Adios to English immersion in NYC
New York City will put more money into bilingual education, abandoning Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign promise to institute English immersion.

‘Deal me a hand’
With very similar grades, SATs and activities, Robert Tagorda and his high school girlfriend applied to the same universities. He’s Filipino-American; she’s Hispanic. Guess what happened. (Here’s the background to the Spectator article.)

Also: In addition to Andrew Sullivan, Max Jacobs (not a relation) of Common Sense and Wonder fisks Maureen Dowd’s racist column accusing Clarence Thomas of ingratitude.

I once tried to check the claim that Thomas was admitted to Yale Law School because of racial preferences. I failed: His Holy Cross grades and LSATs are not in the public record, and therefore it’s impossible to know whether he was a “beneficiary” of affirmative action.

John McWhorter is insulted by the Supreme Court’s assumption that standards for blacks must be lowered. He quotes Zora Neale Hurston:

“It seems to me that if I say a whole system must be upset for me to win, I am saying that I cannot sit in the game, and that safer rules must be made to give me a chance. I repudiate that. If others are in there, deal me a hand and let me see what I can make of it.”

No doubt Dowd would call Hurston an Aunt Jemima. Or a madwoman.

M-O-N-E-Y
Life Imitates Scrappleface, says Mark Harden.

Private reading
Private school students outscore public students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading exams, writes Lisa Snell on Education Weak. Private students also do better in math, history and science.

There’s virtually no difference in scores between Catholic school students and secular private school students, who you’d think would come from more advantaged families. That’s a bit of a surprise.

First, expel the thugs
How can urban high schools cope with violent students? Walter Williams has an answer: Kick out the thugs.

It’s a no-brainer. Students who are alien and hostile to the education process ought to be removed.

You say, “What will we do with them?” I say that’s a secondary issue. The first priority is to stop thugs from making education impossible for everyone else.

Williams went to an inner-city school in the early ’50s with “the poorest of the poor.” Students didn’t curse or assault their teachers, he says. It wasn’t tolerated.

This is frustrating
If you can read this, it means I’ve regained the ability to post. Actually, I’ve been getting an error message every single time I try to publish. Sometimes, the error message is in error; sometimes, it’s correct. Also, the comments are screwy. It looks like nobody’s commented, but that’s not necessarily so.

OK, I’ve figured out one problem: Sometimes, the date of the post gets changed. It won’t publish now because it thinks it’s supposed to publish in two days. Andrew Sullivan is having this problem too.

Other than that, I’m having a great day.

Highly qualified to teach sex ed
At Venice High School near Los Angeles, student journalists set out to research their health teacher’s campaign to ban fast food sales in schools. They discovered that Jacqueline Domac is unusually well qualified to teach teen-agers about sex: When she was 29, the teacher began a “quasi spousal” relationship with a 17-year-old actor, Edward Furlong. The entertainment media reported on the affair. Later, the media reported that Domac sued Furlong, claiming he owed her money for acting as his manager. Must have been the other side of the quasi.

Principal Janice Davis censored the students’ story. She told the Los Angeles Times:

“I don’t think anyone’s business, public or private, should be in the school newspaper,” Davis said. “As a district employee, all staff and teachers are entitled to privacy. I don’t believe it’s an issue of censorship. It might be the public’s right to know but, as the principal, I don’t think it’s the student newspaper’s place to tell that story.”

No doubt censoring the story spread it even faster. How many Venice High students can’t do an Internet search on a teacher’s name?

Fuzzy does it
College admissions is an all-or-nothing proposition. You’re in and somebody else is out. Or you’re out and somebody else is in. Fuzzy criteria for deciding aren’t fairer, writes Michael Kinsley in the Washington Post. But it’s safer to do it in the dark.

The fudge factor leads to sensible policy but erratic law, writes Peter Schrag in the Sacramento Bee.

The Edison show
PBS’ Frontline will air “Public Schools, Inc.” on Chris Whittle’s Edison Schools, Inc. on Thursday, July 3.

Bright
Acting Bright on the black/white achievement gap is up on Tech Central Station.

It’s been there since Friday, but I’m still catching up with all the posts I missed thanks to New Buggy Blogger. You know, there are days that I’m sorry I established a no-obscenities style for this site.

Update: Now I discover that “bright” is a meme. Being bright sounds a lot like being a secular humanist.