‘Race-Norming’ in a Maryland Public-School District By MIKE GONZALEZ
National Review
May 8, 2019
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The changes in the admissions process stem from the recommendations included in a 2016 report commissioned by the school system from the New York–based consulting agency Metis Associates.
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So the system asked Metis to address “these barriers and the unintended consequences of the impact these program decisions have had on our achievement gap.” Metis recommended as remedies broadening “the definition of gifted to include non-cognitive measures” and “using group-specific norms that benchmark student performances against school peers with comparable backgrounds.”
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It was the second change that smacked of “group-specific norms”: Students could be disqualified if their home schools already included “a peer group” of 20 similarly gifted classmates. MCPS has portrayed this adjustment as a neutral way of deselecting kids who already have an enriched surrounding. It promised that higher-level courses would be added to their schools, something that parents complain has been limited or non-existent.
Worse, in light of the OCR investigation, this “peer group” approach looks like a fig leaf for something else. The peers at the children’s home schools are likely to come from the same race. What is happening looks a lot like race-norming.
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Related article:
Montgomery County schools under investigation for alleged discrimination against Asian American students
Donna St. George
The Washington Post
April 22, 2019
