Another article about the magnet programs in Washington Post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is how American schools want to "close the achievement gap".

They never think they should increase the length of the school year, or increase the hours in the school day or make underachieving students (of all races) get intensive tutoring or mentoring. No. Their solution is to create a quota system and have different criteria of selection for different groups, or dumb down the curriculum or make the reporting of grades so general as to be useless.

You know what's been proven to close the achievement gap? Integrated schools.

https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text

Nothing has closed the achievement gap. There are a few things that slightly narrow the achievement gap in some places on a small scale and they often aren't reproducible. I think it's amusing that people in MoCo think that the schools here will be able to do something about the gap when hundreds of billions have been spent all over the country to no avail. These gaps are mirrored everywhere in the world.

Suppose you read the article before commenting?

I've read the article, and many others. Some narrowing occurred in the 70s when real barriers to the education of poor minority kids existed. Once this low hanging fruit was picked, nothing else done since then had made a difference. 200 billion has been spent on Head Start; HHS did an analysis if the results and found no lasting benefits. How is MCPS going to fix this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is how American schools want to "close the achievement gap".

They never think they should increase the length of the school year, or increase the hours in the school day or make underachieving students (of all races) get intensive tutoring or mentoring. No. Their solution is to create a quota system and have different criteria of selection for different groups, or dumb down the curriculum or make the reporting of grades so general as to be useless.

You know what's been proven to close the achievement gap? Integrated schools.

https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text

Nothing has closed the achievement gap. There are a few things that slightly narrow the achievement gap in some places on a small scale and they often aren't reproducible. I think it's amusing that people in MoCo think that the schools here will be able to do something about the gap when hundreds of billions have been spent all over the country to no avail. These gaps are mirrored everywhere in the world.

Suppose you read the article before commenting?

I've read the article, and many others. Some narrowing occurred in the 70s when real barriers to the education of poor minority kids existed. Once this low hanging fruit was picked, nothing else done since then had made a difference. 200 billion has been spent on Head Start; HHS did an analysis if the results and found no lasting benefits. How is MCPS going to fix this?

No, you haven't read the article.

[Anonymous]

I read the whole article and was shocked. However, i have a few questions but cannot find answer in the article. If the integrated high school worked so well, why did the white family wanted to move to suburbe? I am an immegrant so i dont see people's skin color is as important as their integrity. I see both wh and bl as American at the begining and think myself as American now although from time to time, someone may adk me if/when i will go back to my home county. I read an article from somewhere recently. In that article, a bl person complained that desegregation let bl middle class mived out of the bl neighbourhood. Now poor bl concentrated in the same neighbourhood without any role model.

[Anonymous]

"The problem is not about HOW they want to close the achievement gap. The problem is that closing the achievement gap is not an appropriate goal.

I will gladly pay twice what I now pay in MC taxes to IMPROVE THE EDUCATION of kids on the lower side of the achievement gap. However, I would then be forced (also gladly) to pay 4X more than the new figure (my back of the envelop calculations suggest that is the rest of what I earn) to private schools/tutors or to where ever I have to to make sure that my children get a top 10% education and therefore that the achievement gap NEVER closes."

[b]"Well, yes, that's how percentiles work. If you insist that your children be in the top 10%, regardless of what the top 10% is, then it's in your best interest to make sure that the lower 90% is as low as possible. "

It is not in my best interest to make sure that the lower 90% is AS LOW AS POSSIBLE that would mean my top 10% kids would BARELY LEARN ANYTHING because there is not huge jump between the 89th and 91st percentiles. The inverse position is that closing the gap NO MATTER WHAT suggests that it doesn't matter how much the top 10% learns as long as the bottom 90% learns as much. Both of those positions are NOT ACCEPTABLE.

I want everyone to learn AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. I am just warning everyone that I view education as VERY IMPORTANT and that means I will do whatever I can to make sure my kids get the best of what is out there.