Alex Kotlowitz asks this important question in the New York Times on Sunday.
The question is important for several reasons.
First, because the self-proclaimed reformers assert that great teachers can and do overcome poverty. You might say that this slogan is their anti-poverty program. Wendy Kopp, Bill Gates, and Arne Duncan have all said on many occasions that if there is a “great” teacher in every classroom, that will take care of poverty. Or, in a variation, fix the schools first, then fix poverty.
They never explain how a great teacher overcomes homelessness, hunger, poor health, and other conditions associated with poverty. Lyndon B. Johnson said in 1965 that you can’t put two people in a race at the same starting line and assume it’s a fair race if one of them is shackled. LBJ knew then what the reformers today never learned.*
Second, it’s heartening to see this article in the New York Times because the Times has been hostile to teachers and their unions on the editorial page. The Times is no friend of public education. Its editorial writer thinks that teachers need carrots and sticks to raise test scores, indifferent to the consistent failure of such policies.
How nice to see Alex Kotlowitz in the pages of the Times.
*At Howard University, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “Imagine a hundred-yard dash in which one of the two runners has his legs shackled together. He has progressed ten yards, while the unshackled runner has gone fifty yards. At that point the judges decide that the race is unfair. How do they rectify the situation? Do they merely remove the shackles and allow the race to proceed? Then they could say that “equal opportunity” now prevailed. But one of the runners would still be forty yards ahead of the other. Would it not be the better part of justice to allow the previously shackled runner to make up the forty-yard gap, or to start the race all over again? That would be affirmative action toward equality.”
Commencement Address at Howard University (June 4, 1965)
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Alex Kotlowitz says about solving poverty, “teachers can’t do it alone.” I say, we can’t do it all all, and I’m sick of being even imagined to be able to do it. I teach, that’s it, I TEACH.
LikeLike
I wholeheartedly occur. It’s not right to even be implied that a quality teacher is the way out of poverty. Jobs are the way out of poverty, you know, the ones politicians have been helping big business send overseas for the last 3 decades?
LikeLike
“concur” – sorry.
LikeLike
http://video.pbs.org/video/2269406582
Have you seen this video? It’s about a high school in your old hometown.
LikeLike
The lack of money and resources is why there is poverty. Teaching has nothing to do with it and cannot overcome it.
The reformers simply don’t want to pay higher taxes so that the poor can help get out of their situation. They are also opposed to the government creating jobs.
LikeLike
I get angry when I am out in public and see a pregnant woman with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. I think to myself, how I will be held accountable for that child later in life after his or her mother is done half way poisoning him or her.
LikeLike
Right, it’s the kids fault for being born into a less than ideal situation. Gimme a break.
LikeLike
Well Wendy’s TFA has been around for twenty years…so get on it Kopp…why hasn’t your elite corps taken care of the poverty issues in our country? Why don’t YOU practice what you preach!
LikeLike
Here’s what I can do. I can look at the scholar standing in front of me, and say, “Where do you want to take this?” And regardless of whether I have a smartboard, computers, iPads, or just an old fashioned piece of paper, I will get the job done. This is because I am a leader, a mentor, and a listener. I guide my people where they need to go.
I might not survive the scoring, my third new teacher eval system, the politics, or the reform movement. But I will have served each of my scholars faithfully, and I will guide them until they get there, regardless of whether it’s today, tomorrow, or ten years from now–that’s not rhetoric. They come back all the time.
I can’t solve the problems of education. I don’t think they want to be solved. I think that people will carve out their territories and continue to point fingers. It gets good press, I might add, and it makes it easier to feel something has been accomplished. Has it? I don’t know–I’ll ask the scholar standing in front of me and get back to you.
LikeLike
When you refer to a scholar, you mean your favorite professor? You mean a man or woman with a doctorate? Your lingo is confusing.
Diane
LikeLike
Unless she works in a KIPP school and the kids following orders, prepping for tests and taking tests are all called “scholars” because you know, that’s what real scholars do all day.
LikeLike
I mean the student standing in front of me. I always call them scholars, because that is what they are, and that is what I believe them to be. And when I use that lingo, they only ask me once. I tell them what it means, why they are going to behave like one… they always rise to the occasion.
LikeLike
cafecasey,
How did you get your teaching credentials? University educator degree program or other?
You’re students are just that students. They are not “scholars” as that term is reserved for a very few who have spent decades teaching and learning. Yes, it is cute to call elementary students “my little scholars” in that tone of endearment, but that doesn’t mean it is actually true. Kind of like a parent who oogles and awes over their 1st graders “art work” saying “Oh, my great little artist”.
LikeLike
Not quite sure how to respond. I have credentials from excellent universities, and have the highest results in the classroom. I also own a successful and expanding business, so I understand the vision that education needs to have.
I follow your thoughts on the word “scholars” but I respectfully disagree. I use this term because according to the dictionary, it’s “a student, a pupil.” Word choice is absolutely critical, and there’s research to back it in fields like neurolinguistic programming. For example, the shift from “administrator” to “educational leader” matters…it’s a paradigm shift which is what the field of education sorely needs.
I asked my classes about this subject, and they advised me that they do appreciate this type of shift in thinking and the way they are addressed. It’s all about creating and executing the vision, and they appreciate the respect. When it comes down to it, they’re my customers–I listen to their feedback, so it seems like whatever I’m doing for them is on the right track.
Too bad even semantics is such a volatile issue in education.
LikeLike
Even that story would have other elements such as preparation for the run beforehand and being accepted on the other end. Immigrants with light skin were more accepted and could change their names to become “white” but people with dark skin can have “white” names but never be accepted as white due to their complexion.
LikeLike
@Linda, no, I work in an urban regional school with a very high rate of poverty. I generally choose “low” classes, and this year I have 240 students. I teach upper-level concepts and scaffold for need. The way I treat them–with academic respect, demanding expectations, and a personal connection matters. Therefore, I address them in terms of what I want them to behave like and be…scholars.
I am disappointed with the direction that ed reform has gone. However, I can’t control it. What I can control is my reaction to it. I will make my students succeed either way.
LikeLike
Yes, me too, but I just call them by their names while treating them with respect. We have high expectations too and we develop an excellent rapport as well. They also like it when you know their name, their interests, their goals and dreams. Not sure the scholar title is that important to my kids.
I am disappointed too, but I don’t consider it reform.
LikeLike
Interesting…I found it has, in fact, made a difference. I believe very strongly in NLP… just small subtle shifts in the way things are phrased, outlined, done…makes the biggest difference. Years ago, I began to use those techniques in classes and found–wow–results.
LikeLike
What is NLP?
LikeLike
This morning’s Up show on MSNBC also had an excellent discussion of the Chicago strike and poverty.
LikeLike
Yes, you can view video clips here:
http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.com/_news/2012/09/15/13885438-sundays-guests-sept-16-chicago-teachers-strike-povertys-role-in-american-culture-education-the-presidential-campaign?lite
LikeLike
Mass incarceration is the huge elephant in the room that arrived AFTER Lyndon Johnson was trying to address the harmful effects of poverty in 1965. Its effects must be added to the mix of what public school teachers have to deal with.
Back in 1972, the U.S. had 300,000 people in jails and prisons. In 2008 that number was up to 2.3 million, with an additional 5 million on probation and parole. The astronomical increase was largely due to “drug war” policies. Get this: the U.S. ranks #1 with imprisonment of its citizens at 715 prisoners per 100,000. To put this in perspective, Russia is #2 at 584, and Belarus is #3 at 554. Finland is #113 at 71.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_pri_per_cap-crime-prisoners-per-capita
The mass incarceration being carried out in the U.S. has disproportionately affected people of color. In 2004, the Kirwan Institute reported that the number of incarcerated African Americans increased 800% since the 1950s. From a Sentencing Project report: “The rapid growth of incarceration has had profoundly disruptive effects that radiate into other spheres of society. The persistent removal of persons from the community to prison and their eventual return has a destabilizing effect that has been demonstrated to fray family and community bonds…” In other words, it is damaging to kids.
http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_iandc_complex.pdf (865 KB)
It is a national disgrace that politicians and ed reformers in our “land of the free” won’t bother to acknowledge our grotesquely ugly mass incarceration problem, not to mention our child poverty rate. The impact of mass incarceration on children is just one of our many societal ills heaped on public school teachers’ plates.
Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson talk about mass incarceration with Bill Moyers here:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/watch.html
.
LikeLike
I am a public middle school teacher. I have had many students who were able to overcome huge obstacles and still study, learn, and perform well. Other students are not able to overcome this, despite all the cheerleading, extra help, and high expectations I throw at them. I have seen other teachers who are able to inspire children from low socio-economic backgrounds way better than I can. But the overwhelming consensus of all teachers I have met or worked with is that poverty matters. Of course it matters. Even the good and GREAT teachers say this. It is only an excuse for a small percentage of teachers. For the rest of us it is glaringly obvious. Do we look at a student who is poor and give up on him? No! But we cannot predict the capacity of a child to rise above his obstacles. No test measures this.
LikeLike
Up with Chris Hayes on msnbc did a great show on poverty and it’s effects today. It was really well done and deserves a look.
LikeLike
Sorry didt see the above posts. But I guess that really shows how well done it really was
LikeLike
Periodically, I hear the illogical idea that we need “great” teachers in classrooms, as if great teachers aren’t already in classrooms. From where are all these stealthy “great” teachers supposed to come? Are they now all sitting on their hands at home, waiting to be hired? Is there a secret supply of “great” teachers, hiding somewhere? Why aren’t these armies of “great” teachers in classrooms? Does Mr. Gates really think there are millions of extra “great” teachers, that haven’t already been hired, to fill every classroom (since he implies there is a dearth of great teachers in classrooms now.)
All teachers come from the same education programs. Or is there is a covert training system that produces “great” teachers, whom are then systematically eliminated and prohibited from teaching?
I understand that some teachers are more talented than others. But I think that everyone that criticizes teachers should give teaching a try themselves. They could show the rest of us how easy it is to be “great.”
Maybe the whole system is corrupted, broken and irrelevant.
LikeLike
Teachers can help students who are in poverty, but they can only help so much. They can only provide to an extent. Saying teachers alone can fix and overcome poverty is like saying that a band-aid can fix a large laceration. The band-aid might provide temporary relief but you need medicine and possibly stitches to take care of the problem. I also understand that some teachers can help students overcome poverty, I do believe that. But that may be only one student, or one class or even one school. We need something larger if we are going to fix poverty everywhere.
LikeLike
Yes, pockets of success can happen, because a few of them are resilient and reachable–a very small percentage though out of the whole. Schools become a safe, secure, predictable place where kids seek refuge which gives the wrong message that teachers are saviors, and that is the problem. We need our government and philanthropist to help people in poverty to make their homes that safe haven, so kids can thrive 24/7 like others kids who are fortunate and all can begin at the same spot on the start line.
LikeLike
Unless Wendy Kopp, Bill Gates, and Arne Duncan have lived in poverty or studied the issues, they have no business speaking of it as if it is an easy task for teachers to be the solution to solving social issues. Their agenda is not poverty; it is to create (manufacture) “effective teachers” which is ironic, because they think 5 weeks of training is sufficient. These 3 stooges (I mean elitist) avoid the basic needs of students and don’t realize how poverty affects brain development and in many cases IQ. Their assumption that great teachers can take care of poverty is as ridiculous as NCLB which implied that all students would pass high-stakes testing by 2014–and we know what happened to that notion. Kopp has written several books, but I would like to see her write one that tracks students in poverty taught by TFA from Kindergarten to high school, in urban public schools throughout our country and with as little social support from the community to be on an equal playing field. Then give us the percentage of how many students are college ready at the end of HS.
LikeLike
The Low SES population of students is one of, if not the fastest growing population in Iowa schools today. While we do need change in the educational landscape, let’s not forget to spend some focus on the students themselves, as opposed to their test scores.
Are Gates and company willing to stay with our students in poverty? Making sure they are fed, bathed, and have gotten enough sleep? When mom and BF get into a fight at 3am are you going to break it up so the student can sleep? When dad’s GF #3…4…5…starts staying at the house and treating the children more like unwanted pets than kids, will they be there to stop it? How about in the morning when grandma is working her first job and the kids need to be up and ready for school, will they shoulder that responsibility as well? After school when grandma is working job #2, will Bill go over to babysit and make sure there is food on the table? Will Ms. Koop do the same for all of the kids whose sole parent/adult in their lives is working 3rd shift? On that first day of school will they make sure all of the kids have new clothes and are bathed? If not, what do the “GREAT” teachers recommend we should do to boost their confidence around their peers? Who will be the person to brush the kids teeth so they will speak out loud without feeling self-conscious about their breath? Since students in poverty live by rules very different than the middle class values that the school is based upon, will the Gate’s be a big brother/big sister to mentor them on how to behave in class? We need representatives for many of the students with special needs as well because their parents will not show up for required meetings that determine the course of action needed for their child.
All of these things affect student learning and performance. We can have the smartest, most prepared, most experienced teachers in the world, but without attacking the base of the problem, we will never see success.
LikeLike