"The relative decline of American education at the elementary- and high-school levels has been a national embarrassment as well as a threat to our nation's future. ... Within the [US], the achievement gap between white students and poor and minority students stubbornly persists--and as they population of disadvantaged students grows, overall scores continue to sag", Evan Thomas & Pat Wingert at Newsweek, 15 March 2010, link:
What idiocy. The magazine cover indicates "We must fire bad teachers" to save American Education. Really? How about accepting that there is no "achievement gap" at all and that as American demographics change, test scores will fall. Period.
5 comments:
We accept variations in the qualities of many things...
It is our sense of fairness that dictates all students should be permitted to achieve to the same level...
But as been said here some students don't have the capacity to learn at the same level as others...
I do agree with the article that often the worst teachers end up at the poorest schools... why not higher salaries there to attract better teachers?
Very good post and right on the money.
Anonymous:
Don't you know paying teachers "combat pay" to encourage them to teach in the "community" is "racist"? FYI: some school districts do this now. So? As a practical matter, most teachers leave inner-city schools as soon as they can. Why not? It's too dangerous to teach there.
IA
Anonynmous:
Read my 22 November 2009 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/11/christies-potential-andrew-jackson.html. Asbury Park gets $29,895 per year in New Jersey state aid. Enough is enough. How much money should we send down this economic rathole? What evidence is there that "better" teachers, whatever that means, would close the non-existent achievement gap?
IA
It's not a lack of capacity to learn, but the absence of the drive, desire and dedication necessary to learning that is the problem.
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