Reply to How to help MCPS' lowest performing students?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Try reading The Cult of the Smart. It covers this. There is a bell curve of nature ability within groups and no amount of schooling is going to dramatically change the percentile that most kids find themselves in because any intervention only helps absolute performance, not relative performance. So unless we start using the worst methods on the best kids and the best methods on the worst kids, then I’m sorry, but you’re not going to close the gap because the high achievers are also improving. The gap is based on relative performance, not absolute performance. That’s what colleges and companies care about. Do I think improving absolute performance is a noble goal? Absolutely. We should be building a meaningful life and goals aimed at more than the highest achievers but that’s another topic entirely. [/quote]

I agree that even with the best curriculum and teachers in the world, school can't fix this problem. When I think about the achievement gap I'm not assuming every child will achieve in the 90+ percentile, but unless a student has an actual intellectual disability there is no reason all kids can't at least be proficient in academics. A lot of people seem way too okay with allowing low income kids to fall behind because they're clearly "doomed" to be at the left end of the bell curve. As the comment before me highlights- being born into poverty says nothing about your natural ability to achieve. Read through the link I added to see how growing up in adversity affects one's ability to reach their full potential. It's beyond the school district but it's a societal ill that we don't do more for the least among us. It's the dark side of the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" myth of the American Dream. The implication being if you (or your family) aren't successful it's because you've done something wrong/didn't work hard enough and don't deserve it. [/quote]

I’d argue it’s even worse than that. If it’s due to natural ability over which we have no control, then it’s an indictment of society that we blame the individual for their circumstances (which may be an accident of birth) and do not provide more of a social safety net and meaningful life opportunities.   We lionize merit as if it’s something that can be cultivated. What if some people are naturally higher achieving than others and no amount of intervention or wishful thinking will change this? I think believing this would be more honest. It would also stop blaming teachers and schools and throwing money at interventions that won’t work on changing relative performance and instead focus on building civic minded people who all have value and worth and support for a meaningful life, even if they do not have the same natural ability. [/quote]

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