tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405489505661198992.post4868580410412732327..comments2023-09-23T04:24:21.355-04:00Comments on Smoking Toward New Jersey: It's time for parents to stand up - before public schools are reformed to deathTamar Wyschogrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16753681671510193847noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405489505661198992.post-35698200548334190662011-05-14T09:14:32.961-04:002011-05-14T09:14:32.961-04:00Jacob -
Check out this article about the effects ...Jacob -<br /><br />Check out this article about the effects of grouping large numbers of poor kids in the same classes.<br /><br />"What is really large is the correlation between pooling poor kids in school and early reading failure and a subsequent lack of school success (see: Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1998). If you are one of a few poor kids in a classroom, chances are that you will be all right. If you are one of many, you're in big trouble. Ceasing to pool poor children in poor schools would do as much or more for reading scores than any specific instructional intervention. In fact, high levels of poverty in a school are a better predictor of children who will have reading problems than is a lack of early phonemic awareness, a variable that has been the focus of much early reading research and policy."<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-gee/why-the-blackwhite-gap-wa_b_855591.htmlTamar Wyschogrodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16753681671510193847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405489505661198992.post-43295069282323331162011-05-11T01:45:15.362-04:002011-05-11T01:45:15.362-04:00From my life experiences, diversity in enrollment ...From my life experiences, diversity in enrollment terms does not necessarily breed integration or empowerment of the minority groups. Poor Latinos in Oxnard, California attend the same high school as white suburban students, but the achievement gap at the high school level is such that actual classes are very much divided by class. <br /><br />When students come here from Mexico or countries in Central and South America at the middle or high school age with limited experience in any type of schooling, it is nonsensical to think that just mixing them in at the high performing "rich" schools for the sake of diversity will make the fundamental disadvantage go away. Poorly educated and low skill parents in unstable homes is more the issue. The USA is a way out of the problems they faced back home. The dismissal of this population by administrators and teachers seems to reflect the hopelessness they feel about the "just push them along" attitude in a system that is incapable of handling their needs. <br /><br />As for schools where poor blacks mix with rich whites like my high school in Florida, the class divide still split the student body up at the classroom. There was diversity in enrollment only, not in the classes. Poor students were on a different trajectory with different classes and low performance than the suburban students achieving at average or high levels. <br /><br />So I understand your desire to increase diversity, but unless fundamental changes occur at the lower levels of education for impoverished youth, the increase in class diversity within a school does not seem to shrink the achievement gap.Jacobhttp://ourmadworld.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405489505661198992.post-27008416338855171252011-01-20T14:13:38.894-05:002011-01-20T14:13:38.894-05:00While I would definitely favor increasing diversit...While I would definitely favor increasing diversity as an effective part of larger reforms, I don't know exactly how I'd go about it. I'm no education policy expert, and I'm unqualified to start making this stuff up. But I sure would love it if there were informed voices out there advocating alternatives to the one-note song we've been getting lately.Tamar Wyschogrodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16753681671510193847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405489505661198992.post-90927094766065953482011-01-20T13:39:00.868-05:002011-01-20T13:39:00.868-05:00Interesting post Tamar. Especially when you consid...Interesting post Tamar. Especially when you consider that our kids are the product of a very fine--racially diverse, school system that clearly is working.<br /><br />I do wonder, however, if you are advocating for the combining of NJ's typical single town school systems into larger school systems? Something I am loathe to see--yeah I want to protect what I have. Otherwise, how (in NJ anyway) will we ever have more diverse school systems given the fact that most "suburban" communities are pretty homogeneous?jaymenoreply@blogger.com