Do you want to know what’s really wrong with American education? It is not about test scores. In some schools, it is about survival.
John Thompson writes about “This American Life’s” brilliant radio documentary, which describes a “turnaround” school in Chicago.
It is called “Harper High School.” Written and reported by Alex Kotlowitz, Ira Glass and Linda Lutton, it “describes a “turnaround” school as it comes off a year in which 29 current and recent students were shot. Eight died, and there were dozens of other incidents where bullets were thrown.”
It s not about the test scores.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No kidding it is NOT about the test scores. It’s about povert and the rich getting much,, more in so many aspects of life…like a living wage and respect.
Horrid!
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As a former principal of New Trier HS, I partnered with a former principal at Harper HS for four years. We worked on issues of relationships, collaboration and fear within our students, faculties and communities. We also worked on life gifts and challenges, and the stark realities of stolen childhoods. Schools are interruption zones; we interrupt poverty, ignorance and prejudice. We cannot solve these issues but we can attempt to mitigate them in hard work, hope, and healing. Trust in leaders partnering with faculty can offer pockets of protection for those most in need. I know this work first hand!
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As they say in the broadcast, if this were happening in our privileged suburban schools, something would be done about it.
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You got that right. I’d like to see some of the reformers tackle a-day-in-the-life of these children. It’s a dirty little lie to say that schools are the cause of life failures. For some communities, schools are the only help. Cutting off resources is the complete opposite of what needs to be done.
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Yes, exactly right, test scores are a tiny part of the picture blown all out of proportion here by rheeformers to trumpet their declaration of no excuses, poverty is not an excuse, putting schl and kid advocates on the defensive with their charges of soft racism. Econ ineq is the core explanation of racial and class differences in school outcomes. I listened to the stunning NPR Series on Harper HS in Chicago, shocked at what students live with and the courage of the teachers and admin to face up to it.
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Testing for mastery is simultaneously an excuse to defend withholding needed resources, and a necessity for enhancing instruction. Pundits use testing to defend arrogant prejudices and simplistic assaults on the poor. Yet, declaring that poverty is an excuse for inferior instruction is equally racist. Our nation’s moral compass needs calibration as we attempt to educate all children to live, work, and thrive in a democratic culture. We can afford nothing less for every child whether they look, act, or speak like us. The children at HHS are living symbols of a broken economy, a heartless people, and a mindless federal housing and social injustice programs designed to marginalize children and cobble excuses into a rationale for inaction! My heart brakes for every child living in rural, urban and suburban poverty. Poverty is a disease as real as any other in destroying minds, spirits, and bodies.
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Well said.
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Standing and applauding!
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Thank you to the past two responders! I am now a full time teacher after 40 years in leadership roles. My heart is that of a colleague eager to help the world understand that success, zeal, and desire to excel are the byproducts in every neighborhood school when students and families are given a hand-up by those of us who are committed to improving the world one child at a time! Success to my colleagues who do this work at all levels- from policy to pedagogy!
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