Reply to Graduates from low-performing D.C. schools face tough college road

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That's not "contrary to what reformers thought" - no, schools aren't the only thing out there and kids only spend a portion of their time in schools.  But your "solution" seems to be to just give schools a pass and return to the status quo, which obviously wasn't working (the stagnation and widening achievement gap isn't DUE TO reforms, there's no causal relationship there).  Cheating was due to unscrupulous teachers and administrators, not due to reforms - nobody at the top ordered anyone to cheat, and frankly there were many teachers and administrators who should have been fired because they were ineffective.

Certainly schools could and should continue to have a role in letting kids know how important a proper education is, and letting them know about all of the free educational resources that exist.

The cultural issues are so deep that they essentially amount to brainwashing - kids are practically being taught by their peers and their immediate community to reject education and good behavior in a misguided belief that it's definitional to urban AA culture - something that would bring a tear to the eye of Martin Luther King Jr. - I think we've all heard the terms "acting ghetto" and "acting white".  It's a disgrace that the phenomenon even exists that people readily say such things. That needs to end.[/quote]

The DC reformers absolutely thought that schools alone could and should make all the difference.  That's what has been trumpeted here and across the country.  That's what "no excuses" means  -- no excuses for teachers not being able to single-handedly raise kids' academic achievement scores, despite their lives out of school.

Of course school should have a role in teaching the importance of education -- that has always been the case.

As for some teachers needing to be fired -- maybe so -- but what's the result of so many firings since "reform" -- not improved scores, that's for sure -- so maybe  crappy teachers wasn't the main problem.  IS DCPS willing to consider that? Doesn't look like it, as they have kept all their reforms about teacher evaluation in place and the high turnover of teachers continues with no improvement in academics.

It's not a matter of "giving schools a pass" it's realizing that the focus on teachers as the only important factor in kids' education has been terribly misguided.  Many people knew that from the start, because academic research indicated then the SES was the major factor in academic success.

Now thanks to using DC kids and their teachers a guinea pigs, we've proven yet again.  Both the old status quo and the current status quo have done nothing to help the kids who need help the most.    It has cot some competent teachers their jobs and has lined the pockets of the new DCPS administration, but it has not helped kids.

I agree that the anti-academic culture you cite has to end.  I think it will take a long, concerted effort, which sadly has been delayed by the last  6 years of phony reform which is the new status quo.[/quote]

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