--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 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?
Are you contending that racism is the cause? I can see it as a motivating
factor, but I don't see how racism itself could directly cause "the huge racial
learning gap". Could you please state what you think the direct causes are and
then tie them back to being racially motivated? Maybe I'm missing the point
here but just saying it is racism doesn't help to make sure everyone gets a
good education. However, if you can prove that practice y is hurting schools
and then prove that y is motivated by racism; then not only have you identified
a real problem, you also have a wonderful reason to change it. Obviously, this
is not addressing the fact that practice y could be bad even if it wasn'
motivated by 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?
I don't know, is it? Can you have please cite evidence to support the statement
made in this rhetorical question? One step back: are you stating that the
school reforms of the Reagan-Bush administration caused the racial learning gap
to widen? Can you point to any specific policies that would have caused this?
>
> 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.
>
What did they change exactly? What was working?
> 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
You say it can be done in a few years. How, exactly?
Note, I don't mean to attack. I do want a better education system for everyone.
I think the focus should be on specific ideas instead of pointing at an
amorphous enemy.
Ken Jorissen
Whittier
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