"America's school kids have historically scored low on international assessment tests compared to other countries, which is often blamed on the diversity of the population and the high number of immigrants."
America's diversity is a creation myth. Outside of New York, it isn't very diverse at all, and compared to Western Europe it doesn't have a very high number of immigrants.
Or does the American definition of 'diversity' only refer to the number of black people? In that case, blaming their numbers for lower test scores is kind of ... racist, isn't it?
> compared to Western Europe it doesn't have a very high number of immigrants.
This is true. America has an immigrant population of about the same size as Germany or Sweden (at about 12-13% of the population).
> Or does the American definition of 'diversity' only refer to the number of black people? In that case, blaming their numbers for lower test scores is kind of ... racist, isn't it?
I believe that is the main demographic difference between western Europe and America. We do not have a large population of former salves who historically have suffered heavy discrimination. Pointing out the results of historical (and current) racism is not racist.
It is racist if the meaning is "we'd be scoring fine if it wasn't for them dragging us down with their genetic inferiority about which nothing can be done" rather than taken as a reason for improving schooling for the poor and otherwise disadvantaged.
and compared to Western Europe it doesn't have a very high number of immigrants.
I suppose if you mean "people who've immigrated within the past two generations". Because, um, historically the US is where Western Europeans immigrated to.
"America's school kids have historically scored low on international assessment tests compared to other countries, which is often blamed on the diversity of the population and the high number of immigrants."
America's diversity is a creation myth. Outside of New York, it isn't very diverse at all, and compared to Western Europe it doesn't have a very high number of immigrants.
Or does the American definition of 'diversity' only refer to the number of black people? In that case, blaming their numbers for lower test scores is kind of ... racist, isn't it?