Segregated schools still failing our kids

[proud2BlibKansan]

School Daze

It's been more than a half-century since the Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. "Separate educational facilities," the court ruled, "are inherently unequal." But for all of our celebration of a "post-racial" America, separate and unequal education is still the norm--and by all measures it's getting worse. In his 2008 race speech in Philadelphia, then-candidate Obama recognized the problem. "Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools: we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students."

Look at New York City. The most recent test score data, reported here, give the lie to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chancellor Joel Klein's "mission accomplished" moment a few years ago, when they touted the narrowing of the gap between black and white students. New York might be one of the richest cities in the world, but its schools are still fundamentally failing. No surprise that New York schools are among the most segregated by race in the country.

Or take the train out to Roosevelt, Long Island, one of the poorest districts in New York state (and a place, by the way, that reminds us that suburbanization does not equal upward mobility, especially for minorities). Today's New York Times reports "glimmers of hope" in a place where four-fifths of students qualify for subsidized lunches. Those glimmers: test scores have inched upward. And woohoo, the district spends $3000 for an annual barbecue to reward students for academic achievement and good attendance. If this is the "road to recovery"--as the Times reports--it's a cul-de-sac.

The grim reality is this: the biggest gains in educational achievement for minority students, especially African Americans, occurred in the 1970s. With the exception of a few years at the turn of the century, progress has stalled nearly everywhere, despite all the hope we've put in charter schools and in fads like a much-touted but now-discredited New York experiment (one of the more absurd manifestations of our faith in markets), offering cash incentives to families whose children regularly attend classes.

more . . . http://www.theatlantic.com/preview/blog/school_daze/01/01/61526/?101849&success

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Major leap of faith here...

That better integration will raise math scores. The connection just is not there. There are any number of important factors in a child's academic success. The skin color of those around them are not one of them.

The author is also using that minority schools with test score problems are under funded compared to more successful schools. However, that is not the case in California where per pupil funding is done at a state level. In fact lower performing school often get additional funds.

[TheMadMonk]

2. How about addressing the issues that make you correct?

Even if per capita state funding is absolutely flat across the board there will still be huge differences because there are still many expenses that fall on the family. Uniforms, supplies, lunches, breakfasts, etc. Failing that the schools pick up at least some of the slack, but to do so, they must by necessity dip into the budget that should be used for actual education even with additional programs in place.

Nor are they offered the same early learning experiences.

And ultimately it boils down to an all too pervasive acceptance that there must be some truth in dumb ethnic and born criminal stereotypes.

You (as a nation) presuppose the outcome and then despite any number of visible inequalities, claim a few artificial equalities level the playing field. Then point to results as proof of the presupposition.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Not sure we know enough to fully address the seminal causes

Yes there is the usual list, but some of those are well beyond the school and arguably local government to address.

Then there is the conflicting data. Even the worst schools turn out some high quality graduates. How are they different from their peers? What makes them successful in a school with a 50% drop out rate? Why are some immigrant children doing better than native born? Many a thesis has been written on those issues, but real solutions are yet to be found.

Some years ago I had hoped for charter schools to help us figure some of this out. Charters were originally proposed by public educators as a means to explore and address those kinds of issues. Unfortunately, many (not all) have become shills for privatization and corporations. However, used as intended, charters may still help us find some answers.

[Catshrink]

3. Maybe the lower funds are due to more ELL and sped students.

I learned something about federal funding yesterday. The feds said they would fund 40% of sped but in fact only fund about 21%. Who picks up the rest? States. Schools with higher numbers of sped students need more funding for their case managers, parapros, staff training, reading specialists, etc.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. You never knew that?

They promised 40%, sat at around 12 or 13% for about 20 years, then snuck up to 17% where they sat for about a decade. Then just a year or so ago they went up to 23%. Believe it or not, Obama campaigned on this promise and kept it. Well, sort of. He said 27% :)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. A good example is the Felix Consent Decree in Hawaii

Which was not well followed

Interesting article I found with Google at American Institutes for Research. Not sure what their overall philosophy is, but its worth a quick read: http://csef.air.org/publications/related/jsel/parrish_jsel.pdf its about 10 years old.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Per pupil funding is at the state level in most states

The fact you are ignoring is that some kids do cost more to educate than others. So the same amount across the board does nothing to help address the issue of inadequate funding.