Race and test scores ....

President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama recently referred to himself as a "mutt". If you don't know what he meant, well, what rock have you been living under? America elected a mixed race, mixed religion man to be President. Unprecedented! America has become color-blind! Finally!


And this is as it should be! Why are we dividing everything up by race here in the 21st Century? This is actually getting more and more difficult to do. For instance, which box would our President-Elect check on most forms where the race question is asked? Asian? Black? Non-Hispanic Caucasian? Hispanic? American Indian? None of the Above? All of the Above? And why don't these forms have directions to "Check all that Apply"? How is a person of mixed heritage supposed to complete these forms?

As any educator in Texas knows, one of the great driving forces here is the TAKS Test ... Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. And every time this test is given, the results are broken down by the following categories: All Students, African American, Hispanic, White, Economically Disadvantaged, Limited English Proficient, and Special Education. Click here for a Sample of Results. I notice there are a few categories missing. One that really jumps out at me is the lack of an Asian Category. Why is that?

So, what category does a student select if they are multi-racial? Well, to be honest, they don't get a choice. When they receive their testing forms, the race is already filled out for them. Somebody somewhere has already decided what category these students need to count for, or against. I remember one young lady in particular who was half-black and half-white. She wanted to be counted in the Caucasian category but her test form had her placed as an African-American. When she went to her counselor to ask to have that changed, she was told that since she always scores well she needs to stay in the African-American category in order to improve the overall performance of African-Americans in her school. They did not change her to Caucasian. Several other students had similar issues. If they were smart, they were placed in the race category needing the most help. If they usually didn't score well, they were placed in the Caucasian category. Does anyone sense anything fishy about that?