Reply to Graduates from low-performing D.C. schools face tough college road

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[quote=Anonymous]Who's backing off?  Your citations are bullshit and don't make your point.

“Everyone sort of spews the rhetoric about ‘all kids can learn’ and that sort of thing, but I actually experienced that. I saw these kids in my classroom who were at the absolute rock bottom in terms of achievement. And people said, “You can’t do this—their home lives are too bad.” This and that. They had all sorts of excuses for the kids. And over a two year period, I saw them grow exponentially. So for me, it’s not just this nice idea that kids can learn, it was my actually experiencing it and seeing it first-hand. That’s what drives my work every single day. 
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/1...ader-of-the-classrooms/307080/

Nowhere in that statement does it say that the situation at home should get a total pass.

Here’s a quote in which Rhee openly acknowledges that great teachers is her only solution: 
“And the only way we’re going to get out of this situation [low achievement] is if we have great teachers. That is the only solution that we have, and so that’s why we’re really focused on it.” 
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Connecting...r___2_13_09_Washington_DC.html

Teachers and classrooms WERE her only option and STILL are the only option that DCPS has.  Were DCPS staff supposed to follow the kids home?

Here’s Kaya, after she took over DCPS, expressing similar views: 
“I’m not discounting the effects of poverty or kids coming to school hungry, but we can’t use that as an excuse for not reaching our kids. At the end of the day, you know and I know, great teachers who took kids from improbable circumstances and catapulted them to great lives and we have to ensure that this is the norm and not the exception.” http://mountvernontoday.com/education/208-new-dc-s...by-mount-vernon-education.html

What part of "I'm not discounting" did you not understand?  Where does she give everything else a pass?

“And so for the eight hours a day that we have them, we can't make excuses for the fact that they come from poverty. In fact, we have to set incredibly high expectations. And what I know about children is they rise to the expectations that you set for them.” http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-12-20/dc-s...llor-kaya-henderson/transcript

What part of "for the eight hours a day that we have them" did you not understand?

Twist the statements all you like but they will not support your argument.  DCPS has only had ability influence for those few hours that the kids are in school and what those statements reflect is that for those few hours, DCPS should not be making excuses or giving them a pass.  Those statements do not speak to the remaining 16 hours out of the day whatsoever.[/quote]

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