Racial Profiling With a No. 2 Pencil

New Jersey uses District Factor Groups (DFG) as a measure of a school district's socio-economic status. DFGs range from A to J, with "A" designated as lowest incomes and "J" as highest incomes.

Here are the latest ASK4 scores for Language, broken out by DFG. Now if there is anyone in America who can look at these scores and talk with a straight face about closing the achievement gap without closing the economic gaps, please step forward so that I can personally kick that part of your anatomy for which your head has no place being.

DFG Benchmarks for ASK4--Language

DFG	% Partial	% Proficient	% Advanced
A (poorest	34.8	63.9	1.2
B	27.0	71.1	1.8
CD	22.2	75.5	2.2
DE	15.8	80.6	3.6
FG	13.4	82.5	4.1
GH	11.6	82.7	5.7
I	7.9	83.3	8.8
J (wealthiest)	6.1	84.6	9.3

All the threatening and all the testing and all the phony rhetoric and wishful thinking will not change this fact, which most of us are still unwilling to acknowledge, even as we push for more and more draconian teaching models for children who have already been dehumanized by their "education." In the meantime, our public schools are being shut down and privatized, all because they will never accomplish what no school alone can ever get done.