弗吉尼亚州教育当局根据种族划定了新的数学考试及格线，亚裔82分及格，白人68分及格，拉丁裔52分及格，黑人45分及格，残疾人33分及格。

维吉尼亚州决定退出《无子不教》法案，并自行创制一套新的教育目标，在这套目标当中，白人和亚裔的要求高于黑人、拉丁裔以及身心障碍的学生，这引发了争议。　　维吉尼亚民主党州参议员唐纳•马基辛在报纸社论上读到了该州为学童设立的新目标。　　“我感到震惊，发现州教育委员会为不同族群设立不同标准——亚裔最高，非裔美国人最低”，马基辛说。

以下是维吉尼亚教育委员会的做法：依学生阅读和数学成绩，设立不同关卡。数学方面，他们设定的合格线为：亚裔82分，白人68分，拉丁裔52分，黑人45分，身心障碍者33分。　　受这些数字警醒，马基辛和州议会的黑人*河蟹*小组成员谴责了新政策，称其为“倒退的阴谋”。

“如果我们不以最善态度面对孩童，就会自食其果”，马基辛说。　　维吉尼亚州教育厅厅长派翠西亚•赖特，在9月晚些时候州教育委员会的会议上为新政策辩护。

“请放心，我们对每个学生的教育目标一视同仁，但若遇到升学问题，我们不得不考虑学生的起点”，赖特说。

赖特在1次与国家公共广播公司的电话采访中解释道，维吉尼亚希望所有学生，无论种族或民族，都能正确回答同样多的问题，通过全州统一考试。

但是事实是，黑人和拉丁裔孩童通常成绩都不如白人和亚裔孩童，赖特说，这样的落差就是新政策准备解决的问题。它为努力读书的少数族裔孩童设立更合适的目标，以便他们有时间追赶上来。

“我们的想法是，如果这能在6年内，至少能把成绩最优及最劣学校之间的差距降低至一半，那么这就会是可接受的进展”，赖特说。

至少1名委员会成员愤怒回应新政意图退回种族隔离时代的指控。“我们绝非企图倒退回种族隔离时代。我们算什么呢，汤姆叔叔？”3个黑人委员会成员之一的温森•西尔斯在上月的会议上说。

“为什么我们会有不同的族群划分？因为我们关心黑人孩童的起点。我们不能为他们设定82分的合格线，因为他们达不到。亚裔学生就可以。真正的问题是，为什么黑人孩童达不到82分？为什么？他们为什么不能在那里？”西尔斯说。

那就是委员会希望解决的问题，西尔斯说。维吉尼亚在收到美国教育部的豁免权后实施了新政策。33个州收到了豁免权，使他们有权不实施不现实的《无子不教》法案——法案要求2014年时，所有孩童必须成绩处于同一水平。

批评家认为，维吉尼亚州实际上在座的，是降低对少数族群和身心障碍孩童的预期，并使之制度化。

“维吉尼亚做了件大错特错的事情”，艾米•威尔金斯和教育信托组织说。教育信托是个研究组织，倡导减小成绩差距。

Firestorm Erupts Over Virginia's Education Goals04:52

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November 12, 2012

Claudio Sanchez

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As part of Virginia's waiver to opt out of mandates set out in the No Child Left Behind law, the state has created a controversial new set of education goals that are higher for white and Asian kids than for blacks, Latinos and students with disabilities.

Virginia Democratic state Sen. Donald McEachin first read about the state's new performance goals for schoolchildren in a newspaper editorial.

"And I was shocked to find that the state board of education [was] putting in place permanent disparities between different subgroups — Asians at the top, African-Americans at the bottom," says McEachin.

Rest assured, all of us hold all students to the same academic standards, but when it comes to measuring progress, we have to consider that students start at different points.

Patricia Wright, Virginia superintendent of public instruction

Here's what the Virginia state board of education actually did. It looked at students' test scores in reading and math and then proposed new passing rates. In math it set an acceptable passing rate at 82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities.

Alarmed by these numbers, McEachin and members of the Legislature's black caucus denounced the new policy as a "backwards-looking scheme."

"If we don't demand the best of our children, we won't receive the best," says McEachin.

At a meeting of the state board of education in late September, Patricia Wright, Virginia's superintendent of public instruction, defended the new policy.

"Rest assured, all of us hold all students to the same academic standards, but when it comes to measuring progress, we have to consider that students start at different points," Wright said.

In a phone interview with NPR, Wright explained that Virginia's expectation is that all students, regardless of race or ethnicity, will correctly answer the same number of questions to pass the state tests.

But the reality is that black and Latino children generally don't do as well as white and Asian children, and that gap, says Wright, is what the new policy is meant to address by setting more modest goals for struggling minority children and giving them more time to catch up.

"The concept here is that if indeed within six years we can close the achievement gap between the lowest- and highest-performing schools — at least cut it in half — that would be acceptable progress," says Wright.

At least one board member responded indignantly to accusations that the new policy harkens back to the era of segregation and Jim Crow. "We're not trying to go back to Jim Crow. What does that make us, Uncle Toms?" said Winsome Sears, one of three black board members at a meeting last month.

"So why do we have these different subgroups? Because we're starting with black children where they are. We can't start them at the 82 percentile because they're not there. The Asian students are there. And so the real question is why aren't black students starting at the 82 percentile? Why? Why are they not there?" Sears said.

That's the problem the board wants to solve, Sears said. Virginia devised the new policy after receiving a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education. Thirty-three states have received such waivers freeing them from what they call the unrealistic goal of the No Child Left Behind law — that all children perform at grade level by 2014.

But what Virginia has really done, critics argue, is institutionalize lower expectations for minority and disabled kids.

Virginia has done something very, very wrong.

Amy Wilkins of Education Trust

"Virginia has done something very, very wrong," says Amy Wilkins, with the Education Trust, a research group that advocates for closing the achievement gap.

"What Virginia said is, black kids in our state should achieve not at grade level but at the highest level that black kids have achieved in the past. That's not a forward-looking goal," Wilkins says. "That is not a goal that's going to ensure that black kids catch up with white kids or Latinos catch up with white kids or poor kids catch up with rich kids."

Wright disagrees but would not elaborate.

"Well, I really can't comment on Ed Trust's statement," says Wright.

In at least one other state — Florida — the NAACP has raised its concerns about new passing rates and performance goals for black and Latino students, although they don't appear to be as low as Virginia's.

Meanwhile, members of the Virginia Legislature's black caucus say they will consider filing a grievance with the U.S. Education Department before the policy is fully adopted.

Copyright NPR 2017.