Friday, February 06, 2009

True Heresy


Superintendent takes
controversial stance on achievement gap

Educators alone cannot hope to overcome achievement gaps no matter how hard they work to increase the academics of disadvantaged students, says Kevin Skelly, superintendent of California's Palo Alto schools.

When it comes to closing the achievement gap, Palo Alto schools Superintendent Kevin Skelly says educators are deluding themselves. And he dares to say what's become almost unspeakable publicly:

"It's just not possible for the average kid who comes to this country in seventh or eighth grade, or even third grade, without a word of English and parents with little formal education, to match the achievement levels of kids whose mom has a Ph.D. in English from Stanford and can afford to stay home and spend time supplementing the education of her kids," he said...

Such comments have been seen by many reform-minded educators as cancerous. The fear is that taking the pressure off teachers will cause many to quit. Not quit the profession - but quit taking personal responsibility for the achievement of their students - the crux of high-stakes assessment.

Make no mistake, Skelly said, his schools should — and do — try to bring up the achievement of Latino and African-American students. But idealistic rhetoric creates high public expectations for schools, while letting families, politicians and society in general off the hook, Skelly believes. By themselves, schools can't overcome the influence of parents, friends and communities, he said.

He believes preschool deserves more funding to better prepare more students to learn, and schools should ensure all students are prepared for college — so they don't end up taking remedial classes at community colleges...

1 comment:

SPWeston said...

True, we can't move all kids to the same level. That isn't, actually, the important goal.

The important goal is to move very nearly all kids to a good level, and the remaining few much closer than they are now. We can equip them, consistently, to be effective citizens. We can close the gap between current performance and systematically sturdy results.

What our teachers do matters. How we support our teachers matters. What we do together, in this generation, matters for the future we will all share.

(Cross-posted at prichblog.blogspot.com, because the topic is big enough for two blogs at once.)