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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]As you seem to be familiar with the acievement gap at Brent you must have heard that the gap correlates with students admitted to Brent at First Grade and above. Brent can't remediate its way out of a situation where [u]students admitted to fill seats via the lottery find themselves [b]unprepared by the schools they left[/b][/u].[/quote]

I'll fix this for you.  Unprepared by ...

... by the prenatal care they didn't get
... by the poverty-driven cortisol that crossed the placenta when they were [i]in utero[/i]
... by the relative lack of high-nutrient foods (DHA, EPA) they didn't get ages 0-3 as their brains developed critical neuro pathways
... by the [i]30 million words [/i]they didn't hear by age 3, a result that will follow them at Watkins, SH and for the rest of their entire lives   [ http://literacy.rice.edu/thirty-million-word-gap  ]
... by the comparatively ad hoc, likely low-quality and unstable child care they received prior to school 
... by the books they weren't read, the art classes they didn't have as 2 year olds, the Please Touch Museum they didn't visit at age 4
.... by the slapping around they received throughout early childhood for getting on mama's last nerve

It's really time to reframe "the gap" and stop making "shitty teachers" and "shitty administrators" and "David Grosso" the absolute and only scapegoats.

-- not a teacher or a Grosso staffer

[/quote]

Not the PP, but your "fix" was a rant and not particularly illuminating or helpful.  I've known plenty of people in my life that rose from poverty and unenriching childhoods to great achievement.  They all pursued their educations unrelentingly, and with little to no encouragement from their families.  They were fortunate to have some exceptional teachers along the way who recognized their gifts and encouraged them.

Your little screed suggests that nothing can be done for someone born into those circumstances, but the fact of the matter is that it's simply not true.[/quote]

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