Florida Passes Plan for Racially-Based Academic Goals

[Igel]

2. The old goals were 100%.

They weren't realistic.

In my district the #s would be something like 96%, 96%, 82%, and perhaps 75% for Asian/white,Latino, black. 2018's probably too long a time frame. Then again, the Florida numbers are average teacher expectations and are a significant increase over current achievement numbers.

In many cases, just pointing out the average achievement numbers riles people up.

Setting everything at 100% means I'd be expected to have my "average" black student go from about 70% in math up to grade level% in one year. That's yanking them up something like 3-4 grade levels while teaching the 90% of the other students. Not going to happen. Not reasonable. I have to work like a dog to pitch everything to the level kids and also find a way to make it accessible to those years behind the curve. It's like teaching two different classes (at least) in the same classroom and it's disruptive if it's not managed perfectly. I'm not what you'd call perfect.

(Problem is that I have no average black students. My black students are middle or upper-middle class, usually the children of African immigrants, and on paper they're "white". Or they're low SES AA students, and if I could get them to average 65% in my class I'd celebrate.)