Bob shepherd responded to the sixtieth anniversary of the Brown decision with these thoughts:
1. Today, a century and a half after the end of slavery, 38.2 percent of African-American children live in poverty.
2. Today, a century and a half after the end of slavery, we routinely jail or imprison people for breathing while black. A recent study in California found that white teens in that state used pot at higher rates than did black teens but that black teens were 17 TIMES as likely to be arrested for it. We in the U.S. have the highest rate of incarceration of any nation on Earth. Fully 2.9 percent of our population is in prison, in jail, or on parole. Although African Americans make up only between 12 and 13 percent of our population, they make up 40 percent of the prison population.
3. Today, a century and a half after the end of slavery, there are more African-American men in prison and in jail than there were enslaved African-American men in 1850.
4. Today, a century and a half after the end of slavery, U.S. schools are more segregated than they were in the late 1960s:
Click to access orfield-historic-reversals-accelerating.pdf
And we are supposed to react to this by
1. testing more, which has done nothing to change the “achievement gap” and will almost certainly increase that gap
2. giving parents more school choice, which is guaranteed to increase segregation
3. pouring many, many billions of dollars into summative standardized testing, evaluation schemes, data systems, and computers for taking tests instead of into prenatal care and wrap-around services from birth on
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If this is a multiple choice test and I’m Arne Duncan, I’m answering “4”: All of the above.
LikeLike
Arne: not proficient
LikeLike
and don’t forget real estate.
LikeLike
Writing of inequity, why isn’t the Manchester, N.H. School District being given more attention, as its politicians, bureaucrats and the testing companies do their best to destroy it? Finally, the teachers having perhaps had enough: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20140522/NEWS0606/140529552
LikeLike
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
LikeLike
All true. And the education “solutions” haven’t worked.
But what should be done? Given we also have the context of the haves doing all they can to protect what they have and funnel even more wealth upward, the control of the political process even more in the pockets of the wealthy, and the decline for many reasons of decent jobs?
It’s complicated.
LikeLike
Testing will increase the gap in testing? Come again?
And school choice is not guaranteed to increase segregation. The only evidence claiming as much comes from agenda-driven ideologues.
Public schools are already plenty segregated, due to housing markets. Short of forcing people to move to different zones (good luck with that), school choice is the only way to DECREASE segregation. Otherwise, kids stay in their same segregated public schools.
LikeLike
If the evidence is accurate, it doesn’t really matter who it comes from. Can you dispute the evidence itself?
Re testing increasing the achievement gap, the argument perhaps runs something like this: the more time given over to testing, the less time for instruction. Children from privileged backgrounds will get less impacted by this thanks to the wealth of experiences provided by their parents outside of school. Children living in poverty, etc., however, will take the bigger hit. And the more that testing such as the PARCC (which apparently has had significant negative stress effects on children, for example during its administration in New York state) turns off those needier children to school, not to mention the more privileged children (whose parents in some cases are better able to afford to put them in private schools not obligated to test ’til it hurts, ergo more segregation), the more likely those children will do worse and worse as their schooling continues.
LikeLike
Correction: there is no such evidence. All they can say is that (some) charter schools look more racially imbalanced than the whole district, but that is a meaningless comparison. Districts can look integrated at the overall level, even while all of the individual schools themselves are highly segregated. The only thing that matters would be a comparison between an individual charter school and the specific public schools that kids would otherwise attend.
Anti-charter folks don’t usually come up with evidence on that point, because their goal isn’t accuracy, it’s just finding an excuse to beat up on charter schools.
LikeLike
Correction right back at you; there is such evidence. Check out the article, “Charter School Growth Accompanied by Racial Imbalance” in the Washington Post, Feb. 4, 2010 (easy to access online). The study comes from UCLA. Further research on the internet will yield several other articles/studies to check out.
I did notice that after initially stating “there is no such evidence,” you later wrote, “anti-charter folks don’t usually come up with evidence.”
This is not to say that all charter schools lean towards more segregation, nor that there are not some terrific charters. I think Bob Shepherd is pointing to a general, disturbing trend.
LikeLike
In the Buffalo Public Schools the population has shifted so that 80% of the population is minority.
We had great success on integrating the city schools in the 70’s by various methods. One system which worked involved what was called “sister” schools where the children from places like South Buffalo (which are mainly white) were bused to an inner city school for the early grades (PreK to 4) and then those inner city kids were bused to a South Buffalo School for grades 5-8.
It worked, but over the NCLB years, the focus changed. The courts, who were overseeing the process, declared us “done”. Integration completed! Even the staffing, where a “white” teacher could only get on the path to tenure if a minority teacher got hired to do the same. (But the advent of temporary teachers is another story).
Now in 2014, the Buffalo News reported that segregation was back to where it was in the early 70’s. They gave the breakdown of the population in every city school.
And guess what, the Charter Schools had the greatest percentage of segregation. Some Charter Schools were 100% minority (mainly black). And the reason why the rest of the city schools had less of the white population, is that there are several charter schools which are disproportionately white. The parents “opt” their children to go to those charters which cater to white children.
And since the tests are written by white mainstreamers for white students, those schools get higher scores than those which are 90+% minority. (And I’m not mentioning the refugees, immigrants, and special ed populations).
The results of the current school board election (where two of the three candidates elected are pro charter school) will definitely have a major influence in the direction the district goes towards furthering the re-segregation of the Buffalo Public Schools. (Public only for the moment!)
Now tell me that charter schools don’t effect the racial balance within a school system.
And tell me that the assessments don’t have a hand in shaping the nature of education in our inner cities. Especially if low scores dictate the closure and turn around of schools which are “un”successful -indicated by the high cut score in effect. (Which was made higher as soon as the city schools started getting better results).
LikeLike
Thanks for this info, Ellen. sounds like more evidence from other than “ideology driven ideologues” to me.
LikeLike
Your Washington Post article is a picture perfect example of PRECISELY the non-evidence I described — in that article, Gary Orfield and company compared charter schools to entire metropolitan areas or even to entire state populations.
As any fairminded person can see, however, it is meaningless to compare a charter school in inner-city Harlem to all public schools in New York state and then proclaim that the charter school is more “segregated.” That is just absurd. The only relevant question would be how the charter school compares to the nearby public school in Harlem. For Orfield to put out such bogus comparisons, and for anyone else to cite them, is a sign that people simply don’t care about fairness and accuracy.
(I changed to the word “usually” just to allow for wiggle room in case someone manages to find some valid evidence, although there doesn’t seem to be any fear of that so far.)
LikeLike
WT, the Post article near the end mentioned “comparable” comparisons being made between high minority population public schools and the charters. I’m pointing that out in the spirit of “fairness and accuracy.” Also, any comments on the data that Ellen provided?
LikeLike
Check out “The Link Between Charter School Expansion and Increasing Segregation” by Iris Rotberg (from George Washington University research center). He cites evidence accumulated not only in the U.S., but also in other countries such as Australia, of charters magnifying segregation. And he also mentions, among his findings, that there are a few charters that buck this trend and try to enhance desegregation, so he can’t be fairly accused of being some ideologue.
LikeLike
In the WaPo version of the Rotberg article, there are no numbers whatsoever, and certainly no indication that the author is comparing charter schools to the specific public schools that kids would otherwise be attending (indeed, there is no indication that the author is even capable of understanding that this is the only valid comparison to be made).
LikeLike
The word “comparable” there means “comparable percentage figures,” not comparable public schools, and certainly not the nearby public schools that charter school kids would otherwise be attending. The underlying Orfield report made no such comparison anywhere, which you would know if you would read research for yourself rather than depending on (misinterpretations of) newspaper articles that you just Googled for the first time.
LikeLike
It seems to me that comparable percentage figures is what you want for an apples to apples comparison. Also, Orfield points out in a PBS interview that charters often draw from more than one school district for their composition, so I’m not sure the comparison you are asking for is even realistically feasible, or even matters given the apparently dramatic differences between charter school and public school makeup. I’ll happily admit that I googled this stuff on the fly, but that was based on having seen report after report, study after study, in the past years documenting this issue.
How about citing a study we could check out (not from a pro-charter ideologue, ho-ho-ho!) that documents a more general pro-desegregation value to charters, or at least a neutral value, beyond the exceptions referred to by Rotberg? And let me get this straight: since the Post article on Rotberg’s research doesn’t go into much detail, you feel free to suggest the guy isn’t “capable of understanding”? Also, any comments on Ellen’s experience?
I’m a bit reminded of the global warming discussion, where some people not convinced hold on to isolated data points, such as the cooling of a portion of Antarctica, to avoid dealing with the mountains of ominous evidence that are compiled on a weekly basis.
LikeLike
Dude, you don’t even understand basic English. The WaPo article was saying here are the percentages of black kids in charter schools where the charter school is predominately minority; and here is the comparable PERCENTAGE (note that “comparable” is what we call an “adjective” and it “modifies” the word “percentage”) of black kids in public schools that are predominately minority.
It is the PERCENTAGE that is comparable. But my point is that the SCHOOLS they’re comparing are not comparable. They’re apples to oranges. They’re comparing charter schools in inner-city Harlem to public schools in whiter areas of New York and then whining that the Harlem charter schools have more black kids. That is just a plain silly comparison. The only relevant question is whether the Harlem charter school has a higher percent black than the public schools that the kids would otherwise attend.
As of yet, you have produced exactly ZERO evidence on the only fact that would matter.
LikeLike
You have produced zero evidence that the comparison was between Harlem schools with higher black populations with “whiter” area schools. I have read more deeply into the study, as well as Orfield’s response to criticism, and am satisfied that his research is consistent with the piles of other research out there on the impact of many charter schools on segregation. Plus there is a logic problem here: how are those other areas “whiter” if the populations of minorities in their schools are comparable to your so-called Harlem schools? And you still have not addressed Ellen’s data, nor the fact that charters often draw their students from more than one district.
You get the final word on this thread, if you wish. For me, it’s “check please, waiter.”
LikeLike
OK. Do you realize that charter schools are, on average, more likely to be in low-income minority neighborhoods? (Not all of them are, but on average.) By definition, this means that when you compare the racial demographics of charter schools NOT to their neighborhoods but to the rest of the metro area or even to the rest of the state, the charter school is automatically going to have higher numbers of minorities. This does NOT mean that charter schools are, on average, any different from the neighborhood schools nearby.
Orfield’s comparisons are wrong. If you actually read his stuff, you’d know how dumb it is.
LikeLike
The reasonable comparison is charters to the district, not charters to the state. When compared to the neighborhood schools, it is clear that charters take small proportions of students with disabilities and ELLs. Some charters have few or none, this increasing the numbers of the high- needs students in neighborhood schools. If you like skimming, this is ok.
LikeLike
Here’s a devastating critique of Orfield’s incompetence: educationnext.org/torturing-the-charter-schools-until-they-confess/
and educationnext.org/our-reply-to-the-civil-rights-projects-response/
LikeLike
Ednext is a rightwing journal: pro-voucher, pro-charter, why would its editors take seriously any critique of rising segregation? By the way, I quit the editorial board of Ednext when they ran a cover story showing Mayor Bloomberg as the great White Knight of American education. No surprise that Gary Orfield declared Néw York as the state with the most segregated schools, and NYC charter schools as most segregated sector.
LikeLike
Dr. Ravitch, you say that charters should be compared to the district or to neighborhood schools. But Orfield was comparing charter racial percentages to the entire metropolitan area (in the case of Houston, an area 150 miles across) or even to the entire state.
So no matter what you say about EdNext, you agree with the EdNext authors that Orfield’s comparisons are just wrong.
LikeLike
Gary Orfield has honorably advocated against racial segregation for decades. I cannot say the same for the editors of Education Next, nor for its rightwing funders.
LikeLike
WT, even Arne Duncan admitted that segregation is on the rise. Are you disputing that basic fact?
LikeLike
On the question of whether Orfield’s charter research is correct, you now have 1) one comment that most definitely disagrees with his methods, whether that is what you meant to say or not, and 2) three comments that avoid the question altogether.
LikeLike
From what I have seen in Buffalo, charter schools promote segregation, especially in charters which 1) skim off the white population or 2) are located in the heart of the inner city in all black neighborhoods. For some reason, the parents prefer to send their children to a neighborhood school and don’t care if it is 99 – 100% minority. Unfortunately, these schools eventually close when their assessment scores fail to meet a certain benchmark set by the state. That’s why the Kipp School failed. That’s why Pinnacle Charter was closed a week before school started this past September.
The Charters which do succeed are those with an integrated population, but those charters are outnumbered by the ones which are meant for minority populations.
Isn’t this what we mean by segregation?
LikeLike
Ellen, you may be correct about what’s going on in about a dozen (12) charter schools in Buffalo, New York, but there are over 6,000 charter schools in the country, and it is intellectually irresponsible for you or Dr. Ravitch to make sweeping accusations that can’t be backed up with anything more than a handful of anecdotes.
LikeLike
WT – I am eager to learn about other situations involving charter schools in other parts of the country. I am just pointing out what I have observed. I am sure others share my experiences, but I also realize that there are many possible scenarios.
I know the situation in NYC where charter schools coexist in the same building as one or more public schools is untenable. I have worked in a parallel situation, and each time the end results were not good.
LikeLike
Diane posted a note that I made in response to a blog entry. This was not a piece that I vetted for publication, though I stand behind what I said.
We have a huge gap in outcomes for low-SES and high-SES students on summative standardized tests. By increasing the stakes attached to those outcomes, we will inevitably increase inequity. That’s not difficult to understand.
We are not addressing the real issues. Instead, we are pour many, many billions into invariant standards and summative testing. That emphasis has direct impact on outcomes for low-SES kids AND, more importantly, it has terrible opportunity costs, diverting funds that could be used to address real problems.
LikeLike
cx: diverting funds that could be used to address the actual roots causes of the problems
LikeLike
Diane: Off-topic; I’m sorry.
Did you see that Boston Public Schools is eliminating their departments of History and Social Studies and wrapping those into ELA? The excuse is that they will use more history texts in ELA instruction, but if those documents are used unconnected to content, then they won’t be any good. I’m REALLY upset about this.
http://bpscurriculumandinstruction.weebly.com/
LikeLike
I just learned of this as well and am very disturbed by it’s implications. This is what the dumbing-down of a curriculum looks like. There will be no context for any historical documents or events. History has become incidental to the teaching of very narrowly defined ELA skills. I pray that this isn’t the start of an apocryphal trend…
LikeLike
And remember, the idea is to give no context clues – no background information – on the reading material.
I guess the idea of civics is truly out the window.
Voting? It will be easier to persuade uneducated fools to vote for the candidate with the biggest funding and the biggest twisting of the truth (or outright lies).
And so it begins. (Or should I say continues . . .)
LikeLike
And we can learn US history by watching movies such as Disney’s Pocahontas. Or dust off the old John Wayne movie, The Alamo.
Everything I needed to learn about the Civil War I learned by watching Gone With the Wind.
LikeLike
awful!!!
LikeLike
Great post. I wish points 1-4 were taught in school.
LikeLike
I’m reposting my own comment from the Brown thread. I agree with Bob Shepherd’s summary of the effects of segregation, but I disagree strongly with the implication that school choice (the modern definition) is a key driver of segregation and a significant barrier to integration.
_________
From the seminal “American Apartheid,” by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton:
“Residential segregation continues unabated in the nation’s largest metropolitan black communities, and this spatial isolation cannot be attributed to class. Although whites now accept open housing in principle, they have not yet come to terms with its implications in practice. Whites still harbor strong antiblack sentiments and they are unwilling to tolerate more than a small percentage of blacks in their neighborhoods. Discrimination against blacks is widespread and continues at very high levels in urban housing markets.”
These words were written in 1993. If anything, the dynamic described in this paragraph has gotten worse, not better, especially in most of the metropolitan areas of the northeast and midwest, including some deep blue counties and states. Younger and supposedly more tolerant white Americans are exhibiting only a slightly greater willingness to live alongside or even in the same town as blacks–and to send their children to school with black children. At this rate, it is likely that people will be making similar observations on the 100th anniversary of Brown.
“The organization of public schools around geographical catchment areas . . . reinforces and exacerbates the social isolation that segregation creates in neighborhoods. By concentrating low-achieving students in certain schools, segregation creates a social context within which poor performance is standard and low expectations predominate.”
Again, 1993. Only a small handful of charter schools existed in the entire country; just a scattered insignificant number of choice or voucher programs. Segregated schools follow from segregated neighborhoods, and if charters and choice worsen segregation, it is a tiny patch on a vastly larger problem that wasn’t of their making.
It’s easy and cost-free to say that segregation is bad and needs to be fixed. It seems like a lot of people think it can be fixed without involving their town (hey, anyone with the money is free to buy a house where I live!), their job, or their kids’ schools. I don’t know if that’s hypocrisy or having blinders on. If you’re white, you don’t have to opt-in to segregation’s benefits; they’re just there. What our governments and businesses have done or not done with respect to segregation is largely reflective of the will of white people.
In the face of the failure of all of us to even move our little fingers to do something–anything!–about residential segregation, I support well-regulated nonprofit charter schools as an incremental solution. Education isn’t a silver bullet–even highly educated and affluent blacks live well beneath their buying power and integrate fairly infrequently (self-segregation is largely a myth, just to put a preemptive stake through that old zombie). There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that charters or choice are leading to a net reduction of the number of children living in segregated and isolated neighborhoods who go on to college–still the best way to escape the cycle–or that they are doing any harm to the children who remain in district schools. Charter and choice grant a degree of agency to people that America has turned its back on for decades.
LikeLike
There is a little factor called busing which makes the location of the school irrelevant. And in the Buffalo Public Schools, the high schools are all over the city. Every child uses the public busing (metro) system. And the most popular school, City Honors, is in the heart of the inner city in an all black neighborhood. Children come from all over the area, even the suburbs, to take the entrance exam (given on more than one day and sometimes in more than one location). And the most popular elementary school, Olmsted 64, is in a mixed neighborhood, where in one section are beautiful expensive homes from the heyday of Buffalo, but a few blocks away exists the squalor of city life.
Just because someone SAYS it so, doesn’t MAKE it so.
My experiences beg to differ.
LikeLike
Ellen, since you live in the Buffalo area, you’re well aware that these are issues that affect regions and entire metropolitan areas. Because of Miliken v. Bradley, busing is only a potential solution to segregation within a particular city and district, and well, even then . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Ground_(book)
It’s not clear to me what else you’re arguing here. It’s heartening that there is a well-integrated elementary school in Buffalo and a high school that’s so good suburbanites will move into the city for it if there child wins a spot. This doesn’t change the fact that nearly all of Buffalo’s minorities are warehoused in the city proper and the city’s suburbs are for the most part lily white, and none of this is accidental. The authors’ conclusions are bolstered by multiple analyses of Census data, btw, not guesswork.
LikeLike
Tim, the busing I was referring to was not busing for the sake of integration, it was the fact that all Buffalo Public School children apply to one of the city high schools (similar to applying to a limited pool of colleges) and then use public transportation to reach the high school they end up attending. So the neighborhood composition is not necessarily a determinant of school population.
That said, many students choose to go to the school closest to their home. And the schools with a large percentage of minorities are not considered a top choice, unless the student is accepted into a special program offered at that school. So there is merit to the idea that housing may limit school choices. It’s just that this does not have to be true. (And the suburban parents whose children attend City Honors are more than happy to pay tuition in order for their child to attend – either that or they lie about their address).
I personally believe that we should have a Western New York school system, not city and suburbs. One idea tossed out by the NY State Ed Department encouraged Buffalo to seek spots for the students in underachieving schools in the nearby suburban schools. Every school district approached declined. It seems that they did not want to deal with the problems of inner city education. It would be unkind of me to say they didn’t want children of color mixing with their white populations (unless the child was a stellar athlete able to advance their sports teams).
It’s also interesting to note that the Charter Schools are almost exclusively in the Buffalo City Limits. Just one charter school is on the outskirts of the city in a blue collar, industrial area.
However, the fact that the City Charter Schools either draw white populations from the rest of the city schools, leaving less white children to be integrated, or are placed in predominately black areas so that the entire school population is minority, indicates that charter schools lead to more segregation, not less.
LikeLike
The people who think we can fix society through testing and standards live in fantasyland. But so, too, do the people who think everything would just be dandy if we “fixed” the things on Bob’s list. The problems are deep-seeded, pervasive, and pathological. I would also add that it is evidence of our society’s obsession with all things racial that no one ever seems to care that many white, rural areas also suffer from many of the same issues that plague black inner-city neighborhoods.
LikeLike
And there are a lot of poor white families living in Buffalo, as well.
But the black population faces other issues besides poverty. And their skin color follows them, even if they leave the urban areas. Even if they are no longer poor.
LikeLike
Think of the most authoritarian, venal, corrupt, totalitarian regime in the world.
We imprison a greater percentage of our population that that regime does.
We are the undisputed WORLD LEADER in PUNISHMENT. Three out of every 100 U.S. citizens is in jail, in prison, or on parole.
It’s the highest percentage IN THE WORLD.
Try getting a job with a criminal offense on your record. Our policies, there, perpetuate the cycle of poverty and dramatically affect educational outcomes because kids of parents who are freaked out ALL THE TIME about whether they can pay the rent or come up with the bus fare or feed their children tomorrow or keep the lights from being shut off don’t usually put memorizing the quadratic equation and reading Silas Marner high on their TO DO list.
LikeLike
cx Three out of every 100 U.S. citizens are in jail, in prison, or on parole, of course.
LikeLike
For-profit prisons are about making money from the misery of the inmates. Punishment is the by-product?
LikeLike
Yup. In many states, we are back to the Parchment Farm days. A lot of old Leadbelly songs are suddenly topical again.
LikeLike
Education Deformers: What part of “hierarchy of needs” do you not understand?
LikeLike
or of “the opportunity costs of summative standardized testing”?
LikeLike
There are a couple of issues being debated which might have an effect on society.
One is legalizing marijuana. We need to look at Washington and Colorado to see if the incarceration rates have changed with their new laws. I’m not sure what kind of minority population exists in either of these states (a large population of blacks don’t come to mind), but I am curious as to the effects of legalization on the court system. Perhaps legalization of pot in NYS or NJ would make a total difference in the lifestyle of the inner city minorities.
Hand in hand would be to increase the minimum wage to a living wage. Imagine changing a culture from dealing drugs to flipping burgers. It would pump money into the economy, keep our youth out of jail, provide a way for college students to pay their tuition and keep them from accumulating debilitating debt, help single moms support their families, and give a way for the elderly to supplement their social security. It would also ease the burden on social services.
Ironically, at a wage of $15 an hour, the fast food employees would not be earning that much less than a beginning teacher. But, then again, the general population doesn’t think teachers should earn more than the average worker in the city.
And that is why the issue of teachers rights is such an uphill battle.
LikeLike
Yeah, we routinely jail them for breathing (and shooting) while black…as you point out, African Americans make up only 12 or 13 percent of the population, but are responsible for half of all gun crime. I agree that drug laws are too strict and shouldn’t usually carry prison sentences, but let us not pretend that black kids are simply walking home from volunteering to tutor toddlers piano at the Y and are out of nowhere accosted by the police. Asian Americans, including South Asians, make up 6 percent of our population and earn more than any other racial group (according to census.gov). Anecdotally, African immigrants and Jews do very well in this country, as do Mormons and others – all of these “racist people” out there and this “racist system” we live in seems awfully racially specific. “Naw naw, Billy-Bob, don’t burn that cross there, those are first generation Negroes. Billy-Bob, that ain’t even a Mooslum! That head wrap means he’s from the Poon-job valley, they good people! We hate the old timey, descendants of slaves Negros. Leave them other folks alone!”
As to point #3, that’s an absurd comparison (although it is disturbing how many Black people are in jail). There are way more people, in general, in America than in 1850.
And to #4, what is the end goal here, exactly? That we have the proper representation of every race in every school that reflects America’s population? The problem is poverty, not that Black kids tend to sit with Black kids, or that Goths tend to sit with Goths, or Jocks with Jocks, etc. People move in circles with people who share their values, that’s not being racist, that’s being human. If you’re a Christian, all else being equal, would you move into the Jewish neighborhood when you can get the same house at the same price in the Christian neighborhood? Would you move out if a Jewish family decided that, yes, they were going to be the only Jews in the Christian neighborhood? The answer is “no” to both of those questions.
Testing isn’t going to “increase” the achievement gap, it’s going to more fully expose the gap that is there. Which is pointless, because everyone knows it exists, it’s just none of us can agree what to do about it. We have school choice already – it’s called moving to another school district. Except the same thought process that brings you to that point is the same thought process that would drive you to read to your kids before Kindergarten, feed them vegetables now and then, and not have a half dozen kids when you’re a single parent. The problem isn’t the school district, it’s the culture and the behavior (which our government subsidizes). And I’m talking broadly across race – the culture of poverty sucks. But specific to race, white people see things like this “reflection on the Brown decision” and then get all indignant and worked up and let their guilt from 5th grade History overwhelm their ability to think clearly (that, or they’ve never worked in poverty), and they wind up saying things like this: http://youtu.be/LQ8Nr3_2724
LikeLike
B Huskie – unfortunately, the issue isn’t black or white (no pun intended). Of course, the vast proportion of African Americans in prison has something to do with lifestyle. Smoking pot is a given. Learning to drive via stealing cars is not uncommon. Gangs and guns lead to shootings, sometimes with innocent bystanders being killed.
Obviously, these violent acts should lead to prison terms.
But other infractions which are nonviolent or a result of police brutality should be looked at.carefully.
There must be a starting point. A recognition of what constitutes prison time.
LikeLike
I agree with your point here.
LikeLike
B Huskie, not everyone has the luxury of moving to a different school district. The poor are often stuck.
The privileged will do whatever it takes to make sure their children go to good schools, even if it means paying for a private school education.
That often leaves those in poverty in the dust.
LikeLike
I don’t really agree with your point here ;-). Race aside, the type of poor we’re talking about are the poor who perpetuate their own situation. They could move, at least where I live and teach, from the urban (bad) school to a better school, and the rent would be about the same. Maybe not a top rated school, or a private school, but a school without the so called violence or inequality. But the thing is, the “bad” urban school (where I work) really isn’t bad. We have more programs that award college credit than our “top” schools and every club and sport you could think of. So, at least in my district, they wouldn’t have to move from the “bad” district. They just have to take advantage of all these programs that only a fraction of our population take advantage of. It’s not that the poor are “stuck”. And I hate to use that tired old argument: “Just work harder and you can achieve anything!” because I don’t think that’s it, either. It needs to be a complete shift towards harder work, but also smarter work, self control, delayed gratification, personal responsibility, self determination, dignity, independence, and family.
LikeLike
B Huskie – there is a lot of truth in what you say.
In my statement, I was thinking of the poor moving a few miles away to the suburbs, not within the city limits. In Buffalo, moving would not make a difference. To provide continuity, the children would still remain at the same school, even if they moved across town. However, parents could apply to a different school, especially if their child attends a failing school.
The trouble is that they are not necessarily doing their children any favors if they enroll them in one of the better schools which hold their students to higher standards. At Olmsted, I saw wonderful children who had to leave because they just couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do the necessary work. Yes, some rose to the challenge, but others couldn’t make the grade.
And then there are those who are a part of the problem, not the solution. No matter which school they attend, they are always in trouble. Plus, sometimes their parents are even more obnoxious than their children.
And in Buffalo, there is always the danger of violence. As a teacher, you want to avoid being caught between two students who are fighting (especially two girls). Every year there are teachers who are assaulted by their students. My husband, protecting a girl in his Homeroom, was literally picked up and thrown to the ground by a boy who was harassing her in the hallway.
Did you know that even incarcerated students must take the assessments? You can tell where they are by the police who are stationed outside the classroom door.
And I can’t tell you how many students I’ve taught who have been convicted of murder (some in elementary school). And court provided ankle bracelets are a common fashion accessory. Yet, these students, who might not have traditional learning on their to do list, are expected to score a three or four on the assessments and pass five Regents exams.
No, B – I am not naive about teaching in the midst of poverty.
LikeLike
I’ve had a couple of murderers in my classroom myself (including my first year teaching – but I don’t know of any elementary school students who killed anyone!) and I’ve never seen the anklet. But we did have a boy break a girl’s nose this year, and he had to take leave from the clink to take his January regents.
War stories aside, my point on school choice is that it’s going to work out like our clubs, sports, AP/IB programs all work out. That is, those who value education are going to jump if the opportunity looks good; those kids are not going to be the poor kids. And when not enough poor or minority kids sign up, they are going to call a handful into the office and sign them up, & they aren’t going to take it seriously (because it was given and not earned, and because they didn’t care to begin with). Sweeping generalization, but mostly true.
In other words, the poor aren’t “stuck” and being left “in the dust” by the so-called privileged. Their mentality, habits, and value systems keep them stuck, and handing them a different school – hell, handing them a college diploma, free of charge or work – is not going to change that. It’s like those people who win the lotto: they were broke before, they have a million, and in short order they are broke again. It’s the attitude.
LikeLike
This is truly disturbing
LikeLike
Firstgrademonkey – while there are exceptions, usually due to parents who encourage their children to take school seriously (but sometimes due to self motivated kids) – what Robert said is true.
Now we need to take this “truth” and see how we, as educators and as fellow human beings, can make changes so the future holds a different sort of truth. And CCSS and inner city Charter Schools are not the right answer.
LikeLike