<p>This reminds me of a conversation my physics teacher had with my physics class last semester. He basically told my class that we were "stupid white Americans," save for the 3 black kids in the class, and the Korean and Indian kid in his other classes. </p>
<p>My school doesn't offer a lot of AP classes; only three to be exact: AP English, which is offered during homeroom, AP World History, and AP Calculus (I'm assuming AB). </p>
<p>Then again, my high school is about 35-40% black, 55-60% white, 2% other, and is a vocational high school.</p>
<p>My school is about 60-70% white, but AP/honor classes are mostly made up of Asian students. It really does seem to be because of the variuos cultures of different ethnicities. The parents of the Asian population at my school value education so highly, and thus their children do as well. White americans seem to hold fast and true to the American dream, which does not necessarily include education, and thus they try and excel to be like those that are so highly valued in the US, primarily leaders. Thus most of our student government is white. Even the Armenian population is affected by their ethnicities culture. Armenians, especially immigrants dont value education too highly, and this reflects in their children's performance, and this seems to be why there are few Armenians in honors/AP classes, and those that are(like me) have mostly Asian friends and are more in tune with other culture's beliefs.</p>
<p>So basically, it all really does matter on how much certain ethnicities value education. However, location, income, and past experiences must also be taken into consideration.</p>
<p>I will be in a public school's honors program next year and it isn't some covert method of segregation. If the kids are all white, oh well thats life. And if you want to give any validity to a thread, learn how to spell SEGREGATION.</p>
<p>While I agree it is unfortunate that the tread title contains a spelling mistake, the tread itself merits probably more exposure than it has received to date. The universal complaint about the American High School is that it represents a levelling down to universal illiteracy and that apart from Honors Programs, there is nowhere for academically able children from middle class homes to go. The issue is whether the evident self-selection in these honors classes is racial, economic or cultural. Personally I think that self selection is primarily a function of parental education and ambition and that the great tragedy in American Education is the colossal waste of talent caused by levelling down. I have some real respect for Asian American parents who even though they themselves may not be particularly well educated at least have the good sense to demand that their kids perform to what was once a fairly universal standard of secondary education; i.e., IB or AP. The results speak for themselves. About 20% of first tier college admissions are now asian-american who represent only about 2% of the population.</p>
<p>My school is approximately 75% white, 20% asian, and then the rest a mix of hispanics and African-Americans. (Someone on newspaper told me there are 31 African-Americans out of 1800 in our class). At my school, there isn't a strong correlation between the racial make-up of the student body and the honors/AP classes. However, the top students in honors are all white, and the lowest performing in honors are the Asians. There are only two Asians in my Pre-Cal class, and they both spend the entire time talking about conspiracy theories and other such stuff.
In my experience (which is probably not normal, as I have always lived in affluent suburbia, except when I went to the school where me and my sister where literally the only white kids), the white kids appear to care more than the minorities about school. I can only gather that this is because of their parents, and not because their teachers in the past were racist or attempting to hold them back. I have never had a teach who was (at least overtly) racist or favored anyone (except this one teacher who hated boys and Catholics, but she's slightly crazy). Anyways, that's probably long enough...so...yeah.</p>
<p>Sacramento chick, you should come to my school. Its the complete opposite. The asian and indian kids are generally much harder workers and get better grades. Of course many of them come from rich chinese backgrounds for some reason.</p>
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I would say that like only 5% are other...So get me out of doubt.
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<p>I would say that is true in my school. I'd say 90% are white. I like being in honors since the ppl are smarter and nicer. They are a great bunch of kids :)</p>
<p>Actually, to get accepted to many of my school's AP courses, I had to go out at night with a crowbar and a group of friends currently taking the courses and intimidate 3 minority students into not taking APs.</p>
<p><<2. As for the second language requirement, for many immigrant kids, the second language actually is their native tongue. They can have an advantage over kids who have only been exposed to English.>></p>
<p>I wish this was always true. I work in the summer for a girl scout camp at an elementary school in a mostly hispanic neighborhood, and almost all the girls were fluent speakers of English and Spanish. However, their reading and writing skills were not very good in either language.</p>
<p>Legally, high schools must admit a student to a class if he/she wants to be in that class. Teachers write out recommendations. That's all they are....Recommendations...Not mandates, commanding you to take a certain class. At many schools, such as mine, you need to write an appeal if you want to take a higher class than you are recommended for. The department heads read these and decide, usually in the favor of the student. I haven't really seen any cases in which this hasn't happened, although they claim it does. It would be segregation if certain people were kept from taking classes. Legally speaking, however, that cannot lawfully happen; students in public high schools must be admitted to the classes that they decide to take. If the school refuses, they are at risk of a lawsuit.</p>
<p>I find my school to be quite different, actually. All my classes are proportional to the races at my school (and I go to a really diverse one in Central Florida), especially math. However, AP English is dominantly white, and AP World, boasting of a total of 12 students, have no black kids, but several white kids (including Italian), a Hispanic, two Guyanese, one Asian, one half-Asian half-Jewish, and one white Egytian.</p>
<p>My school is very very very diverse. We have everybody, just about.</p>
<p>It seems AP English is the only honors/AP class at my school that is predominantly mono-racial.</p>
<p>I don't think its fair to make assmptions about not caring about education because of someone's race. It has to do with getting information, being welcomed, not being judged as unable to handle a class due to ethnic background, and the school counselors doing their jobs. Not every kid is savvy to the college hunt, and its up to the counselors to teach them</p>
<p>If the majority of a schools population are one color, but the minority are the majority in AP classes, the counselors aren't doing a good job in getting the information out there, pulling in those qualified kids, creating a welcoming attmosphere in the classes and giving support to those kids willing to step up.</p>
<p>This is a very intersting thread, BTW. Northstarmom has great points.</p>
<p>At my school you have to be reccomended by a teacher to take gifted/AP classes. At the same time, only two african americans (in the junior class) are enrolled in gifted/AP classes despite the fact that approx. 20% of the school is black. I contribute this phenomena to the fact that my school has a grand total of two black teachers (and one, the latin teacher, is being "relocated" next year). I believe numerous minorities are qualified to take these more challenging courses but are blatantly denied the opportunity because of the lower expectations of minority students and pure racism (I live in the deep south!). I think its ridiculous that some people blame the fact that the vast majority of AP students are white and asian on the lack of ambition on the part of these historically disadvantaged groups. Instead, I believe the root of the problem lies in the low expectations of black and hispanic students, academically speaking (in sports its completely opposite!). Under this opressive atmosphere it is easy to see why only a few, ultra-motivated minority students rise above their expectations. I experienced this personally when I was wrongfully placed in a remedial reading class in elementary school with all of the other black students and despite the fact that I was bored to tears my mom had to petition the local school board to get me out of the class. Years later, at the beginning of each school year, despite my #6 ranking out of a class of 377, I still face lowered expectations because of my race. I take great pride in the fact that I soon turn those lowered expectations into astonishment at my ability to work at a level substantially above the majority of my white and asian peers.</p>
<p>fut18000, being a minority from the south too, I have to agree with some of your observations. My schools is like 70-75% black 25-30% white and less than 1% other(hispanic, asian, etc.) In my AP and honors classes I was usually the only minority in them and I am the only minority in my AP Cal and AP English classes. However, the problem in my school district starts in the elementary schools. We have four elementary schools (1 magnet 1 that was magnet, and 2 regular). There are two predominantly black elementary schools and both of those schools are performing way below what they can. The magnet school's students get screwed over in the jr. high when they are put in classes with students who can't do the same level of work and then teachers spend half the year reteaching stuff these students should have learned in elementary school.<br>
The counselors and teachers in the h.s. are open to letting anyone take ap and honors classes that sign up, but sad fact is that many students lack the necessary skills to perform in these classes and thus do not sign up for them. This all goes back to elementary school where they were not taught to achieve but rather to get by with very little work.<br>
For some reason people think that minorities cannot perform on par with other students but the truth is that minorities usually don't have access to quality education and are not challenged in their fundamental years. I was lucky enough to attend the magnet school in my district and have been a better student because of it. What needs to be done to begin correcting the lack of 'color' in most advanced classes is to restructure elementary and junior highs especially those in with high minority populations in low-income areas. These are just my observations.</p>
<p>Many minorities do not know how to play the game. That's the reason there are so many of them in poverty. You take the hard classes, do well in them, get into a college you can afford, and take it from there. It's just a game. They don't have the knowledgable parents to give them the inside info.</p>
<p>but is it their fault....can you blame them for their parents' shortcomings....I think not...therefore I think its imperative that minorities are given encouragement to challenge themselves and excede expectations....not marginalized and given handouts...</p>