Virginia Education Goals: Higher Bar for AAPI Students?

Are Asian American students in Virginia public schools being held to a different—and higher— standard than children of other races? That is what some concerned parents and legislators see with a set of new state education goals, part of Virginia’s attempt to opt out of regulations in the No Child Left Behind law. But supporters of the new performance standards say opponents “misunderstand” them.

It is easy to see why controversy has erupted. The Virginia Board of Education has formulated new levels for the percentage of students required to pass in reading and math per school, and they are differentiated by race. For instance, 82% of Asian students would have to earn a passing grade, while the figure for white students set at 68%. The standard is lower for other races, set at 52% for Latinos and 45% for African Americans. The level for students with disabilities is 33%. Controversy has erupted over whether or not this amounts to discrimination at both ends of the academic range, while perpetuating lower expectations for some minority children.

The No Child Left Behind Law mandates that states must have all students reaching expected grade level performance in reading and math by 2014. Virginia maintains that is not possible, and is one of a number of states which received waivers from the Obama administration allowing additional flexibility. The new standards were based on results of 2011-2012 Standards of Learning tests. But where some see flexibility, others see a state giving up on some minority children while making Asians hit higher expectations.

Terry Wang, an International Educational and Cultural Consultant at George Mason University and President of the New World Bilingual Institute, argues that it might be more effective if testing benchmarks were differentiated by IQ subgroups, rather than race.

“I think that rather than race, we can set the bar to people, let’s say, whose IQs are lower, or to those who really cannot concentrate and reach the highest score no matter how hard they work. Not by skin color” she said.

Members of the Virginia Legislature Black Caucus condemned the new guidelines as a “backwards-looking scheme.” Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico), chair of theSenate Democratic Caucus and an African American, claimed, “If we don’t demand the best of our children, we won’t receive the best.”

But Charles Pyle, Director of Communications of the Virginia State Board of Education insisted to Asian Fortune that the guidelines have been misunderstood.

“Nothing is written in stone but when you see the data for the lowest performing sub groups, the reality is that children perform in different levels for the various student sub groups,” Pyle said, adding that Annual Measurable Objectives vary with each subgroup because of different performance levels in the 2011-2012 tests.

Patricia Wright, Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, supports the new standards, telling a recent meeting of the State Board of Education, “All of us hold all students to the same academic standards, but when it comes to measuring progress, we have to consider that students start at different points.”

Those “different points” refer to an uncomfortable reality: African American andLatino students generally fall behind Asian and Caucasian children in test scores. It is that achievement disparity that Wright claims the new goals are created to deal with, by establishing goals allowing struggling minority children additional time to catch up.

Wright recently told National Public Radio that Virginia still expects all students to correctly answer the same number of test questions to pass, regardless of their race.

The plan bothers Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at the Education Trust, a Washington-based research group working to close racial achievement gaps. She told NPR, “What Virginia said is black kids in our state should achieve not necessarily at grade level, but at the highest level that black kids have achieved in the past. That is not a forward-looking goal. That is not a goal that is going to ensure that black kids catch up with white kids, or Latinos catch up with white kids, or poor kids catch up with rich kids.”

But for 15 year-old Peter Tan, a junior at academically rigorous Thomas JeffersonHigh School in Alexandria, race has no bearing on how motivated he and his classmates are to achieve.

“In our school, most people, regardless of race, still have to reach for an academic standard that is set by your teachers or your parents or by yourself. So for the Hispanic and African American students for our school, the same is expected of them,” he said. Tan points out that high academic aptitude commonly associated with Asians, is not solely an Asian advantage. He says his African American and Hispanic classmates have strengths of their own. “They are more outgoing and involved with the school community,” he said.

The fight may continue, as some members of the legislature’s black caucus say they are considering legal action with the U.S. Department of Education to cancel implementation of the new policy.