I find it hard to imagine anyone wanting to go back to the way it was before desegregation. The most compelling piece I've run across on Brown v. Board of Education is at: http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/Federal+and+State+Policy/ross+10things.htm Anyone who doesn't think Brown v. Board of Education is relevant today ought to take a look at these two documents from the University of Minnesota Institute on Race & Poverty: August 2002 - Racism and Metropolitan Dynamics: The Civil Rights Challenge of the 21st Century at http://www.irpumn.org/uls/resources/projects/racismandmetrodynamics.pdf May 2000 - Student Voices across the Spectrum: The Educational Integration Initiatives Project at http://www1.umn.edu/irp/publications/joycesummary.html I'm not from Saint Paul (moved here in 1987), so I don't remember the way it was before school choice, but having watched and learned about what's happening at the national level as well as locally, I think Saint Paul's historically done a pretty good job of it. We're not another Detroit, St. Louis or Washington D.C. I think technology's driving a lot of the reform effort at both the national, state and local levels. In some ways I think technology is changing education from an art to a science. I'm not a big fan of high stakes testing, but I do believe the disaggregated data is essential and that we wouldn't have that without NCLB. I also think we need to do a better job of connecting the dots between student achievement data and local community data. In Ramsey County, ~30% of households pay more than 35% of household income for rent whereas slightly more than 35% of households pay less than 15% for home mortgages. (Housing costs greater than 30% of household income is not considered affordable.) [Source: Ramsey County Community Indicators, Minnesota Community Action Association at http://www.mncaa.org/vertical/Sites/{F8B31501-CF02-4546-8F78-5333510C172C}/uploads/{D99AA544-96D7-4213-B08A-C0628FC6BD20}.PD F] Does this mean our housing stock places a disproportionate burden on renters? How does that affect student mobility? What's the role of the county and the city in addressing community-based variables impacting student achievement? The problem is we have all of this data and we don't know what to do with it. --Jennifer Armstrong Payne/Phalen ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: stpaul@mnforum.org To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul
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