OPINION & EDITORIAL
School of Ed plays the race card
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Also by Matt Modell:
- Taking responsibility for your decisions (April 24, 2003)
- An honorable and just battle (November 20, 2003)
- Ethical behavior should be encouraged at universities (December 10, 2003)
- Fixing the problems of ASM (November 25, 2003)
- The key word is 'illegal' (December 4, 2003)
Related Stories:
- Students need, deserve better secondary education before college (February 1, 2007)
- Shades of diversity (April 4, 2003)
- GPA system: a poor judge (January 20, 2005)
- UW’s top-secret admissions process revealed (June 28, 2001)
- UW admissions policy lacks transparency (February 6, 2007)
by Matt Modell
Thursday, February 27, 2003
In two days, students hoping to begin an education in one of America?s most noble professions will submit their admission applications. The University of Wisconsin School of Education?s admissions deadline for the elementary education program is March 1.
Sadly, many likely qualified students who want to become an elementary school teacher will not even apply for admission because they have already been told they will not get into the program.
The reason: these students are white.
The undergraduate admissions office believes the playing field is not level when students apply for undergraduate admission to the university as a whole, so they take race into account in their admissions decisions. The School of Education believes the playing field is still not level, so again race is taken into account, but more than most applicants are aware.
Applicants are told cumulative GPA (or the students? GPA for their last 60 credits, whichever is higher) will account for 35 percent of the admissions criteria and the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) will account for 25 percent of the criteria (8 1/3 percent for each section — math, reading and writing). The remaining 40 percent of the admissions criteria is split up evenly between the students? Student Staff Representative Ration (SSRR) and ?non-academic factors,? which is an essay.
For admission to the Elementary Education program for the Fall 2003 term, the average GPA for admitted white students was 3.53 and for admitted applicants of color was 3.18.
For those of you who are fighting desperately to raise your GPA to a 3.5 like I am, you understand what a huge difference in GPA that is for a student.
The next criterion is the PPST. On average, admitted white students scored 2.4 points higher on reading, 3.4 points higher on math and 2.0 points higher on writing than admitted applicants of color.
Again, the average admitted white student had to have scores significantly higher than applicants of color. It should be noted, though, that the average grades and test scores of both applicant pools were significantly higher than the required minimums set by the school and state.
This leaves us to examine the SSRR and essay. The SSRR ?reflects the extent which members of specific ethnic groups are over- or under-represented in the professional staff of Wisconsin schools relative to pupils from that ethnic group,? according to the admission packet. This results in Asian students receiving the greatest benefit, though at least one School of Education official notes they are generally the group who needs the least help in admissions. American Indians, Hispanics and blacks, respectively, receive the most assistance through the SSRR after Asian Americans. White students do not receive any assistance through the SSRR because they are considered over represented in Wisconsin public schools — 89.04 percent of teachers are white, while only 80.11 percent of the students are white.
While our society has said it is unfair to penalize someone because of their skin color, school officials argue it is necessary because the Wisconsin public schools need more diverse teachers to teach the increasing number of students of color growing up in Wisconsin.
Essentially this means the School of Education and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction are making the judgment that white teachers cannot relate to or effectively teach students of color. I find this disingenuous. Being a successful elementary school teacher is not about skin color; it is about being compassionate and caring, having patience and the willingness and desire to help children work toward a bright future.
The remaining factor in the admissions decision is the essay, accounting for 20 percent. The essay is also skewed to advantage applicants of color. The question for the past several semesters asks the applicants to describe how their background and experiences will help them be effective teachers to the diverse culture, language, background, socioeconomic status, abilities, gender and ethnicity of elementary school students.
The question is skewed towards applicants of color, and School of Education administrators are aware of this. The essay scores indicate a clear bias. Applicants of color on average have scores four-and-a-half times higher than white applicants. That is an astounding difference, even if a complete analysis cannot be done without having the standard of deviation of each group.
Applicants of color essentially have a 40 percent head start to white applicants. This accounts for why the difference in GPA and PPST scores are so significant.
The School of Education and the elementary education program at UW-Madison is one of the best in the country. The world-class faculty should be applauded, and the goals of the university respected, but research has not come close to conclusively saying that elementary school students benefit more if their teachers are of the same race as they are.
The university should seek to produce the best teachers possible based on performance, not skin color. The current admissions procedure is a detriment to students of color who would still be admitted at the higher standard. The policy is also a detriment to those qualified white students who pay for tuition at this university but cannot study in the field of their choice simply because of their skin color.
Discrimination is discrimination, and it is wrong. This should be one of the first lessons teachers should be teaching kids. It is unlikely this will occur if discrimination is the reason that teacher is in the classroom.
Matt Modell (mmodell@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.
