The subject of black schools being labeled as “bad schools”

[staticshock]

I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest for a while. Everywhere I look online, whenever a school district is brought up that is majority black, it automatically gets labeled as a bad district.

On the citydata forums when people are asking what different neighborhoods are like in Atlanta, one of the things others always say is “the schools are horrible” if it’s in a black neighborhood.

I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of our schools. People like to bring up test scores when those test are culturally biased & outdated. They like to say “teachers are unqualified & don’t know what they are doing” in black schools.

That’s the biggest load of shyt I’ve ever heard. All of us who work in black schools love it & we choose to work at these schools because we want to see our children succeed.

We teach the same stuff they do at those white schools, but they are better funded. The main thing that separates us from white schools however are some of our students who live in poverty & the students who choose to act a damn fool in school.

Whenever I do have kids, I would put them in the same district I’m working in as opposed to sending them to a lily private school across town. If a kid is about his business and doesn’t play around in school, they can succeed and get scholarship offers from colleges just like they could if they went to a “prestigious” private school.


Some of us may be guilty of looking down on black schools, but please understand the teachers in those buildings ARE passionate and qualified just like teachers in white schools, and contrary to popular belief, 99% of the students at our schools do the right thing & value an education.

 

[get these nets]

Disagree with what you're saying here. Poor district schools are usually poorly managed from the top. Teachers do their best work, but aren't given the resources or support to help the students....either from incompetent administrators or from uninvolved parents. School boards in poor districts have built in excuses for failure, so they never actually try to address issues.



Gifted and talented classes and magnet schools, which separate advanced students are some of the only places where true learning occurs. Smaller class sizes, no losers disrupting lessons, and parents tend to be more involved.
Other than that, in poor districts too many things slow the pace and quality of instruction for regular students.
We tutor our younger relatives who are in poor districts at a young age, so they can be placed in top group/advanced class.


SCHOOL districts are gauged by standardized test results. Your excuse of those "tests being culturally biased" will apply throughout the life of the student as he takes SAT, GRE, and whatever licensing exam for his profession.
Children who are from socially disadvantaged positions have to compete in the same world as those with advantages. The educational stakes for us are higher, so the poorly performing schools just put us at greater disadvantage.

 

[staticshock]

Disagree with what you're saying here. Poor district schools are usually poorly managed from the top. Teachers do their best work, but aren't given the resources or support to help the students....either from incompetent administrators or from uninvolved parents. School boards in poor districts have built in excuses for failure, so they never actually try to address issues.



Gifted and talented classes and magnet schools, which separate advanced students are some of the only places where true learning occurs. Smaller class sizes, no losers disrupting lessons, and parents tend to be more involved.
Other than that, in poor districts too many things slow the pace and quality of instruction for regular students.
We tutor our younger relatives who are in poor districts at a young age, so they can be placed in top group/advanced class.


SCHOOL districts are gauged by standardized test results. Your excuse of those "tests being culturally biased" will apply throughout the life of the student as he takes SAT, GRE, and whatever licensing exam for his profession.
Children who are from socially disadvantaged positions have to compete in the same world as those with advantages. The educational stakes for us are higher, so the poorly performing schools just put us at greater disadvantage.

but do black schools always get labeled as having incompetent admin or teachers?

And those test are indeed biased..

How to Address Racial Bias in Standardized Testing | NGLC

People in college now pursuing a degree in education have take classes that warm them of the biased nature of those test and how to be culturally appropriate when giving minorities work to complete

 

[get these nets]

And those test are indeed biased..

How to Address Racial Bias in Standardized Testing | NGLC

People in college now pursuing a degree in education have take classes that warm them of the biased nature of those test and how to be culturally appropriate when giving minorities work to complete

You had to take and pass a standardized test to get certified as a teacher, correct? The same test that every other potential teacher in that state had to pass.

==========
If the k-12 tests are culturally biased, who are they biased against?

Is that just used as an excuse for low test scores?
Some of the highest scorers on these tests in America are children who speak Hindi or Korean at home.

 

[CopiousX]

I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest for a while. Everywhere I look online, whenever a school district is brought up that is majority black, it automatically gets labeled as a bad district.

On the citydata forums when people are asking what different neighborhoods are like in Atlanta, one of the things others always say is “the schools are horrible” if it’s in a black neighborhood.

I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of our schools. People like to bring up test scores when those test are culturally biased & outdated. They like to say “teachers are unqualified & don’t know what they are doing” in black schools.

That’s the biggest load of shyt I’ve ever heard. All of us who work in black schools love it & we choose to work at these schools because we want to see our children succeed.

We teach the same stuff they do at those white schools, but they are better funded. The main thing that separates us from white schools however are some of our students who live in poverty & the students who choose to act a damn fool in school.

Whenever I do have kids, I would put them in the same district I’m working in as opposed to sending them to a lily private school across town. If a kid is about his business and doesn’t play around in school, they can succeed and get scholarship offers from colleges just like they could if they went to a “prestigious” private school.


Some of us may be guilty of looking down on black schools, but please understand the teachers in those buildings ARE passionate and qualified just like teachers in white schools, and contrary to popular belief, 99% of the students at our schools do the right thing & value an education.

Fair points all around. I believe Killer Mike made many of the same points last year before the revolt summit.



I also think that "bad schools" is more coded language for black students. Same way chicago = black, or thugs=black, or crime = black. It is what it is. More white man's ice is colder politics to me.









As a student who went to those atl public schools and others in the metro(clayton,Fulton, Dekalb, even Cobb) i can honestly say that the teachers were a mixed bag. While I had many that would go above and beyond to hold black students to higher standards, i also had teachers who did the bare minimum and sat at their desks.




I think where black schools struggle is with those desk sitters. I truly sympathize with you educators because our communities need far more attention than their white counterparts. A white child could half azz their education, but still get support at home. A black child growing up in college park doesn’t have that luxury because of the absence of parents or because both parents work multiple jobs. The definition of “good teacher” or “good school” for us is equivalent to the phrase, 3rd parent.





You mentioned in your post, that when a child is “about their bussiness” they can succeed, but I respectfully challenge that assumption and say that very few children come out the womb being about their business. They require support from institutions that just don’t exist in black communities. Thus the bar is higher for black schools which are often the only functional institutions within our community. As a parent I personally wouldn’t gamble on whether that bar is met with my 18yr investment.



I mean be honest with me, if you had the cash to send your child to West Minister, would you keep him in dekalb or Atlanta public schools?

 

[staticshock]

Fair points all around. I believe Killer Mike made many of the same points last year before the revolt summit.



I also think that "bad schools" is more coded language for black students. Same way chicago = black, or thugs=black, or crime = black. It is what it is. More white man's ice is colder politics to me.









As a student who went to those atl public schools and others in the metro(clayton,Fulton, Dekalb, even Cobb) i can honestly say that the teachers were a mixed bag. While I had many that would go above and beyond to hold black students to higher standards, i also had teachers who did the bare minimum and sat at their desks.




I think where black schools struggle is with those desk sitters. I truly sympathize with you educators because our communities need far more attention than their white counterparts. A white child could half azz their education, but still get support at home. A black child growing up in college park doesn’t have that luxury because of the absence of parents or because both parents work multiple jobs. The definition of “good teacher” or “good school” for us is equivalent to the phrase, 3rd parent.





You mentioned in your post, that when a child is “about their bussiness” they can succeed, but I respectfully challenge that assumption and say that very few children come out the womb being about their business. They require support from institutions that just don’t exist in black communities. Thus the bar is higher for black schools which are often the only functional institutions within our community. As a parent I personally wouldn’t gamble on whether that bar is met with my 18yr investment.



I mean be honest with me, if you had the cash to send your child to West Minister, would you keep him in dekalb or Atlanta public schools?

First of all repped for you being a fellow product of a metro Atlanta public school system.

and you’re 100% right about “bad” schools being code for “black”. It be so funny seeing cacs ask if the schools are “bad” in an area they’re looking to move to to see if it’s really a black school.

if you asked me where I would send my kid years ago before I got into this field, i would have said Woodward, Westminster, Pace, Holy Innocents, Saint Pius etc without hesitation.

now that i work in these public schools id honestly have no problem putting them in public schools. Or I’d at least put them there for their freshman year & see how it turns out. If I see them going down the wrong path, I may reconsider.

I know with those private schools there may be better opportunities, but I don’t want my kids to be a minority in whatever school they attend. I’d just do my best to motivate them & remind them to hang with the right crowd and do the right thing in school.

my mom wasn’t a teacher but she was active at the school me & my sister went to. She was PTA president & regularly communicated with my teachers. I was more worried about making her look bad than anything so I did what I had to do.

honestly bruh I think my main issue is I wouldn’t want my kids to be in a position where they only hang with cacs and don’t know or appreciate their history. You’re from Atlanta as well I see, so I’m sure you have a appreciation for our culture with all the black excellence in the city.

We don’t have to move to Brookhaven or Buckhead where the white folks are to be in nice neighborhoods and houses. South Fulton, Fairburn & the SWATs have some subdivisions that look better than the ones on the Northside.

The support and love for the black schools in the city is incredible. Mays has their homecomings at the Dome some years because of all the alumni & community support they have.

when I was in high school we had to play Booker T Washington at their homecoming, & they had it at Morris Brown’s stadium. They filled up the entire home side of the stadium & half of the visitors side.

I’d have no issues sending them to SWD, Stephenson, Redan, Doug, etc.

 

[CopiousX]

We don’t have to move to Brookhaven or Buckhead where the white folks are to be in nice neighborhoods and houses. South Fulton, Fairburn & the SWATs have some subdivisions that look better than the ones on the Northside.

Ive seen that also. Things have definitely changed in the last decade or so. Not only do these houses look good, but they are also bigger and more reasonably priced on the south side.


I was randomly looking up housing a few weeks ago and noticed modest 2-3 bedroom houses going for 550k up by highlands




You could get a 5-6 bedroom (+ basement) in lithonia or fairburn for that rate. And you just know white housing is priced that high just to spite us.

I know with those private schools there may be better opportunities, but I don’t want my kids to be a minority in whatever school they attend. I’d just do my best to motivate them & remind them to hang with the right crowd and do the right thing in school.......

honestly bruh I think my main issue is I wouldn’t want my kids to be in a position where they only hang with cacs and don’t know or appreciate their history.

So true. Wouldn't want to risk a Candace Owen's coming out of the family




Culture (and history) is definitely one thing we aren't short of in ATL. My only real regret about all the schooling was that Garvey and Hampton got only one paragraph (each) in our history books. That state curriculum was something else.

 

[GoAggieGo.]

I hear what people say about these “bad schools”, but my child’s mother graduated from Riverdale High, and became an engineer, graduating with me from NC A&T. Hell, she was instrumental in me getting my engineering degree.

Her father wasn’t around, but her mother was heavily involved in everything she did and pushed her. She was a PTA mom, and would stay up at that school when it came to her. For the schools that are lacking in resources, I believe you have to go extra hard with your parenting, extending the school environment in the home.

I have my little girl in a Pre-K program in the Morrow/Jonesboro area, and we are the same with her. So far, I’m impressed with her progression

 

[staticshock]

I hear what people say about these “bad schools”, but my child’s mother graduated from Riverdale High, and became an engineer, graduating with me from NC A&T. Hell, she was instrumental in me getting my engineering degree.

Her father wasn’t around, but her mother was heavily involved in everything she did and pushed her. She was a PTA mom, and would stay up at that school when it came to her. For the schools that are lacking in resources, I believe you have to go extra hard with your parenting, extending the school environment in the home.

I have my little girl in a Pre-K program in the Morrow/Jonesboro area, and we are the same with her. So far, I’m impressed with her progression

If you don’t mind me asking...how old is your wife?

That’s a good woman bruh I’m glad to hear a black family is thriving like that

 

[GoAggieGo.]

If you don’t mind me asking...how old is your wife?

That’s a good woman bruh I’m glad to hear a black family is thriving like that

Nah, I don’t mind. She’s 30.

 

[staticshock]

Nah, I don’t mind. She’s 30.

im a couple years older than her. I asked that because I grew up in & graduated from a Clayton County school as well.

Clay co was by no means on the level of some of the most violent places in the country, but it has/had a bad reputation for gang activity, drug, prostitution & other crimes, and Riverdale was the worst of all the cities in Clayton County.


So seeing that your wife came from Riverdale at a time when clay co was really on fire with the gang shyt and she graduated college and is a good field like engineering proves my point that it’s all about the person.

like some of us have said, if you’re active in your child’s education then they’ll come out right no matter what school they attend.