Reply to Interesting article about school quality when demographics factored out

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Interesting article about school quality when demographics factored out"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm not quite clear on what you mean here.  But I do think that saying "poverty means the kids are dysfunctional" is not correct.  Poverty (and racism) means that they have access to fewer resources, face discrimination on the job market and in school, and disproportionately face the punitive nature of government for the EXACT SAME "dysfunctional" behavior that a white kid might engage in.[/quote]

Sorry, I wasn't as clear as I could have been. I'm saying two things: first, of course it's not correct to say "poverty means the kids are dysfunctional". What poverty (and racism) means is that for a given student population--white or black--you're going to have a significantly higher number of kids who are struggling with issues caused by poverty. As you say "the EXACT SAME 'dysfunctional' behavior a white kid might engage in."

But we don't live in a city where large numbers of white kids are living in poverty. That's sad, and unfair, and an indictment of the larger system, and a slew of other things. But it's the reality we live in in DC in 2017.

So a school with a high number of very poor kids is a school in which a high number of kids are struggling under the weight of poverty. Not all of them are going to be dysfunctional, but certainly a higher number of them will be compared to a school in which no kids are struggling with poverty.

[quote]Literally, the GGW article is meant to dispel the myth that "poverty = dysfunction" because there are MULTIPLE "poor" schools that are considered unacceptable by DCUM (eg the Kipps) that actually have BETTER scores than HRCS (eg Inspired Teaching.)  The dysfunction at your local middle school is due to the school; not due to the kids at the school.  the Kipps and DC Preps of DC prove that.  [/quote]

That may be what the GGW article was meant to dispel, but really all it shows is that high-poverty schools can have better tests. Is it possible that our local middle school would have better test scores if it were run like a USMC boot camp? Possibly. If that's what it takes to get the test scores up, and that's what kids who are struggling with poverty need in order to succeed, that's a model worth pursuing. But that's not a school model that fits the educational values of our family. Maybe that's totally racist. [/quote]

It's segregationist.  So take that as you will.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics