-teacher conferences. He has cobbled together money to provide summer school for many young English language learners who need extra reading and math support.

"Our expectation is all of our kids succeed," he said.

Private schools nationally are changing as well, seeing a smaller number of white students and a greater number of Hispanic students in their decreasing pool of children.

The new majority-minority status of America's schools mirrors a change that is coming for the nation as a whole. The Census Bureau estimates that the country's population will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a change due in part to higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians.

Today, slightly more than 1 in 5 kids speaks a language other than English at home.

But even as the population becomes more diverse, schools are becoming more racially segregated, reflecting U.S. housing patterns.

The disparities are evident even in the youngest of black, Hispanic and Native American children, who on average enter kindergarten academically behind their white and Asian peers. They are more likely to attend failing schools and face harsher school discipline.

Later, they have lower standardized test scores, on average, fewer opportunities to take advanced classes and are less likely to graduate.

Duncan said the disparities are unacceptable, and the country needs to make sure all students "have an opportunity to have a world class education, to do extraordinarily well."

As the school-age population has become more nonwhite, it's also become poorer, said Patricia Gandara, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA who serves on President Barack Obama's advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Roughly one-quarter of Hispanics and African-Americans live below the poverty line — meaning a family of four has nearly $24,000 in annual income — and some of the poorest of Hispanic children are dealing with the instability of being in the country illegally or with a parent who is, Gandara said.

Focusing on teacher preparation and stronger curriculum is "not going to get us anywhere unless we pay attention to the really basic needs of these children, things like nutrition and health and safety, and the instability of the homes," she said.

This transformation in school goes beyond just educating the children. Educators said parents must feel comfortable and accepted in schools, too.

Lisa Mack, president of the Ohio PTA, encourages local leaders to include grandparents and replace events such as a sock hop with one with a Motown theme that might be more inclusive or to provide opportunities for people of different ethnic groups to bring food to share at monthly meetings.

"I think one thing that's critical is that schools and PTAs and everyone just need to understand that with changing demographics, you can't do things the way you've done them before," she said. "That you have to be creative in reaching out and making them feel welcomed and valued and supported in the school system."

Some schools are seeking teachers to help reflect the demographics of their student population.

Today, fewer than 1 in 5 of the public schools teachers is a minority. "It is an ongoing challenge to try and make our teacher population reflect our student population," said Steve Saunders, spokesman for the Adams County, Colo., school district outside Denver that has seen a large shift toward having Hispanic students.

The New America Foundation, in a recent report, suggested teacher prep programs have at least one class for teachers on working with non-native English speakers and that education programs embrace bilingualism.

Andrea Giunta, a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association who focuses on teacher recruiting, retention and diversity, said you can't assume that teachers are a good match just because of their background.

"Just because you speak Spanish doesn't mean you speak the same Spanish your students are speaking and communicating with," she said.

This comes as the NEA, the nation's largest union, just elected an all-minority leadership team in July. The new president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, is Latina, and the vice president and secretary-treasurer, Rebecca S. Pringle and Princess Moss, are black.

In Kennett Square, superintendent Tomasetti said Hispanic students in his district are performing at levels, on average, higher than their peers statewide. One recent graduate, Christian Cordova-Pedroza, is attending Harvard University this fall. Cordova-Pedroza is one of five children of a mushroom farmer from Mexico.

Cordova-Pedroza credited the motivation instilled by his parents combined with access to a variety of educational opportunities for his success, including an after-school program that included tutoring and help with college applications. He also was active in a Latino leadership club that helps provides translation services in the community and participated in summer programs at Penn State and Princeton.

"Certainly, I had to work hard to get there, but I feel like at every opportunity that I had a chance of participating in or doing that, I was always like, 'Yes, I want to do that,'" he said.

Nearby, at El Nayarit Mexico Grocery Store, owner Jaime Sandoval, a native of Mexico with six kids, said he's been pleased with the education his children have received. His 9-year-old daughter, he said, wants to be a teacher.
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"She loves to read and all that stuff," Sandoval said. "She always has good grades on English and she loves it much."


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Offline jmyrlefuller

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2014, 05:24:16 pm »
The people who founded this country are now outnumbered by those who have invaded it. RIP.
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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2014, 02:33:42 am »
The people who founded this country are now outnumbered by those who have invaded it. RIP.

The Native Americans have been saying that for years.
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Offline Relic

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2014, 01:33:19 pm »
The Native Americans have been saying that for years.

May our new Hispanic overlords be benevolent.  :silly:

Offline GourmetDan

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2014, 01:44:13 pm »
The people who founded this country are now outnumbered by those who have invaded it. RIP.

Everyone should be required to visit Mexico, Central and South America to see first-hand what America will become.

Like a plague of locusts consuming everything in sight, they are.  Producing only trash, trash and more trash.

Where will these people go after they have trashed the U.S.?


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Offline alicewonders

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2014, 01:57:28 pm »
We're now seeing and living the results of many white people buying into that whole "put off having children until you've built your career, sowed your wild oats and can finally afford them" scam. 

It's a scam because, on the surface, that sounds good and mature and responsible - but we didn't realize that the same people telling us we have to not have so many children - were making it EASIER for other people that do not strive to adhere to this kind of thinking...they were making it easier for them to breed irresponsibly and hoisting the cost to those of us trying to do the right and smart thing.

That goes back to the trouble with negotiating with madmen, you can arrive at the best deal ever - but if you are the only one playing by the rules - it's a bad deal. 
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Offline Relic

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2014, 01:58:31 pm »
Everyone should be required to visit Mexico, Central and South America to see first-hand what America will become.

Like a plague of locusts consuming everything in sight, they are.  Producing only trash, trash and more trash.

Where will these people go after they have trashed the U.S.?

I have a different perspective.

White people came here and took the land from the Indians, due to technical superiority. It was a form of natural selection, and I accept the result. Yes, white people were duplicitous and cruel to the Native Americans, I regret the way it happened, but the outcome was inevitable.

Now, American whites, in general, have lost their passion, their desire, their drive. When you meet a white kid who is hustling, chasing a dollar, and doing whatever he can to get ahead, it's almost startling due to the rarity of such a person. Mexicans have desire, and drive. They will overwhelm the United States and become the dominant culture.

I accept it because it's as it should be. If whites are either too self loathing, or too disconnected to stand up for what they have been given, then it's time for a change.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2014, 02:05:21 pm by Relic »

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2014, 02:07:26 pm »
You make some valid points, Relic.  The natural selection of "only the strong survive" is how we ultimately do survive.  If whites can't keep up, they lose.
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Offline GourmetDan

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2014, 02:29:21 pm »
Mexicans have desire, and drive. They will overwhelm the United States and become the dominant culture.

They're also extremely corrupt.  It's the culture.

It's not the desire or drive that white's lack, it's the old law abiding culture that holds it back.  Course, whites don't have a 'Hole In the Wall' like Mexico to run to when it's convenient.

Maybe the whites will become as corrupt and lawless as the Mexicans and the Blacks and thereby become 'more fit'...


« Last Edit: August 11, 2014, 02:30:00 pm by GourmetDan »
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Offline Fishrrman

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #9 on: August 12, 2014, 02:15:10 am »
GourmetDan wrote above:
[[ Where will these people go after they have trashed the U.S.? ]]

Canada. (then again, they may not be able to take the cold...)

Then... north to Alaska!

Offline Fishrrman

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2014, 02:18:45 am »
Alicewonders wrote above:
[[ That goes back to the trouble with negotiating with madmen, you can arrive at the best deal ever - but if you are the only one playing by the rules - it's a bad deal. ]]

Off-topic I know, but this is the story of the Republicans trying to "deal" and "negotiate" with the democrats.

When you negotiate with 'rats, the only deal possible is a bad one.

But those damned fools will keep trying anyway.

The Connecticut Republican primary is tomorrow.
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Offline EC

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2014, 02:31:05 am »
Or... go out for a ride on the Harley, and do something useful...

It's only useful if you find a chunk of empty road and open her up. Burn off the carbon build up.  :laugh:
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Offline alicewonders

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2014, 03:40:28 am »
Quote from: Fishrrman on Today at 10:18:45 PM
"Or... go out for a ride on the Harley, and do something useful..."

It's only useful if you find a chunk of empty road and open her up. Burn off the carbon build up.  :laugh:

Sometimes ridin' the Harley helps you to "burn off the carbon build up" in your mind too!   :beer:
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Offline EC

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #13 on: August 12, 2014, 03:42:47 am »
 :beer:

Damned right! Not had a bike for a couple of years now, but I'll take the car out and floor it. Just you, the road, and a screaming engine.  :laugh:

Works every time.  :laugh:
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Offline alicewonders

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Re: White Students No Longer Majority in Schools
« Reply #14 on: August 12, 2014, 03:52:57 am »
:beer:

Damned right! Not had a bike for a couple of years now, but I'll take the car out and floor it. Just you, the road, and a screaming engine.  :laugh:

Works every time.  :laugh:

Been known to do that myself a time or two!  My husband owned a Harley Davidson years ago that we used to take rides on.  I enjoyed it very much!  Not much talking, just seeing the road and the scenery - and the wind in your face.  Great to clear your head!
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