Jan Resseger summarizes Linda Darling-Hammond’s reflections on the Kerner Commission Report.
“Darling-Hammond traces a mass of factors showing that as a society we identified the wrong problem, satisfied ourselves with blaming somebody, and ignored our responsibility collectively to confront primary social injustices that are the real cause of achievement gaps. What we accomplished instead was discrediting public education and undermining support for teachers.
“Darling-Hammond believes our problem is that we have stopped trying to do anything about racial and economic segregation: “In a study of the effects of court-ordered desegregation on students born between 1945 and 1970, economist Rucker Johnson found that graduation rates climbed by 2 percentage points for every year a Black student attended an integrated school… The difference was tied to the fact that schools under court supervision benefit from higher per-pupil spending and smaller student-teacher ratios… During the 1960s and ’70s, many communities took on efforts like these. As a result, there was a noticeable reduction in educational inequality in the decade after the original Kerner report…. (S)ubstantial gains were made in equalizing both educational inputs and outcomes. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 targeted resources to communities with the most need, recognizing that where a child grows up should not determine where he or she ends up… However, the gains from the Great Society programs were pushed back during the Reagan administration, when most targeted federal programs supporting investments in college access and K-12 schools in urban and poor rural areas were reduced or eliminated, and federal aid to schools was cut from 12% to 6% of a shrinking total…By 1991, stark differences had reemerged between segregated urban schools and their suburban counterparts, which generally spent twice as much on education.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“What we accomplished instead was discrediting public education and undermining support for teachers.”
We?!?!
That “we” should be spelled out: Koch, ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Bill Gates, et al. Let’s repeatedly call out and name those that are directly responsible for discrediting public education and undermining support for teachers. Make no mistake about this. That was and still is part of a planned agenda by those individuals and their misleading propaganda machines that reaches back decades and has only become more entrenched and stronger like terminal cancer that won’t stop spreading.
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Diane,
The first paragraph was solidly on track – just like our first desire to blame the NRA and guns rather than look at the real issues. So I offer 2.
I would like to throw a curve ball into the conversation – I am glad the students are taking an interest. I watched the conference with Trump and the students, parents and administrators from Florida and also from DC. What I found interesting was the gentleman who lost his daughter, Mr. Pollack, who with his 3 sons, noted the following to the President “It’s not about gun laws right now.” and suggested that is an argument for later.
Besides anger I feel frustrated over this latest shooting and getting the same worn belated hopes and prayers routine. Go back to Columbine – what has changed since? I get the same trite chant of “no more guns”, the same anger rants over the rifle used, the same anger directed to the NRA and their desire to protect the 2nd amendment, the same anger over Congress members who are supported by the “crumbs” supplied by NRA, and now it is the fault of Trump. After every one of the shootings, the same cacophony of baseless, empty charges that have nothing to do with it and thus not a single thing has changed, including the reactionary rhetoric of the media and the Democrats.
I ask: the Democrats owned the House and Senate from 2009 to 2011, the first two years of Obama’s administration. The first two years of the Obama administration, and even through the whole eight – you’ve got your nirvana candidate, the guy that will roll back the rising sea levels, save the earth, save America. save the world, end war and make all nations love one another, and they didn’t make one move on guns?
The Republicans could not have stopped anything, and the Democrats did not even propose a single piece of legislation on guns or the NRA. Huh? And Obama’s hometown of Chicago doesn’t get the notice that these shooting do. And more kids have been shot there in one weekend than some of these shootings. Where is the liberal press and their coverage?
Let me clear one thought I have before continuing: Was Nikolas Cruz an NRA member? No. Have any of the previous mass shooters been NRA members? I don’t think so. In fact, the only NRA member I can remember who was involved in any mass shooting is the NRA instructor who stopped the Texas church shooter three months ago. does the name James T. Hodgkinson ring a bell? He only happens to be the Democrat who shot Steve Scalise at the Republican baseball practice. He is only the left-wing radical Democrat from Illinois who went to Virginia to try to wipe out the Republican Party, and he used what to do so? A gun. Did you hear the cacophony rants on the NRA? I didn’t.
Democrats and the left and the media start their predictable never-ending loop on gun control. Gun control would not have stopped this as it didn’t stopped any of the other mass shootings. There’s the usual paranoia. There’s the usual scare tactics being employed. There is now the usual blame for Donald Trump.
Let me offer some items to consider – other than the NRA and guns.
Not much anger was directed to Cruz – ask yourself why – who, according to the Miami Herald He was portrayed as being bullied — that he was mocked, that he was laughed at — and then the media dropped that angle. That didn’t last in the Lamestream Media’s rhetoric very long, because the media realized, that’s not helping our agenda – somebody had to be doing the bullying. somebody had to be doing the laughing, somebody had to be making fun of the guy.
Miami Herald: Nikolas Cruz was mocked, he was ridiculed, and he was bullied. He was ostracized for his odd behavior
Did the students of this school add to this individual’s mental state provide another reason to shoot?
ESSA, OBAMA and HOLDER, Political Correctness, and the “dear Colleague letter: I tripped over this possibility from a lead in Michigan to search Missouri Watch Dog and this article – December 4, 2013, issue of the American Prospect magazine. Headline: “Reversing Broward County’s School-to-Prison Pipeline.”- that might lead to answers regarding interventions, arrests, stand down by 4 officers.
the primary assertion here is that in order to obtain money from the federal government and programs that were instituted by Obama and Eric Holder, local governments were rewarded with these grants if they kept school arrests down. Let’s stop the pipeline from schools to prison. Right here in this 2013 story, “Reversing Broward County’s School-to-Prison Pipeline.”
18 states don’t even report data to the background check system? So what good is it, if the data isn’t even there?
The Obama-era Departments of Education and Justice – under education secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder –issued school guidelines in 2014 that claimed students of color are “disproportionately impacted” by suspensions and expulsions, a situation they said leads to a “school-to-prison pipeline” that discriminates against minority and low-income students.
According to the Obama administration’s 2014 “Dear Colleague”guidance, any school district whose disciplinary measures showed “disparate impact” – meaning a disproportionately greater number of minority students are affected – is open to investigation by the Departments of Justice and Education, regardless of whether the behavior leading to the discipline is unacceptable.
Consider that background checks may not work because the data in the background check system isn’t even there because of policies from the Obama and Holder Department of Justice to equalize racial populations in prison has resulted in many crimes and criminals not being arrested or reported because of the belief that there is a bias in the criminal justice system against minorities?
Consider that local police departments, sheriff’s offices, and school districts have been awarded grant money from the Obama administration for doing just that: looking the other way when certain crimes have taken place?
The article is about efforts undertaken to avoid arresting students. And the article speaks to the concern that Broward County might have turned a blind eye to the behavior of Nikolas Cruz because they wanted to lower the number of student suspensions, which is a big part of Obama-Holder prison reform
Automatically there’s bias. It can’t be that there are actually crimes being committed in those percent. No. It has to be racism and bias against African-American students.
Broward was able to do all these things at once with the cooperation of a group that included a member of the local NAACP, a school board member, a public defender, a local sheriff, a state prosecutor, and several others. In early November, The Miami Herald reported that suspensions were already down 40 percent and arrests were down 66 percent.”
Now, not because of the change in the behavior of students, but because of a change in the philosophy of pursuing them.
The above 2 issues should be consider in any proposals : The following questions should be entered into any sane discussion –
Is your school abiding by the ESSA requirements? How is your school board implementing the plans for your district? Are disruptive students allowed to stay in the system for serious infractions and are local law enforcement officials reluctant to take action for fear of negating some agreements allowing such behavior to continue in the school?
Can we debate the wisdom of the mandated reforms the federal agencies have implemented for schools to the detriment of the majority of the students? Can we review the research and data on this policy set forth by Duncan and Holder and determine if it met its goal or should it be dismantled? Was it a worthwhile goal or should other goals replace those of Duncan and Holder? Should the“Dear Colleague” Letterbe the basis for disciplinary policy by local school districts and law enforcement agencies? Should the Justice Department and law officials be entering into agreements with states and local districts so reporting numbers do not negatively impact law enforcement and the school district? Does some of what happened, or didn’t happen in Parkland now make more sense?
It’s not only that we have a cultural problem, we have a systemic problem in which our children and adults have been compromised for a flawed theory in the name of political correctness.
MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!
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Trump is a moron.
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wordpress is so much fun, eh!
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Diane,
Such a good solution to the problem. Thanks!
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jscheidell,
Do you consider yourself a patriot? Have you given unqualified support for the many ongoing invasions and wars that the US has instigated since and including Viet Nam? Does your heart thump when you see displays of the flag and military displays of their particular type of prowess?
Or, have you challenged those wars and “interventions”? In your daily life do you point out the insanities of those interventions? Do you condemn those “patriotic” displays when you talk with others?
Thanks in advance for answering.
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Duane,
Change your underwear – they are too tight
Sigh!
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Thanks for the answers!
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Did you want to help with that chore?
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Thank you, Lloyd! There is no “we” here. No chance to fight back if we fail to name all the parties complicit in restoring racist inequities and looting the public sector. I include here both major parties, Democrats and Republicans, and the two teacher unions who failed miserably to organize their members and the vast public stakeholders into a fighting force that could stop the privatizers and tech/testing gulag.
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I’ve read that it is Charles Koch that is the devious mastermind behind it all, and the evidence that he knows how unpopular his agenda is explains the reason why he has also lobbied hard to make it difficult to impossible to trace dark money to its source. Until recently, the Koch brothers have hidden behind a wall of secrecy and misdirection, but in the last year or two, they have been more outspoken about their agenda and how much they are willing to spend to subvert the U.S. Constitution and the Republic it was written to protect.
That tells me that Charles Koch is so confident that he now owns so many elected officials in both major parties at both the state and federal level, that he doesn’t fear being indicted for subversion.
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Agree with both Lloyd and Ira. Name them ALL.
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Both parties have abandoned addressing budgetary inequities, and both have ignored segregation. The so-called solution of privatization exacerbates these issues rather than addresses them. Our policymakers are not interested in trying to promote equity; they serve the corporations and billionaires. Poor students need advocates that will fight for them, not the gutless corporate sycophants of Congress.
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I think that was is happening across the country today can be traced back to 1973 when the Koch brothers launched their ALEC organization. Forty-five years of lies, misinformation, manipulation, bribery, secrecy, etc.
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If you didn’t read the link, the list of bullet-points is worth a look:
“U.S. childhood poverty rates have grown by more than 50% since the 1970s and are now by far the highest among OECD nations, reaching 22% in the latest published statistics.”
“In most major American cities, a majority of African American and Latino students attend public schools where at least 75% of students are from low-income families… For example, in Chicago and New York City, more than 95% of both Black and Latino students attend majority-poverty schools….”
“Today, about half as many Black students attend majority White schools (just over 20%) as did so in 1988, when about 44% did so.”
“In most states, the wealthiest (school) districts spend at least two to three times what the poorest districts can spend per pupil…. Furthermore, the wealthiest states spend about three times what the poorer states spend.”
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Sad, regressive state of our country! Ignoring the isolation and poverty will not help people live better lives.
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Noting has changed. Don Stewart
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Purchased the book,
Healing Our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years after the Kerner Report
I hope a lot of people take a renewed interest in reading: Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.
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Some things have changed. In 1968, it was inconceivable that America would elect a black president—twice. Black TV anchors. Black TV and movie stars. But education —segregation is far too pervasive as is inequitable funding
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Calling privatizers Destroyers of Public Education is too kind. I intend to call them neo-segregationists from now on. The statistics cited are gripping. And it’s well past time to blame the causes instead of the victims. Thank you all for all you do to stop segregation, and to promote integration and equality, to promote sustainable civilization. Thank you. From my classroom, I will stand with you.
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Fred Harris, one of the original members of the Kerner Commission offered his view of what works and what doesn’t in the NYT (I’m not sure whether the graphic I’ve copied will post properly – apologies in advance.)
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Sorry! Worth clicking to see for yourself.
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It IS worth clicking… and what it shows is that government programs work, programs that are based on markets don’t… Alas neither the Democrats nor the GOP have any intention of promoting government programs— except ones based on fear. https://wp.me/p25b7q-25k
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I dunno about other cities, but Memphis’ poverty rate has increased, and actually have the highest poverty rate among US cities.
http://www.memphis.edu/socialwork/research/2017povertyfactsheetwebversion.pdf
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So interesting. Thanks for the link.
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Say their names? Linda Darling Hammond wrote a Small Schools model that my district implemented in a big way. Dr. DH spelled out the need for teachers to address inequality by being inclusive and pluralistic, linguistically. our district accepted money from Gates to implement the small schools. the model was seiously degraded, and was considered a big fail by most.
Many human beings who taught in those days were targeted for asking why. if we could say their names?
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Any district that takes Gates money can expect problems.
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