Want to see inner-city minorities kick ass....send them to Charter Schools. They don't need BLM or affirmative action. They need the preparation that allows them to compete with anyone and thrive in college.
The data on this is crystal clear. The economist Thomas Sowell has a wonderful book that summarizes the research and data on the subject.
Who Hates AP Tests?
Not the students at the Success Academy charter school network in New York where 1,317 will take advanced placement tests.
By The Editorial Board
Jan. 9, 2024 6:35 pm ET
Harlem Success Academy Charter School. PHOTO: RICHARD B. LEVINE/ZUMA PRESS
The progressive war on standardized testing continues, but not everyone is on board. At Success Academy Charter Schools in New York, students are so eager and prepared that they’re literally occupying an exhibition center to take the tests.
This year Success has so many students taking the Advanced Placement (AP) exams—1,317—that to accommodate them all and meet the testing space requirements they’ve had to rent space in New York’s Javits Center. That’s the venue where they have events like the international auto show. AP subjects range from chemistry and art history to biology and calculus, and some Success students will sit for as many as five exams.
Implicit in the rejection of testing now popular even at elite universities such as Harvard and Princeton is the idea that low-income children of color can’t succeed. The Success Academy student body is overwhelmingly black and Latino. But whether it’s the AP exams or the SATs, its students welcome standardized tests as an opportunity to prove what they have learned.
Success knows that black and Latino children often lag behind their white peers. But it believes the answer is to bring their achievement up—rather than dumbing down or eliminating tests, which leaves them unprepared for college work.
It seems to be working: U.S. News & World Report ranked Success’s Manhattan high school tied for first in the nation for college readiness, because 100% of seniors had passed at least one AP exam over their four years of high school.
“With rampant grade inflation and inconsistent state educational standards, AP and SAT tests are a critical tool in identifying students who are prepared for the rigors of college,” says Success Academy founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz. “This is especially true for low-income children of color. Attacking these tests does nothing except undermine the important work of helping disadvantaged students do better on these tests.”
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