Britt Robson wrote: > This is not an either/or issue. Is the overall quality of education > adversely affected in a major way by BOTH an increasingly inequitable > economic system and an understandably selfish but still covertly (and > overtly) racist jiggering of the education bureaucracy by well-to-do, > enclave-oriented MPS parents? Absolutely.
I'm certainly not claiming that poverty is not a contributing factor to low academic acheivement, although I would claim that it's more culture than family income. What I am saying is that it's socially irresponsible for the public schools to throw up their hands and say that there's nothing they can do, when in fact there are many things they can do and are not doing. > There is one more thing I want to add that may or may not be > within the scope of this list. Just as Mr. Atherton correctly > warns us not to place too much stock in individual success stories > that obscure the more general failures when it comes to pupil > achievement, I would ask him to cite urban school systems that > have effectively achieved the kind of broad-based reforms he clamors > for, to the point of producing quantifiable, broad-based > success for the vast majority of its students. This will either > provide us with examples that MPS might emulate, or expose the > possibility that the gross economic inequities that Mr. Atherton > blithely assumes will always be with us are in fact part of an > intractable problem when it comes to creating system-wide achievement > in schools disproportionately comprised of poor and/or non-white students. > I'm really not trying to start an argument here; just attempting to > stimulate some debate. Well, it's surprising to me that any District in the country is doing well given the culture of failure in the public schools and the lobbying strength of the teachers' unions. Nevertheless, to answer your challenge I've included links to the articles below, however I wasn't able to find a good statistical analysis of the reasons for their success, but maybe this is the school district that Pawlenty and Peebles should be visiting. ;-) I've been trying to get the Star Tribune to do an article on public school successes for years, I wonder why they've never taken up the challenge. ;-o Michael Atherton Prospect Park California District Earns Top Urban Prize http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=550#31 Long Beach Unified School District is the top urban district in the nation--showing the best overall improvement in student achievement and reducing achievement gaps across ethnic groups and between high- and low-income students, according to the Broad Foundation. Long Beach schools won the Broad Prize for Urban Education in September. Last year's prize went to Houston Independent School District. The winning district receives $500,000 toward college scholarships or other post-secondary education for students. The four finalist districts--Boston Public Schools, Garden Grove (Calif.) Unified School District, Jefferson County (Ky.) Public Schools and Norfolk (Va.) Public Schools--each receive $125,000 for scholarships. STATS Long Beach Unified School District Schools: 95 Students: 96,488 Annual Budget: $840 million Superintendent: Christopher Steinhauser Students Eligible for Free/Reduced Price School Lunch: 69% Student Designated as English-Language Learners: 36% Summer Migrant Students: 1.5% Students with Individual Ed. Plans: 7.7% 47.2% Hispanic 15.3% Black 34.6% White http://www.lbusd.k12.ca.us/broad_prize/broad_article7.asp "The Long Beach Unified School District, with 97,000 students, is the third largest school district in California. The fact that the prize went to a California school district is especially noteworthy considering the state's record budget deficit and reduced school funding over the past two years." http://www.ourpublicschools.org/state_of_success/data/Spotlight_R6_T9.htm http://www.lindasanchez.house.gov/index.cfm?section=news&article=2003_10_15_0227 REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
