RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This information is for those who have any connection with American public education

I read your ACT e-mails with great interest, especially in regards to the type of stats you have presented and what it may or may not represent. I don't want to belittle or marginalize this issue by attempting to write 2 or 3 paragraphs that try to sum up what the problem is and what the solution(s) is/are, because that would disrespect the people impacted by this current situation, as well as deny the complex historical and sociological contexts that the various groups listed below find themselves - both within US history and the US education system. I will just add a teaser here that I find it significant that the 4 groups that are historically considered "conquered" groups within US history have fared the worst by the ACT scores below and overall in the US education system. Could it be that institutional and cultural racism and discrimination (respectively) have and continue to play a major role in these results? Or the related economic disparities due to racism and discrimination have contributed to these results? Of course to complicate the issue further, as Africanist or African-Americanist, one has to ask what is taught, how is it taught, what is measured (i.e. ACT content), what is its value to whom and for whom socially, politically, economically??? Questions that have multiple answers in multiple contexts. This string of concerns also impacts the wider African Diaspora as they continue to grapple with their education systems, the majority consisting of inherited Western models of education, which by the way, compete or integrate (depending on their current curricula) with aspects of Traditional or Indigenous education as well as Islamic education (in many countries). It is worth looking up Pierre Bourdieu's work on cultural capital to understand just how caught between a rock and a hard place we are... Or look at Walter Rodney and Cati Coe to better understand the African education context.

Anyway even the folks at the College Board, who bring us the ACT, recommend that the ACT serve as just one measure of readiness for college within the US. Many institutions use additional criteria, i.e. high school gpa, writing samples, numbers of credits completed in each major academic area, and interestingly, economic status may be included to assess student's eligibility for college. Rural white students scores are often closer to that of their cultural counterparts listed below who they also tend to share a similar economic status. It appears that economic status may be a leveling factor in the education game (not to rule out other issues above). Of course, as the Illinois teachers pointed out - you can't learn what you're not taught, i.e. content being cut for the sake of meeting Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) for No Child Left Behind. As you can see, it is a very complicated issue.

Thank you for bringing these stats forward. Finally, it is easier to teach Math or Science and say it is Objective regardless of who is in the classroom (although not altogether true). It is not so easy to decide what to teach in the Social Sciences, Arts, Language Arts, etc. without demonstrating a specific cultural and/or historical bias. Ask anyone who has tried to piece together African history for a national curriculum - who do you leave in and who do you save for another day? Do you skim through pre-colonial history and focus on nation building? Education is a political act - there is no hiding from it.

Thank you for the food for thought.

-Jamaine Abidogun

-----Original Message-----
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of La Vonda
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 12:06 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This information is for those who have any connection with American public education

Percent of students in the United States deemed college ready in all
four tested areas for 2011

Asian - 41%
White - 31%
All students - 25%
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander - 15%
American Indian/Alaska Native - 11%
Hispanic/Latino - 11%
Black/African-American - 4%

Note: The ACT designated as ready high-school students who met minimum
benchmark scores on its subject-area tests. Those scores were set to
indicate a 50-percent chance of obtaining a grade of B or higher or
about a 75-percent chance of obtaining a C or higher in a credit-
bearing college course requiring skills in that subject area.

Average composite scores on the ACT by sex and race/ethnicity, 2011

Men - 21.2
Women - 21.0
Asian - 23.6
White - 22.4
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander - 19.5
Hispanic/Latino - 18.7
American Indian/Alaska Native - 18.6
Black/African-American - 17.0
All students - 21.1
Note: The ACT exam is scored on a scale from 1 to 36.

Source: ACT

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com