<<>> Here is an hypothesis: Nothing a school district can do directly will ever narrow the learning gap ...What we are seeing is a culture gap beyond the resources of school institutions to do much but give it greater visibility.<<>>
Thanks hugely to Mr. Kahn for his "hypothesis."
For research types, I'd suggest:
-- George Farkas's "The Black-White Test Score Gap" in the Summer issue of Contexts magazine, a journal of the American Sociological Assn. -- that article also provides a quick counterpoint to assertion that there is a simple and diabolical explanation as to why the gap closed between 1970 and 1990, but not afterwards.
-- The definitive 1998 book, also entitled The Black-White Test Score Gap, edited by Jencks and Phillips.
The authors would argue that Mr. Kahn's hypothesis is pretty well proven.
Their conclusion: If you want to eliminate the gap, you need better early childhood education and support for families. It is about economics, safety, employment, housing, health care, family support -- the whole litany of issues that everyone on this list can recite.
Can schools do better? Sure. Can they overcome all the indignities we visit on our neediest kids? Get real. Will schools get better faster if we treat our kids better outside of school? Absolutely.
And, of course, there is the little question of whether the focus should be kids' lives or their test scores, but we can save that one.
On the Board of Education and Youth Coordinating Board, I have pushed to align major players in the community around a set of goals for children -- and develop ways of holding all of us accountable. No great success story to tell. It's damn slow slogging.
Anyone interested in that, can check the URL for the Children's Agenda that was passed by the school board and that YCB has been looking at for some time.
http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/Childrens_Agenda(pdf).html
Some debate and agitation on this might do this community a lot of good. If anyone out there thinks it's a good idea, I would welcome help on it.
Dennis Schapiro Minneapolis Board of Education Linden Hills-h/Hawthorne-w
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