Hopkinson: Is School Reform About Escaping Blackness?

12 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

1. M. Schneider says:

   March 3, 2013 at 7:54 pm

   I think school reform is more about white upper-class arrogance, the idea that “we have the money, therefore, we have the answers.” And by way of incredible money, school reform is able to force a predominately white, upper-class, entitlement ideal of “reform” onto education, on a state-by-state basis.

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • brutus2011 says:

     March 3, 2013 at 8:06 pm

     I think school reform is about the administrative and managerial class maneuvering into position to skim from the top of the billions spent each year on public education. It is a coup of unimaginable proportions much like it would been if the privatization of social security had succeeded.

     LikeLike

     Reply
2. bbetzen says:

   March 3, 2013 at 8:45 pm

   School reform is listening to kids, embracing their own heritage and plans for the future. I’ve posted a long response on this article going over how we have done that in Dallas. There certainly may be better ways for students to embrace their own history and future, but I am certain that is the “silver bullet” for education reform. Here is the article posted on the Washington Post site, with a few edits I failed to make on that post:

   Exactly the opposite of escaping blackness must happen! History, dreams, must be embraced! We are starting a project to do just that. It starts with the parents of 6th grader writing letters to their children about their dreams for them, including history and stories from their own lives they would like their children to remember. Then the students bring these potentially priceless letters from their parents to Language Arts Class.
   In that class they study their parents letters and write a letter to themselves about their own dreams for the future. What do they plan to achieve in middle school? Then both letters go into a self-addressed envelope for each student and students place those envelopes on one of 10 shelves inside a 530-pound vault bolted to the floor in the school lobby: The School Archive. This project seems to increase the number of those priceless parent-child conversations that happen among our students and their parents.

   This is the first of four such letter writing times: at the start of the 6th and 9th grade and at the end of both 8th and 12th grade. The 8th and 12th grade set of letters are focused 10 years into the future. They remain in the respective middle school and high school vaults for 10 years until 10-year class reunions. Students know that at those reunions they will receive back their envelopes with their parents letters and their own letter in them. They also know they will be asked to speak with current students about their recommendations for success. They are warned to be prepared for questions such as “What would you do differently if you were 13 again?”
   This project, first started in 2005, is already in two high school feeder patterns in Dallas, in both the high school and the feeder middle schools. One high school has already doubled their graduation rate from 33% in 2006 to 65% in 2012. Those were majority Hispanic schools. We are now starting in a majority Black school. The results should be even better!…See More
   User ID:http://washingtonpost.com/hzxFy0tXkNxerZRL0/iLJMgoWI6YUHMFVlNQOUtKBgd/tT03sC7QkQ%3D%3D/
   User IP:

   LikeLike

   Reply
3. john says:

   March 3, 2013 at 8:48 pm

   I just met a young teacher who was substituting the other day at my school who had just returned from teaching English in a German Gymnasium. He had the time of his life over in Europe, but had returned to find a job in the U.S. to be near his girlfriend. I told him what was going on with teacher “reform” and that he should immediately return to Germany (they had offered him a permanent job). German tenure is the real deal. He would have a fantastic life living in Germany and would have respect from the whole culture (young and old). I hope he listened to me. I think that if he did, I just saved his life as a teacher. What is there for new teachers in America now? No respect (at all), being scapegoated, little to declining pensions. Who wants to live in this America? Eventually you will just be guarding sixty kids who are starting at some Khan Academy video on a screen (if you are lucky). I hope those of you reading this blog who are young and starting out think about some alternative places to live. Life is short, and this is going to be a long, ugly road that may never reverse itself. Teaching in America is basically a dead profession, and many of us are too far along to leave…Every day, as a teacher in the hallways, I hear, ..”When are you retiring? Have you put in your notice? How much longer do you have? Can you believe this? They are doing what?” I am at one of the top public high schools in the country. What is happening in the other states and districts? I can only guess…

   LikeLike

   Reply
4. flerper says:

   March 3, 2013 at 9:01 pm

   I’m sorry, but this story is incoherent. Is the concern that charter schools will accelerate segregation and create more education ghettos? Or that white teachers are educating the blackness out of black children? And what better way to measure one’s blackness than whether one plays “hand games” or feels an “urge to tap West African rhythms”?

   LikeLike

   Reply
5. Sheery says:

   March 3, 2013 at 9:11 pm

   Just told my son, an excellent young teacher, that he should plan on going into physical therapy if he plans to have a future. Teaching is a dying art. Too bad that youngsters will miss out on teachers who would be great in time. Instead they will have aides monitoring screens…or if they are lucky… Homeschooling. So sad

   that it has come to this. But corporations are people…not just “of the people.”

   LikeLike

   Reply
6. mrslewischem says:

   March 3, 2013 at 9:27 pm

   I believe the art of teaching will die if we don’t defend it. If we cede our profession to the corporate elites, then they have already won. I believe because of people like the ones on this and so many other blogs have taken on the assault and the tide is turning. They won’t quit, but they are now exposed. They were able to do their dirt in the dark for as long time. All over the country, teachers, paraprofessionals and clinicians have stood up and said – “Stop the Insanity”. The outrageous claims, the impossible tasks have come into question. “100% of our students graduate.” “100% of students shall be proficient by 2014.” The financial hanky-panky and dystopian landscapes left by the transference of public assets into private hands are causing more and more folks to demand real accountability. So do not despair. Teaching will survive even this attack. But only if we stand together, raise our collective voices against the incursion and encourage the best and the brightest to do this work. Not take shortcuts, but prepare for the joys and woes of teaching and learning.

   LikeLike

   Reply
7. Anita Dobs says:

   March 3, 2013 at 10:32 pm

   Teacher’s get more respect in China. That’s one thing China does have right, respect for people who spread knowledge. It’s a shame that many other places just don’t get how important teachers actually are.

   LikeLike

   Reply
8. Dienne says:

   March 4, 2013 at 6:44 am

   According to Edushyster, it’s all about “Whiteousness”: http://edushyster.com/?p=1974

   LikeLike

   Reply
9. edededucation says:

   March 4, 2013 at 10:04 am

   Thanks for posting this article Diane. I enjoyed it, and I do think we should pay attention to cultural elements of the discussion, but that we should dig deeper to understand all of the layers of variables such as “all white teaching staff” or “zero tolerance discipline policies.” If we simply assume that those variables can be reduced to a single motivation such as racism or educating “blackness” out of children, I think we’ll fail to see the complexities of those variables, and may not respond to them as best we could.

   LikeLike

   Reply
10. 203 says:

    March 4, 2013 at 5:19 pm

    NCLB has encouraged middle class families of any race to flee “poor” children of any race. I sought out a diverse urban setting for my children, and found it. However, due to low test scores the rich teaching was replaced by district mandates that over burdened and limited the creative approach of the teachers. Test scores are what matter most. As a result, most of the “great” teachers who had attracted us to the school left to more affluent schools within the city, demanding fewer restrictions on their teaching.

    Our city is obsessed with the “achievement gap”. Our teachers are criticized and our schools are punished for it. We have a HUGE social/opportunity gap in our city that is ignored as a factor. White families are highly educated and invest their resources in their children at a historically unprecedented level. Our urban white kids out-perform the suburbs because they have had great teachers in the city and strong parental support. In other urban centers these families would have left to the suburbs or private schools. While the minority community in our city is comprised overwhelmingly of low income and refugee populations. These families do not have the family resources to invest in their kids at the same level and often, working two jobs for hourly wages, they do not have the same involvement as the affluent families. They don’t speak the language their children are being educated in, and may be illiterate in their native language as well. No kidding there is an achievement gap!

    Schools cannot negate the chasm that has been created in this country along the lines of wealth and opportunity if society is hell bent on widening it. And we seem to be. It doesn’t just happen; there are policies that do it folks.

    My sons’ poor, black classmates show up with behaviors and skills that help them be successful in their home cultures, but are barriers to success in school and the middle class communities/jobs. How much of what we are talking about is poverty and violence and how much is “blackness”? In my city I think whites attribute a lot of violence to black culture and so when black kids get gunned down the response is negligible. The prevailing, unspoken belief seems to be, “it’s just how they are, we don’t want to judge the community” (as long as they stay away from our community). But I’ll guarantee that if kids were being gunned down in middle class/affluent white neighborhoods at the same rate, Marshall law would be demanded, curfews would be enforced, counselors would be brought in, and guns would become a more urgent issue. But instead, black culture is seen as violent, drug infused, disrespectful, and unwanted. But we’ll be respectful, multicultural and leave them to it.

    I do believe the school reform movement is trying to eliminate poverty from children without an understanding of what that requires of poor children and their families culturally. There is an assumption that all poor people want to be middle class. I’m not sure that’s culturally true, even if it is financially accurate. You can want the money, not the values and norms. But very few can get one without the other.

    LikeLike

    Reply
11. seo company says:

    May 5, 2013 at 8:09 am

    I seldom leave responses, however after browsing a few of the remarks here Hopkinson:
    Is School Reform About Escaping Blackness? | Diane Ravitch’s blog. I actually do have 2 questions for you if it’s okay.
    Is it only me or does it appear like a few of these responses come
    across like they are written by brain dead people? 😛 And, if you are writing at
    additional places, I would like to keep up with you.
    Could you post a list of the complete urls of your social pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or
    linkedin profile?

    LikeLike

    Reply