How can one explain the huge racial learning gap in a town where just about all the whites say they are not racists or that they are racists but are trying to unlearn racism?
The public school system in the US was "closing the gap" during the 1970s and early 1980s. However, the Reagan-Bush administration supported school reforms to deal with a "rising tide of mediocrity" in the public schools (from "A Nation at Risk," the report of a blue ribbon panel of K-12 experts selected by the Reagan-Bush administration. It was released in April 1983). And Democratic Party politicians soon began to jump on the "quest for excellence" bandwagon. Is it just a coincidence that the racial learning gap has steadily widened since the 1980s? In 1983 no evidence was offered to back the assertion that there was a threat of a rising tide of mediocrity (the gap being closed at the expense of the high achievers), and no evidence of a rising tide of mediocrity was found in educational data from the 1970s and early 1980s by a team from the Sandia National Laboratories that was commissioned by the first Bush administration to analyze educational data from the 1970s and early 1980s, including math and reading scores from National Assessment of Educational Progress exams. Just like the threat of weapons of mass destruction was used to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq last year, the threat of a rising tide of mediocrity in the public schools was a pretext for a shift in educational policy away from the strategic goal of closing the gap in the 1980s. In my opinion, Minneapolis schools could close most of the racial learning gap within a few years, and without pushing the poor performing students of color out of the district's schools, if a large majority of the school community really supported the goal of closing the gap as the district's strategic goal, and if the board was willing to chose effective strategies to close the gap. (Please note that I do not support No Child Left Behind. I am for fixing the public school system, not privatizing it). -Doug Mann, King Field Mann for School Board http://educationright.tripod.com REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
