Reply to The Promise of Socio-Economically Integrated Schools in DC

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Reply to "The Promise of Socio-Economically Integrated Schools in DC"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agree, OP.  I have nothing against socioeconomic integration but anyone who thinks it is a high priority issue we must enact policy on, because of some misguided belief that it will benefit the poor or close the achievement gap is seriously mistaken.  It would probably cause far more harm than good.  There already is far more choice in the system now than there was a decade ago.  [/quote]

There was a study done in MoCo using data from their MPDU initiative that determined that having poor kids integrated into a more affluent school helped the poor kids eliminate about half of the gap.  The problem was, this benefit basically disappeared once the percentage of poor kids crossed a threshold of about 20%.  My (perhaps wrong) guess is that the peer group effect disappears once the population of poorer children reaches a point where they can easily self-segregate.   Unfortunately in MoCo the FARMs rate is about 40%, so even if you wanted to bus or re-district it isn't feasible.  DC, I'm sure, is in a much worse situation.[/quote]

That's because it's the teachers fault according to most new educational reform, poverty and peer group does not matter. Due to this perspective in DC, robust programs and meeting the students at they're at (their real lexiled reading level and math level) is not allowed, nor is failing students who cannot master content (unless they do not show up for school). As Rhee stated and Henderson has endorsed, if the students are failing it is the "teacher's fault", with that attitude you cannot lift up those students at the bottom and are dumbing down content for those at the top. [/quote]

That's inconsistent with pretty much everything I hear in terms of reform.  The reformers I know of want to meet students needs at levels appropriate to student performance, for example recognizing and working the appropriate remedial reading and math if needed.  They also recognize that there are deep cultural issues linked to poverty, which get in the way of education.  It's thus not reasonable to just place all blame on teachers but at the same time, teachers should not automatically get a pass, either.  For example, by the time a student arrives in middle school, but still can barely read and has barely made a dent in basic math facts, one has to wonder how robust the elementary school teaching was.  The problems don't just manifest themselves with one teacher, they are cumulative.  If a problem is allowed to slide, it compounds over time.  It's a simplistic strawman to just say "it's the teacher's fault" just as it's a simplistic strawman to say "it's the poor students' fault" - but it is however a combination of things which includes both of these.[/quote]

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