"Purposefully Unequal"
In one of the most jaw-dropping education stories I have read in a long time, comes this one out of Fairfax, Virginia via the Fairfax County Times. (bold mine) The headline says it all:
Area principals admit to withholding National Merit Awards from students
What appears to have happened is that high school principals at two schools purposefully withheld certificates of merit that students at the schools earned from the National Merit awards.
The district is claiming this is a "one-time human error" but it appears it may have been part of an equity directive.
Area principals admit to withholding National Merit Awards from students
What appears to have happened is that high school principals at two schools purposefully withheld certificates of merit that students at the schools earned from the National Merit awards.
The district is claiming this is a "one-time human error" but it appears it may have been part of an equity directive.
According to an email statement from a spokeswoman with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, based in Illinois, around Sept. 10, 2022, the organization sent principals packages with the names of National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Students. The packages included Letters of Commendation for Commended Students. The letter included this note in bold: “Please present the letters of commendation as soon as possible since it is the students’ only notification.”
However,
for parents in the school district these examples of merit withheld
from students raises serious concerns, particularly amid news that the FCPS superintendent signed a contract
of about nine months, paying a controversial contractor, Mutiu Fagbayi,
and his company Performance Fact Inc., based in Oakland, Calif.,
$455,000 for “equity” training that includes a controversial “Equity-centered Strategic Plan” with this goal: “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.”
“The goal is equal outcomes,” Fagbayi explained. “And what we need to be equitable about is the access. In a very real sense, many districts struggle with this. To have true equity, you have to be purposefully unequal when it comes to resources. I want to say that again because most districts struggle with that. To have an equity-centered organization, we have to have the courage and the willingness to be purposefully unequal when it comes to opportunities and access,”
“The goal is equal outcomes,” Fagbayi explained. “And what we need to be equitable about is the access. In a very real sense, many districts struggle with this. To have true equity, you have to be purposefully unequal when it comes to resources. I want to say that again because most districts struggle with that. To have an equity-centered organization, we have to have the courage and the willingness to be purposefully unequal when it comes to opportunities and access,”
For some
local parents, the notion of being “purposefully unequal” is not only
unethical and immoral but also potentially illegal. What’s more, the
withholding of the awards from students at TJHSST and now Langley reveal
an inconsistent policy across the district.
A Langley father, who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of retaliation from the school district, said Virginia Tech recently rejected his son’s application for early admission and the family was shocked to open the principal’s email – in the middle of the night – with the news that their son was a Commended Student.
“School district officials are deliberately sabotaging our kids’ lives in the name of ‘equity,’” the father said. “It’s cruel, if not evil. Think about the despondency that they are creating.”
The principals at Langley and Westfield used nearly identical language that school staff “will be contacting colleges” where students had applied. The Langley principal added: “Our intention is to ensure college admissions departments know that your student was the recipient of this important award.”
This, however, overlooks the fact that college admissions officers have already made life-changing decisions – including rejections – based on incomplete information from students, missing this important award. According to a survey of opportunities available, the National Merit Commended Student recognition opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships, including a four-year scholarship at Liberty University, and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors. The deadlines for many of those scholarships have already passed.
The revelations are emerging after school district principals scrambled to a meeting Wednesday afternoon with the superintendent, after Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a civil rights investigation into the controversy. Just as at TJHSST, the new revelations appear to impact many Asian-American students – one focus of the investigation.In recent years, most of the students awarded Semifinalist and Commended Students at TJHSST, Langley High School and Westfield High School have been Asian-American. In his press conference, Miyares said, “Equity without excellence is emptiness."
A Langley father, who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of retaliation from the school district, said Virginia Tech recently rejected his son’s application for early admission and the family was shocked to open the principal’s email – in the middle of the night – with the news that their son was a Commended Student.
“School district officials are deliberately sabotaging our kids’ lives in the name of ‘equity,’” the father said. “It’s cruel, if not evil. Think about the despondency that they are creating.”
The principals at Langley and Westfield used nearly identical language that school staff “will be contacting colleges” where students had applied. The Langley principal added: “Our intention is to ensure college admissions departments know that your student was the recipient of this important award.”
This, however, overlooks the fact that college admissions officers have already made life-changing decisions – including rejections – based on incomplete information from students, missing this important award. According to a survey of opportunities available, the National Merit Commended Student recognition opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships, including a four-year scholarship at Liberty University, and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors. The deadlines for many of those scholarships have already passed.
The revelations are emerging after school district principals scrambled to a meeting Wednesday afternoon with the superintendent, after Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a civil rights investigation into the controversy. Just as at TJHSST, the new revelations appear to impact many Asian-American students – one focus of the investigation.In recent years, most of the students awarded Semifinalist and Commended Students at TJHSST, Langley High School and Westfield High School have been Asian-American. In his press conference, Miyares said, “Equity without excellence is emptiness."
For those districts that are trying to create equity, this will not help. There are already so many people who see equity as a "woke agenda" that does more harm than good.
It was wrong in decades past to ignore/dismiss/hinder the progress of students of color. But it is equally wrong today to try to tamp down opportunities for students who are achieving at high levels.
Comments
Thanks as always for bringing these issues to our attention Melissa!
BLUE SKY
Bongwater
There are some very good colleges that say "if you're a National Merit Scholar and you indicate we are your first choice, you get a full ride."
Locally, the Seattle Times always has a list in the fall of schools. Maybe the local papers in Virginia don't do that.
Note the cut score varies from state to state. Washington is 8th highest out of the 50 some entities (states, plus DC, overseas might be a group and maybe a few others).
Commended is top 5%. That doesn't seem to do much, though top commended students in WA would be NMS in many other states.
The disparity is striking in how a few schools, including Interlake, Redmond, Skyline and a few others, have so many NMS students.
NE Mom
This is all within a standard equity and social justice frame.
"Equity" is a finance term, meaning something like "you get out of it what you put into it," and I think most would agree that people of color and poor people haven't received their equity in the American Project.
So to redistribute power, privilege, wealth, status, and access to higher education is to move towards equity or social (and economic) justice. These school administrators are redistributing access and status to achieve equity which will eventually achieve equality, the kind of social engineering that public schools were created to do.
This is the same as the Honors for All English classes at Ballard and Garfield or everyone at Roosevelt taking AP Geography. The thinking goes that because honors classes get a GPA boost, which is a positive good that leads to more goods in a sort of capitalist cycle, we should put all kids in honors, or AP, whether they do honors level work or not, so they can get the GPA bump relative to kids who are more privileged and have more access than they do.
This is part of what happens when you treat education like a commodity and transcripts like salable goods that we can redistribute like cash in order to minimize social tension.
Frankfurter School
Typically the "equality of outcomes" philosophy goes along with the "all children have gifts" mentality (remember Keisha Scarlett was in the Seattle Times for her 'manufactured brilliance' and 'opportunity hoarding' comments? https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/manufactured-brilliance-and-opportunity-hoarding-what-the-seattle-school-district-really-thinks-of-its-advanced-learning-program/)
People who believe that nonsense also often believe:
1. Identifying children who have unusual academic or intellectual potential is discouraged or seen as elitist and socially divisive. Helping highly capabe students is perceived of as devaluing the excellence in everyone.
2. Social factors are more important than other factors and education should focus on 'equality of outcomes.' High academic achievement does not arise from superior ability or potential but is merely a reflection of fortunate social and environmental circumstances.
3. All students should participate together on tasks at a level where all can succeed, in other words: we need minimal competency curricula.
4. Selective schools for academically gifted students perpetuate social injustice so they have to go (even though research shows that the students most likely to attend these programs if accepted are Black students and the students who benefit most from these programs are students of color).
5. Educators can get away with just a little bit of differentiation via lateral enrichment in the regular classroom and can discourage or outright prohibit acceleration or ability grouping.
LOFA
In Seattle, the baseline plan seems to be just dumbing down the whole system so that no one qualifies for admission to top colleges. Students from marginalized groups can still get in with affirmative action, but white and Asian students are effectively sidelined. It's all about redistributing college and career opportunity. Every parent should be prepared for the conversation when your student(s) realize that the ambitions or dreams they had, for which they were qualified in the abstract, aren't going to happen because society doesn't want it to happen.
This gets to the essence of why public schools are now toxic, and no longer a positive force in society. Not only do we have the bitterness of those whose college and career prospects are sabotaged in the name of equity -- but now it's clear that public schools actively suppress the human capital of the population. Insiders says so in plain words. They no longer bother to keep it secret.
to resources and opportunities that guarantee fair, just, and affirming experiences and produce
equal outcomes for every student, without exception
Reference: Mutiu Fagbayi | Performance Fact, Inc. (2021)”
Mutiu Fagbayi’s Performance Fact, Inc. is working with many WA districts:
Highline School District
Seattle Public Schools
Federal Way Public Schools
Northshore School District
Bethel School District
Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
North Thurston School District
Yakima School District
North Kitsap School District
Vashon Island School District
La Conner School District
Starwood-Camano School District
(And the Gates Foundation?! WTF, Bill?)
According to page 4 of this document:
https://cdn5-ss19.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_588437/File/School%20Board/Meetings/2021-2022%20Agendas/10.5.21/Strategic%20Planning%20Presentation%2010.5.21.pdf
And nationally he says it’s 100+ school districts in 12 US States.
WTF, Bill!
Read the Seattle Strategic Plan. African-Americans are prioritized above all Whites, Chinese, East Indians and so on irregardless of academic standing or socioeconomic status. Each of these staff members is highly educated and highly paid. Yet according to Seattle public schools, each of their kids would be considered "furthest from educational Justice." It's written into every individual school plan.
I don't have anything against any of these individual administrators. But I abhor classification by race, which is what Seattle Public Schools is doing. Every student is classified by their race as either "furthest from educational Justice" or "not for this from educational Justice" based purely on their race. Race is relevant because senior leadership has made it relevant in everything it does.
If I were to make this up I would consider myself racist. But the above are all simply facts.
Seeing how the City Council is really going to change next election cycle, I wonder what it means for the school board races.
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23556946/2022_09-20-equal-outcomes-_fairfax-county-ps_board-retreat_main-presentation_091722pptx-1.pdf
On page 25 it really does say:
The Equity Imperative: Equitable Access, Equal Outcomes
Equitable access
to resources and opportunities that guarantee fair, just, and affirming experiences and produce
equal outcomes
for every student, without exception.
Reference: Mutiu Fagbayi; Performance Fact, Inc. (2021)
Here's an article in Fairfax County Times (FCPS withholds awards, pays $455,000 for equity contractor):
https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/fcps-withholds-awards-pays-455-000-for-equity-contractor/article_0bb6c642-86c9-11ed-abbf-cb802353dab6.html
Here's the contract Fairfax County Public Schools signed with Fagbayi's Performance Fact, Inc. which looks from the contract like it is an active stock corporation formed in the District of Columbia with its Agent listed as CT Corporation System.
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23558273/performance-fact-inc-fairfax-county-public-schools-documents.pdf
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