Reply to DCPS Policy on Talented & Gifted & Acaemic Magnet Middle School Programs...Questions for You

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Reply to "DCPS Policy on Talented & Gifted & Acaemic Magnet Middle School Programs...Questions for You"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A cogent description of the problem. But differentiation in a classroom of widely divergent levels is really really hard.  Educators agree that it is like the black diamond level of skills: only a few can really do it truly and well. So. Teachers do their best, but in the end teach to the middle and their hearts are really in it for those kids who struggle the most.   And their pay checks and very jobs are dependent on focusing on those not making the mark.  We end up with mediocrity as the norm in the classroom.  Kids doing well or actually way ahead are mostly left on their own.  Is mediocrity across the board the price to pay for avoiding the injustices that appeared with tracking?  My instinct is that there must be a way to deal with the issues that came up with tracking without lowering the bar for everyone. [/quote]

Thus far some of the best examples of this have happened in in Montgomery county, but I am not sure it is sustainable given the cutbacks.  Montgomery county has more mixed value housing than other jurisdictions so they have small amounts 15-20% of low SES kids throughout their well off schools, studies have shown that these kids have a lower gap in learning being mixed into these schools.  What is not clear is if this is still a self-selection problem.  They have also diverted funds from wealthier areas of the city for more wrap around funding for schools in very poor sections of the county such as Langley.  These kids also have shown much greater success levels than their SES peers in other places.  I think this is also the insight of the Harlem children's zone.   The question still rests on how much you are willing to divert to help lower economic status kids so that they can compete at least on the same race track as well off kids.  You need to narrow the band of variance between the kids at the bottom earlier.  Frankly, it also takes time.  If the Harlem Children's Zone is an example it is a 10 year process at least, are any of willing to wait that long, is any politician willing to make that investment?  Weast in Montgomery County also took close to 10 years to get the results he has had.  Most superintendent's last 3 years. [/quote]

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