Submission + - Houston GT Program Biased Against Blacks and Latinos (npr.org)
tiberus writes: Fernando Aguilar named his only son after his hero, Isaac Newton. When Isaac was tested for the GT program, he didn't qualify. Houston's enrollment statistics indicate that Hispanic and Black students would more likely be identified as GT if they were White or Asian, which is a trend across the country.
Aguilar is stretched thin between his job building servers for a software company and finishing his college degree in statistics. So, getting to spend time alone with Isaac is really special, but finding time to get involved with his son's school is difficult. Aguilar knows the gifted and talented program exists at Herrera Elementary, though he wasn't aware the school was testing Isaac.
Houston school leaders asked Donna Ford, of Vanderbilt University, to examine enrollment in the program, and she gave it a failing grade. "Racial bias has to be operating, inequities are rampant. Discrimination does exist whether intentional or unintentional," she told the school board in May of this year. When it comes to Houston's program she says, "I think it's a clear case of segregation, gifted education being segregated by race and income."
Aguilar is stretched thin between his job building servers for a software company and finishing his college degree in statistics. So, getting to spend time alone with Isaac is really special, but finding time to get involved with his son's school is difficult. Aguilar knows the gifted and talented program exists at Herrera Elementary, though he wasn't aware the school was testing Isaac.
Houston school leaders asked Donna Ford, of Vanderbilt University, to examine enrollment in the program, and she gave it a failing grade. "Racial bias has to be operating, inequities are rampant. Discrimination does exist whether intentional or unintentional," she told the school board in May of this year. When it comes to Houston's program she says, "I think it's a clear case of segregation, gifted education being segregated by race and income."
