ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Removing Low-Performing Students Is Just Segregation

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Removing Low-Performing Students Is Just Segregation

By Diane Torres-VelÁSquez
Former N.M. Hispanic Education Liaison
          In his op-ed column, "Students Need a Chance to Succeed," Ralph Arellanes would have the state remove low-performing students from public schools by giving out "scholarships for private schools." When looking at low-achieving students, we are, of course, talking about students with disabilities (often Hispanic) and low-income Hispanic, Native American and black students. I would remind readers that even in the days that we had state institutions, our students with disabilities were integrated in the public schools in New Mexico.
        Yes, removing the lowest achievers from our state achievement database will guarantee to bring up test scores. But this is not fair to the very students who are underperforming. This is not the answer. Instead, this is segregation.
        Segregating these students is a form of racism. Racism is defined as: "an institutionalized system of economic, political, social and cultural relations that ensure that one racial group has and maintains power and privilege over all others in all aspects of life."
        This is not the type of education reform we need.
        Just about any school outside of the public school system could be labeled a private school. Not that long ago, Native American students were placed in "private schools." These were then called "boarding schools." Remember how well that worked?
        As the former state Hispanic education liaison, I wrote the first Hispanic Education Status Report which clearly shows a need for strong education reform: in the public schools.
        One part of examining student achievement is Standards Based Assessment. Another is high school graduation. To place Hispanic student achievement in context, I reported on all ethnic groups. There is indeed a clear achievement gap. The gap changes only minutely across the six years we have used Standards Based Assessment. What's worse, half our students are not graduating.
        My reports find that Hispanic, Native American and black students make up nearly three-quarters of the student population in New Mexico. I conclude that it is imperative that we face the truth and respond to how all of our children are achieving in our schools. Our social and economic welfare depend on it.
        Arellanes is the state director of LULAC, but seems to have forgotten that this once-esteemed organization got its start with long, hard battles defending the civil rights of Hispanos and that LULAC once fought fiercely against educational segregation. He must have also forgotten that in our state, Serna vs. Portales was fought and won on behalf of Mexican-American children, so that they could receive an equitable public school education.
        I would remind him that our state Constitution calls for "perfect equality" for all New Mexicans.
        The point is that our forefathers worked hard to protect the rights of all our children. Concern for their educational and civil rights was most recently reinforced with the enactment of the Hispanic Education Act.
        In the College of Education at the University of New Mexico, we teach our students to be alert for this type of discrimination in classes such as Constructing Disability and Social Justice. We are not Arizona, Texas or Florida. We have worked hard to keep our ethnic groups alive and honor our cultural roots.
        We all want to see test scores go up, but getting rid of the lowest-scoring students from the public schools is not an acceptable answer.
        Arellanes is not speaking for the Hispanic community, nor for the education community. He seems to be speaking for those who are pushing extreme ideological agendas that not only contribute to segregation, but also elitism and racism.
        The change Arellanes proposes would take us backward. We must instead move forward and work together to make the changes that meet the educational needs of all our children.
        Diane Torres-Velasquez is an associate professor of education at UNM. She wrote this column as an individual, not on behalf of UNM.

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