New requirement at Public Schools in CA????

[missmoe]

I recently happened to be in the office at my son's high school, when I was flagged down by one of the office ladies. She told me that a form we had filled out last year needed to be changed this year because of a new regulation imposed by the state. It was a form that stated my son's ethnic background. He had marked decline to state. Evidently this year the form must be filled out with an ethnic background. She said that it was her job to go through all the students' forms and try to get all of them filled out. If she couldn't get a hold of students it was up to her to determine what their background was and mark it. :confused::confused:

 

Is she just to guess? Why would this suddenly be important to the state of CA? Does it have something to do with federal funds? Anybody out there have any ideas? How long do you think it will take before someone will take this to court?

 

The office lady was going to mark cacasion(sp?) on my son's form--which is fine--that describes me--but not my son. Also, my dd, who attends a different school noticed that she is marked as causcasion on her records---which she is not. She can't remember what she filled out on her form, but she would not have put that she is white.

 

Okay, I'm not sure of my point here. I don't want to come across as ranting. I just don't understand why something like an ethnic background all the sudden matters. I know the forms have always been there and I have let my children fill them out as they saw fit. I guess the "requirement" is what is bothering me.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I've actually been near the Caucasus Mountains once. My kin are from no where near there. So until there is an Anglo-Dano-Rheinfranken box to check, then I will continue to be other.

 

FWIW, I have frequently read that the US Marine Corps has a significantly higher percentage of Other than the other military services. I consider myself honored to be in their company.

[Mamasteff]

I believe it would have something to do with the high-stakes testing mandates, No Child Left Behind, etc. Test scores are broken down into all sorts of subcategories and ethnic background is a big one due to historic inconsistencies across ethnic/ "racial" lines. Schools will not receive state or federal funding if they cannot show specific, measureable test score data. Unfortunately "other" is not a recognized category in the sorting process.

[Ellie]

And I'd want to see that form for myself. Just because this woman says the state requires it doesn't mean it is so.

[....]

This subject always upset me...me and my kids are a mixture of like 5,000 different races and they tell you that you can only "check one". What the &^%$???

 

Like the previous poster said, until they come up with a box that says, "Korean-Osage-Celtic-German-Castilian-Swiss-Welsh", we're just gonna have to pass on that question.

 

A question like that is straight out of the '40's - back when it was illegal to marry someone from another race. I chuckle when I think about what box our great, great grandchildren would check. :tongue_smilie:

[TravelingChris]

We generally mark other and if there is a space write in Human race.

[Chris in VA]

We have to fill it out here in VA, too.

I hate it. I hate all paperwork, frankly. My ps'd son laughs at me, but it's so darned irritating to fill out 3 emergency health forms (because for some reason they can't make copies and share them among the central office, the subschool, and the athletic dept?!!) or other forms.

IDK, I never felt this way before homeschooling. Y'all have corrupted me.

[Pippen]

Like the previous poster said, until they come up with a box that says, "Korean-Osage-Celtic-German-Castilian-Swiss-Welsh", we're just gonna have to pass on that question.

 

:tongue_smilie:

 

I passed the ethnic background question up on the last census form I had to fill out for that reason and they called me and insisted I give an answer. I gave one but it was so ridiculous for families who are so many generations removed from their family's country of origin that we can conclude the answers are a bunch of hooey.

 

They seriously did call to get answers for every question I left blank. It was the long form and it was very invasive to one's privacy.

[ConnieB]

Yes, apparently there is a new requirement in California about this....my MIL is a teacher and the office staff is giving the teachers the forms and requiring THEY decide "since they are with the kids they know better than the office does". So my MIL wrote, very neatly, on each and every one something along the lines of "I am not allowed to look at the racial/ethnic background of people around me, therefore I cannot provide this information". She submitted them back to the office and has yet to hear anything, lol....and she told me about this over a month ago, so it sounds like the office isn't really looking!

 

Sounds like another "check the box" moment. Pehaps you could check the other box and fill in the long list of ethnic background for your children. That ought to keep them busy for a while.

 

I do think, however, that I would loudly and strongly object to a form that I filled out and signed being altered without my express permission. If they must provide this information because I did not answer it to their satisfaction than it should be a separate form for the admin staff to fill out and let THEM sign it. Makes ya wonder what other forms you fill out are altered after you signed.

[Gretchen in NJ]

I always say that we are American. I am part of the Great American Melting Pot as is my husband. My children are a combination of us both. There isn't a box or a line big enough for us to list everything for either myself or my dear husband let alone combining the two of us into our children.

[Julie in CA]

We have to fill it out here in VA, too.

I hate it. I hate all paperwork, frankly. My ps'd son laughs at me, but it's so darned irritating to fill out 3 emergency health forms (because for some reason they can't make copies and share them among the central office, the subschool, and the athletic dept?!!) or other forms.

IDK, I never felt this way before homeschooling. Y'all have corrupted me.

Oh, yes. Equally irritating to me was all of the things my dc had to have a parent "initial". One of my dc had a teacher who wanted the parent to initial every single piece of homework before it was turned in. Did I mention that I have FIVE dc? I cannot (and will not) initial every piece of dead tree that passes my desk. One day I sat down and took a long piece of tape, wrote my initial at 1" intervals over and over, and left the long piece of tape stuck to my kitchen cabinet. The kids knew that whenever they needed an "initial", they should go rip one off and stick it wherever it needed to be stuck. I expected to be in trouble for that little stunt, but decided it would express my feelings better than any other statement I could make. The teacher may have caught on to what I meant, because soon after, the initialing every single thing requirement stopped. ;)

[Nestof3]

I have a hard time believing that California would have any sort of sinister reason for asking this. As another poster mentioned, it probably has to do with funding and No Child Left Behind goals, or something.

 

Ethnic background shows up in studies and such all the time.

 

Here in VA, knowing the ethnicity (and gender) of men and women taking an exam within the police force led to a suit that claimed that the math test was racially biased because many more men from two ethnic backgrounds failed compared to others. The verdict resulted in the minimum passing score be lowered.

[Julie in CA]

Here in VA, knowing the ethnicity (and gender) of men and women taking an exam within the police force led to a suit that claimed that the math test was racially biased because many more men from two ethnic backgrounds failed compared to others. The verdict resulted in the minimum passing score be lowered.

This is exactly why I have a negative reaction to being asked my ethnic origin.

It seems to generally lead to a lowering of standards. I think if you don't know the math, you don't pass. Period. (Regardless of the color of your skin, or where your great-great-grandfather was born.)

[Daisy]

My husband's school (public, CA) always just fills in the form if the parents do not. They base it completely on appearance (which bugs him to no end).

 

Get this. My husband has actually asked a parent whether they wanted their child marked one race or another and really questioned the parent carefully. Their response meant the difference in the child receiving special instruction or not.

 

If they had answered A, the child's scores would have been considered too high for that particular ethnicity to receive special instruction. If they answered B, the child was considered by that ethnicity to be far enough below grade level to receive instruction. All because answer A's ethnicity has too high a percentage of students needing special instruction (Oh, and for the record, neither answer was "white").

 

How racist is that?! Because you are over-represented in special instruction, we lowered the bar for just how low you have to be in order to get help.

 

Welcome to CA.

[elizabeth]

This subject always upset me...me and my kids are a mixture of like 5,000 different races and they tell you that you can only "check one". What the &^%$???

 

Like the previous poster said, until they come up with a box that says, "Korean-Osage-Celtic-German-Castilian-Swiss-Welsh", we're just gonna have to pass on that question.

 

A question like that is straight out of the '40's - back when it was illegal to marry someone from another race. I chuckle when I think about what box our great, great grandchildren would check. :tongue_smilie:

Actually the year that it was made illegal for states to have laws on the books prohibiting people from marrying outside their race was 1967.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=388&invol=1

Many people are shcocked to read this case that finally put an end to this practice at the federal level. Until this case states were free to do as they wished....1967 NOT the 1940's. Miscegenation in practice was accepted and still is in many parts of the country... another link for the curious from a historical pov http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/family/cruz-berson.html

Edited November 7, 2009 by elizabeth
spelling

[Harriet Vane]

I do think, however, that I would loudly and strongly object to a form that I filled out and signed being altered without my express permission. If they must provide this information because I did not answer it to their satisfaction than it should be a separate form for the admin staff to fill out and let THEM sign it. Makes ya wonder what other forms you fill out are altered after you signed.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[Starr]

I'm not sure that this is new. It sounds like it's a job that was given to someone to do. I'm thinking we have these in NY as well.

[silvermine]

Heh. I do my best to check "other" and write-in "human" if there is a blank, too.

[Sputterduck]

The office lady was going to mark cacasion(sp?) on my son's form--which is fine--that describes me--but not my son. Also, my dd, who attends a different school noticed that she is marked as causcasion on her records---which she is not. She can't remember what she filled out on her form, but she would not have put that she is white.

 

Are your children adopted? I ask because if they are not, they are caucasian. It annoys me to no end when a white person has a baby with a non-white person and people think the child is not white. The child is just as white as he is whatever other ethnicity. Example: Obama is just as white as he is black. My son is basically half Irish and half Korean. Him being half Korean does not make him not half Irish. It's ethnicity, not skin color.

[Daisy]

Are your children adopted? I ask because if they are not, they are caucasian. It annoys me to no end when a white person has a baby with a non-white person and people think the child is not white. The child is just as white as he is whatever other ethnicity. Example: Obama is just as white as he is black. My son is basically half Irish and half Korean. Him being half Korean does not make him not half Irish. It's ethnicity, not skin color.

 

Which just illustrates how incredibly stupid all these terms are anyway. Either we are classifying people by ethnicity or by color. Which is it? If we are classifying by ethnicity then why isn't the box labeled AMERICAN?

 

Why after 2 or 3 or 4 generations in America would we consider ourselves "Korean" or "Irish" on a form?

 

And why would we classify on the basis of color ever? How can we even do that? On a scale of 1-10 ALL IN THE BROWNS, I'm a 2, but my brother is a 3? I have a friend who is an 8 and another is is a 9. Who the flip cares?

 

These forms are stupid and insulting.

[Sputterduck]

And why would we classify on the basis of color ever? How can we even do that? On a scale of 1-10 ALL IN THE BROWNS, I'm a 2, but my brother is a 3? I have a friend who is an 8 and another is is a 9. Who the flip cares?

 

 

I don't think we should care. Classifying people based on skin color is as stupid as classifying people based on hair color or eye color. Can you imagine if it was easier to get into a particular college or get extra help in school because your hair was auburn and not blonde? Or because your eyes are green and not blue. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

 

I'm proud of my ethnicity. I come from a unique and beautiful culture. So does everyone else. Cultural variety adds spice to life. My skin color I couldn't care less about.

[Daisy]

I don't think we should care. Classifying people based on skin color is as stupid as classifying people based on hair color or eye color. Can you imagine if it was easier to get into a particular college or get extra help in school because your hair was auburn and not blonde? Or because your eyes are green and not blue. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

 

I'm proud of my ethnicity. I come from a unique and beautiful culture. So does everyone else. Cultural variety adds spice to life. My skin color I couldn't care less about.

 

Excellently stated! :iagree:

[Sputterduck]

I think I'm going to rebel and mark Caucasian on any form that ever asks my son's ethnicity. He looks clearly Asian, so when people look at me cross-eyed after I hand them the form, I will enjoy giggling inside.

[Audrey]

I passed the ethnic background question up on the last census form I had to fill out for that reason and they called me and insisted I give an answer. I gave one but it was so ridiculous for families who are so many generations removed from their family's country of origin that we can conclude the answers are a bunch of hooey.

 

They seriously did call to get answers for every question I left blank. It was the long form and it was very invasive to one's privacy.

 

 

I have a long form rant, too. I hate the ethnicity questions, but even more I hate the language questions we have on forms here in Canada. We always have the long form because we have an "agricultural operation." I find it annoying, but do it anyway.

 

What p*sses me off to no end is the inevitable call later asking why we chose "English" as our first language for everyone in the household when we clearly have a very, VERY French last name. (there isn't a big enough eye rolling smilie for this). The last time, we got an in-person "check." She asked each of us, "don't you speak any French at all?" Well, yes we all do, but that doesn't mean any of us speak it as our first language. She got all up in my dh's face about it, asking him if he was sure it was mostly English spoken in his home growing up and not French. His response was "well, if what I'm speaking now is English then yes. I grew up in a household that spoke mostly English. How about you? Do you speak English?"

 

She left in a huff, but then we get ANOTHER call wanting to clarify it all. Apparently, the in-person person checked that we were all Francophone, but hadn't changed the primary language to French. Dh told that caller all about the incident and told him if they left Francophone on that form he was going to sue them because that was NOT what any of us wrote down. And, that tampering with someone else's census form was a serious offense.

 

Our next census is 2011. We'll see how that plays out. :glare:

[....]

Geez!!!! :confused: That Canadian census stuff is insanity!!! :auto: I'm coming over... I'll talk to that census lady for you. :tongue_smilie:

[Tutor]

Janine at WhyHomeschool recently shared that she was asked to fill-out the race portion of their foster son's form because the school receives more money for children identified as Hispanic. They live in CA also.

[nrg]

I am testing coordinator for a California charter school. The secretary is right. We are no longer allowed to accept "decline to state" or to leave that field blank. We must enter a primary ethnicity for each student even if we have to guess. I don't know why. I received the same memo from the state department of education that she did. So, if your child is in public school in California, you need to select an ethnicity or understand that one will be selected for you. What's next, I wonder.

[mommaduck]

Yes, apparently there is a new requirement in California about this....my MIL is a teacher and the office staff is giving the teachers the forms and requiring THEY decide "since they are with the kids they know better than the office does". So my MIL wrote, very neatly, on each and every one something along the lines of "I am not allowed to look at the racial/ethnic background of people around me, therefore I cannot provide this information". She submitted them back to the office and has yet to hear anything, lol....and she told me about this over a month ago, so it sounds like the office isn't really looking!

 

Sounds like another "check the box" moment. Pehaps you could check the other box and fill in the long list of ethnic background for your children. That ought to keep them busy for a while.

 

I do think, however, that I would loudly and strongly object to a form that I filled out and signed being altered without my express permission. If they must provide this information because I did not answer it to their satisfaction than it should be a separate form for the admin staff to fill out and let THEM sign it. Makes ya wonder what other forms you fill out are altered after you signed.

 

Bless your MIL!

 

This subject always upset me...me and my kids are a mixture of like 5,000 different races and they tell you that you can only "check one". What the &^%$???

 

Like the previous poster said, until they come up with a box that says, "Korean-Osage-Celtic-German-Castilian-Swiss-Welsh", we're just gonna have to pass on that question.

 

A question like that is straight out of the '40's - back when it was illegal to marry someone from another race. I chuckle when I think about what box our great, great grandchildren would check. :tongue_smilie:

 

Thank you!!!

 

 

I don't think we should care. Classifying people based on skin color is as stupid as classifying people based on hair color or eye color. Can you imagine if it was easier to get into a particular college or get extra help in school because your hair was auburn and not blonde? Or because your eyes are green and not blue. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

 

I'm proud of my ethnicity. I come from a unique and beautiful culture. So does everyone else. Cultural variety adds spice to life. My skin color I couldn't care less about.

:iagree:

 

 

This question on forms ticks me off also. To the point that every time I put one thing one the former school district's census forms, they kept changing it on me (I'm paler than my siblings).

[Nestof3]

Janine at WhyHomeschool recently shared that she was asked to fill-out the race portion of their foster son's form because the school receives more money for children identified as Hispanic. They live in CA also.

 

That must make the Hispanic population feel proud. :tongue_smilie:

[AuntieM]

My neighbor is a school secretary, and last spring she described this form and her responsibility to complete it on behalf of those who made no selection.

 

She said she nagged and nagged and nagged families to get it done, then on the last day of school when everything was due, she made a game out of filling it the blanks. She was most peeved by the fact that it was made her responsibility.

[mommaduck]

My neighbor is a school secretary, and last spring she described this form and her responsibility to complete it on behalf of those who made no selection.

 

She said she nagged and nagged and nagged families to get it done, then on the last day of school when everything was due, she made a game out of filling it the blanks. She was most peeved by the fact that it was made her responsibility.

Then leave it blank. It's dishonest to just fill in the blank without knowing. You can't blame people for being offended by it and the fact that it's an inaccurate format, let alone an incomplete one.

[AuntieM]

Then leave it blank. It's dishonest to just fill in the blank without knowing. You can't blame people for being offended by it and the fact that it's an inaccurate format, let alone an incomplete one.

 

I am very sure that my neighbor's preference would have been just that, to leave it blank. However, her boss made it clear that she was required to fill in any blanks. Like he shifted the monkey from his back to hers... Anyway, she was not happy about it, I remember that much.

 

I don't know how they can consider the statistics generated from this survey to be valid, if they are allowing such widespread arbitrary responses. Crazy.

[elizabeth]

http://www.hcpss.org/reporting_faq.pdf They have expanded and refined the categories for federal statistical reporting that is tied to funding. This is but one example from oa memo sent to schools in one district. I certainly understand the need for the information as there are indications that English as a second language learners have significant barriers in the classroom and more funding is needed to accomodate these students sometimes having 2 classes per day in each subject for a shorter time period with one in their first language and the second in English.

I always had a really hard time figuring out what to answer on these questions . Perhaps it is an anthropological distinction muddled up as they are mixing race and ethnicity together in some categories. The two are separate ideas and it is certainly questionable as to the accuracy of the information they are gathering. If someone looked at me and decided they could determine my race and ethnicity they would surely guess incorrectly.Based on prior experience....It is fun to see how long it takes though .

[Miss Sherry]

My neighbor is a school secretary, and last spring she described this form and her responsibility to complete it on behalf of those who made no selection.

 

She said she nagged and nagged and nagged families to get it done, then on the last day of school when everything was due, she made a game out of filling it the blanks. She was most peeved by the fact that it was made her responsibility.

I wonder what is up with that. It could be , as someone has mentioned, that the school is receiving more funds for certain ethnic groups than others. If that is the case, and they are filling out the forms incorrectly on purpose, than it could be that there is fraud involved in receiving those funds. I wonder if it is a state form or if it is coming down from the federal government and the other states will also be receiving the forms soon. The govenrment collects too much information on us. :glare: