On Tuesday, July 6, 2004, at 07:53 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Last evening I was a guest on Voices of the African American community on
KMOJ, hosted by Spike Moss. And I have been invited back to participate in an
on-air discussion of educational issues within the next few weeks.
I believe the Minneapolis school district can rapidly close most of the
academic achievement gap between whites and African Americans by making some
changes in how education is done in the schools.
Black and white education gap issues may be relevant in Charleston or Memphis, but in Minneapolis the gap is economic and multi cultural. The painful process of gaining recognition for the issues of SE Asians, Latinos, American Indians, Africans, and immigrants from other countries will greatly challenge the next superintendent.
It is true that we are a long way from recognizing either the causes of the gap or the strategic direction to take to raise the achievement levels of all who are on the bottom line. It is not helpful, in my mind, to talk only of a gap, as if when the bottom line meets the top, we will be successful and happy. The top line does not define the best that we can do in our schools.
And it is short sighted to think that if we change the one factor: race, we will close the gap. Of all the factors affecting academic performance, race is the most difficult to isolate. Which is not to say that it does not exist. But of the factors we do know something about: economic disparity, neighborhood, health, housing, parents' educational background, place in sibling order, gender, resources of the schools, counseling availability, teacher quality, class size, amount of time spent on academic tasks, and on and on, give us plenty to work on in terms of improvement.
"Nickleby" (NCLB) is the most cynical model for addressing the gap. Get rid of it. Short changing schools is the biggest factor that can swing change on an ongoing basis.
The hardest thing to do, because it takes public will and courage on the part of the elected school board, is to "make some changes in how education is done in the schools," as the writer suggests above. We are instead confronted with a flavor of the month approach and various of the school sites experimenting with the most vulnerable school populations in an effort to meet the Nickleby demands.
Best wishes,
Laura Wittstock Southeast
Laura Waterman Wittstock MIGIZI Communications, Inc. 3123 East Lake Street Minneapolis, MN 55406 612.721.6631 ext 219 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.migizi.org http://laurawatermanwittstock.blogspot.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
