Georgia School Investigates ‘Slave’ Math Problems - East Idaho News
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Georgia School Investigates ‘Slave’ Math Problems

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Getty N 011012 TestKid?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1326222747353Fuse/Getty Images(NORCROSS, Ga.) — A Georgia school insisted Tuesday there was no “maliciousness” intended when a third grade math quiz asked students to compute the number of beatings a slave got a week and to calculate how many baskets of cotton he picked.

But the Gwinnett County School District has launched an investigation to determine how the offending questions made it onto the students’ homework sheets.

The math homework assignment was given to more than 100 students at Beaver Ridge Elementary school in Norcross, Ga., as part of a social studies lesson, Gwinnett County school officials said. The assignment outraged parents, community activists and members of the Georgia NAACP.

Sloan Roach, a Gwinnett County school district spokeswoman, told ABC News that the students were studying famous Americans and as an attempt to create a cross-curricular worksheet, one teacher used Frederick Douglass and slavery beatings for two of the questions.

Although only one teacher wrote out the controversial questions, another teacher made copies of the assignment and it was distributed to four out of nine third grade classes at Beaver Ridge, Roach said. The school is not publicly naming any of the teachers who are suspected to be involved.

Roach said she agreed that the questions were inappropriate and part of the investigation would be to, “make sure  teachers are writing questions that are appropriate and [sic] respective,” but wouldn’t speculate on what sort of action would be taken against the teachers involved or whether district teachers would be required to have additional training.

“It does not seem there was any intent of maliciousness here, it was just a teacher who wrote some bad questions,” she said. “This was an isolated case involving these teachers at this school and at this grade level.”

Georgia NAACP president Ed DuBose declined to comment, but his office said he has set up a meeting with area superintendent Dr. Gale Hey to discuss this particular matter.

According to Beaver Ridge’s improvement plan for the 2011-2012 school year, one of their objectives is to “increase academic performances in math” for all students, but specifically African-American students.  

Records show that of Beaver Ridge’s 1,261 students, nearly 60 percent are Hispanic, 28 percent are African-American, 5.3 percent are Asian, and 4 percent are white.

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