Focusing attention on the racial/ethnic achievement gap takes some courage. But it would be nice if brains were applied to seeking solutions. In The Supe is Nuts, Discriminations looks at the stats in California — poor Asians and whites outscore non-poor Hispanics and blacks — and the ideas proposed at California’s Achievement Gap Summit. Does anyone really believe “sensitivity training” will close the achievement gap? Superintendent Jack O’Connell does.
O’Connell now believes that widespread cultural ignorance within the California school system is responsible for the poor academic performance of many black and Latino students in school.
He offered the example of black children who learn at church that it’s good to clap, speak loudly and be a bit raucous. But doing the same thing at school, where 72 percent of teachers are white and may be unfamiliar with such customs, will get them in trouble, he said.
Discriminations longs for a control group of black Episcopalians to test this theory.
Among the summits speakers was Glenn Singleton, a diversity coach with a dubious record in Seattle schools. Singleton thinks schools, not parents, determine whether children do well academically, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“If we were to say that black or brown kids don’t perform as well because of their parents, we’re saying black and brown parents aren’t as effective as white parents,” Singleton told The Chronicle. “That’s pretty much a racist statement.”At schools with large numbers of black and Latino students, white teachers are not only culturally unfamiliar with their students, they are often the “least seasoned and skilled” at teaching, he said.
Curriculum and achievement tests are also Eurocentric, Singleton said, despite the state’s efforts to purge all bias.
The summit did include discussion of effective teaching strategies for all children.
Hey, wait a minute there, Mr. Glenn Singleton diversity coach, sir. I’ve deconstructed my whiteness. So I can still teach black and brown kids, can’t I?
I’m so tired of deconstructing my whiteness.
I doubt Mrs. Barton ever deconstructed her whiteness:
http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2007/11/superteacher.html
She just got us *all* to learn.
Look no further to explain the inefficiency of the NEA/AFT/AFSCME cartels schools (the US K-12 “public” schools). Plush contracts to master race baiters like Mr. Singleton contribute to ever-increasing expense with no impact on performance. Normal children can develop reading comprehension and mathematical fluency in far less than 12 years of instruction. “Public education” has become an employment program for dues-paying members of the NEA/AFT/AFSCME cartel, a source of padded contracts for politically-connected insiders like Mr. Singleton, and a venue for State-worshipful indoctrination.
What a friggin’ racket, I tell ‘ya.
Malcolm,
Did you miss the post about which state has the highest math scores? It was not California, but it was a state which ranks high in the NEA/AFT/AFSCME presence list. Very high. I don’t know if this state has lower numbers of Hispanic and Black students than California.
I have been heartened by Bill Cosby’s latest book - both the media coverage of it as well as the content. I am sure he addresses this issue and chances are, he’s right on target. At any rate, this post has inspired my Thanksgiving break reading.
Off to B and N …
If the state with the highest math scores was Massachusetts, it’s worth noting that Proposition 2 1/2 has kept town budgets mostly in check. Outside of the large urban districts, school budgets are dependent on local property taxes. It’s hard to defend “consciousness raising” consultants if you have to cut sports programs to pay for them.
I’m not defending paying for consciousness raising, although that’s not what I’d call Singleton’s ideas (did you not see my bit about Cosby’s book?). The racial divide is a problem. Singleton’s ideas do not seem to be the answer. Blanket statements whining about how it’s all the union’s fault, though, don’t seem to be the answer, either. It’s worth noting, however, that, Massachusetts has incredibly strong union presence, well paid teachers, and pretty good schools. I’m not saying it’s *because* of union presence, I’m just saying that it might be worth looking at some other solutions because obviously Massachusetts has found ways to teach students alongside/in spite of, whatever … strong union presence.
If black and brown kids aren’t performing well, we need to figure out if it IS their parents. If it is, it will take more time/energy and money to provide in a school setting what they’re not receiving at home. This may take some training, but I’d like to see training aimed at filling in the gap - teaching them what they need to succeed in school. Rather than figuring out how to make what they DO know (whatever it is, it obviously is not helping them succeed in a school setting) “fit in” as acceptable for school performance requirements.
It is true that many teachers expect students to arrive with certain skills - social, study, problem solving. They are frustrated when students do not, and often don’t know how to teach those skills. Teaching those skills is very different from teaching a subject area, but no less important. Some training that gets teachers to see this (again, if I get ninth graders from every walk to care about their writing, would it really be so impossible for administrators to motivate a majority of the teachers?) and learn how to teach the scaffolding skills students need would be worthwhile.
I read the San Francisco Chronicle article on “sensitivity training”, and also go through a lot of the reader comments on that article. Chronicle readers are not exactly from the right, and yet almost all of them would say “The Sup is nuts”. How can we close the achievement gap when our education chief and top educators in the California Department of Education are so out of touch with reality and the common people.
I often wonder if, 50 years ago, they had concentrated on curing cancer instead of just finding more possible causes, we would have developed an inexpensixe anti-cancer prophylactic.
Similarly, stop looking for excuses and concentrate on curing ignorance. Start at the top.
I wonder, if 25 years ago, all the medical schools, and the National Medical Association, and the research physicians and fellows, and anyone else mildly interested in finding a cure for AIDS had spent their energy whining … about hospital bureaucracy, the surgeon general’s lack of response, and the fact that it would be nearly impossible to find a cure with current funding and red tape issues … and ultimately decided that finding drugs which could stave off the disease but not cure it was the result of mismanaged federal funding, so decided to start failing research facilities, putting them in the hands of groups who believe that prayer was the answer all along … I wonder how many people would benefit from AZT today.
Quit calling valid reasons “excuses” and start where you are.
You can only fight with the army you have, right? It’s a little hard to treat an illness if you don’t know what germ is causing it. Well, actually, it’s easy to treat anything - just not very effective if you don’t have some grasp of the cause.
\To think that my tax money is being spent on this sort of infinite crap is profoundly disgusting. I’d rather have the “Supe” spend it all on booze and hookers than hire this guy - it would do less harm.
Z,
I think I’ve already proposed a solution in another thread; vouchers/school choice. I explained my reasoning, and I don’t think I’ve heard anything that invalidates my position. Correct? If you disagree, please feel free to tell me why I’m wrong.
Now, on a different note, what do you mean by saying that “[Massachusetts] was a state which ranks high in the NEA/AFT/AFSCME presence list.”? I’m curious because California has an extraordinarily large number of public sector union members. They are, IMHO, overpaid, under-worked, and “over here”. It’s the last refuge of the lazy, the incompetent, the has-beens and the never-wases. If Massachusetts would accept them, I’m sure that a solid majority of non-union Californians would be glad to send them over.
There are always exceptions, and so there are competent union members. But I think they’re in the minority.
I hope you’ll believe me when I say that none of this is aimed at you personally; this is just a discussion that we’re having.
And Singleton, from what I’ve read, is a strange fellow, no-one any sane man should have to listen to.
Jack O’Connell is one more hustler who has found his way to the top of the heap in the very political California public education system.
I wonder what he would suggest to a recently retired experienced teacher friend from one of San Jose, CA’s worst elementary districts, a situation in which she would, in March or April, get illegal children (yes, the illegal, born in Mexico, children of illegals) who had attended two previous schools during the year, but had spent perhaps a total three months in school during the year? None of them were ever on hand to start the new school year in September.
Yes, that is far too often the reality for teachers in a number of California school districts.
And we should look at “ethnic” differences? How ’bout we start securing our borders?
Bill
R,
NP. I enjoy your comments. I had never thought about your point; the money is for the students, not the school. Vouchers for some make sense. My concern (and having seen my school end up on the “not meets” list, it’s not a conspiracy theory) is that there are some on the voucher side - and I hate to say it, but the recent attempt in Utah is a good example - who are as rabid about closing public schools, regardless of quality, as those on the other side, who are as rabid about not closing public schools, regardless of quality.
You said that the public school system is broken. I don’t think that’s true. The majority of successful adults in our country still have some connection to public school. I think parts of it are broken, and parts need serious overhauling. Vouchers may be a good idea for part of that picture. Most of the examples I see at this site - business, for example - if put in the same situation as many schools and teachers - would not succeed, much less excel. If we judged any other profession the way education is judged - law enforcement, small businesses, CONGRESS - by outcome only (imagine dentists if they not only had to do their job in their office, but were judged rather than paid for the number of patients who got cavities and returned to have them filled. Can’t they figure out how to make people brush their teeth?). It’s not always remarkable when the educational system fails or when there is a “bad apple” teacher. It’s often remarkable when education succeeds, when there’s a highly competent teacher, an administrator who is every bit the leader of any CEO, or CFO, or some other combination of initials that starts with “C” … It’s not acceptable that it seems rare, sometimes, but it makes more sense to work on replicating that - in the framework of public education - than to set nearly every public school up to “fail.”
This site is here because of a book about a public school. Not vouchers to private school, not a fired union boss or a union breaking law, but a groundbreaking, idealistic, research-based, surviving against at least some of the odds, PUBLIC SCHOOL. It is frustrating to read posts which rail against all the reasons the poster can’t support public school in any form, ever. It sounds, unfortunately, like the very teachers and administrators they complain about - the ones who insist that nothing can be done unless it’s done their way; the ones who blame everything that is wrong with education on anybody but themselves, the ones who seem entrenched in one way of thinking to the point that winning an argument (Unions = Bad! Teachers = Lazy! Whiny! Overpaid!) becomes more important than solving a problem. Sometimes I get sucked in. Never fear, though, the tiredness that comes with the papers I’ll bring home to grade tends to tame my typing :). By tomorrow, undoubtedly, more tempered responses again.
as for mass …
Massachusetts has a very strong teachers’ union presence. School days end on time (for teachers, period), students have early release for in-school training for teachers on their actual clock, and firing a teacher in that state is at least as difficult as firing a teacher in California. I’m not saying Mass has great schools because of the union presence. I’m just saying that it’s not logical to say that bad schools are solely a union problem in one state when they, obviously, can’t be, in another.
Re Massachusetts, one data point doth not a summer make.
The ironic thing about this guy’s take on variations in learning and cultural stuff is it’s an excellent argument for racial segregation. Obviously, teaching methods would be different for a group of “naturally” loud and rambunctious kids versus a group of quiet, calm kids.
Be careful what you wish for…
25 years ago the main concern was the privacy rights of the AIDS carrier and the removal of health barriers to immigration.
From The Inequality Taboo (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007391) we have the truth that all want to ignor. Pay close attention to the findings of the APA.
“There is no technical dispute on some of the core issues. In the aftermath of The Bell Curve, the American Psychological Association established a task force on intelligence whose report was published in early 1996. (30) The task force reached the same conclusions as The Bell Curve on the size and meaningfulness of the black-white difference. Historically, it has been about one standard deviation (31) in magnitude among subjects who have reached adolescence; (32) cultural bias in IQ tests does not explain the difference; and the tests are about equally predictive of educational, social, and economic outcomes for blacks and whites. However controversial such assertions may still be in the eyes of the mainstream media, they are not controversial within the scientific community.”
We need to admit reality or will we have witch hunts for who is responsible for the underperformance of minorities. Oh…wait! We hav that going on already! Damn white people!
When we start admitting reality, we should also admit these facts:
US whites as a class score about a standard deviation above US blacks on IQ tests.
US whites today score about a standard deviation above US whites of three generations ago.
The IQ difference between US whites today and US whites of three generations ago is not genetic– the two groups are genetically similar. The difference must be something other than genetic.
Therefore, we have no reason to believe that the similar IQ difference between whites and blacks is genetic. The difference is real, but that doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands and give up.
In my opinion…It seems to me that no matter what race you are dealing with as a teacher, if you don’t teach the student at the reading level they are at…it’s going to be a very frustrating experience for any student and that just may be the reason that some students don’t succeed. I think this is a fundamental problem with the Public School system. If the student can’t read but is expected to be able to read at an eighth grade level to learn a particular subject, how then is the student going to be able to do well in that subject. It seems to me that that alone (reading) is a basic problem that needs to be dealt with early on before going on to higher level grades. The Public School system just ignores the problem and expects the student to catch up…too bad, so sad if they don’t. I’m generalizing and know this isn’t always the case, but too often it is.
If a teacher does teach at a student’s level, say 3rd grade when the student should be at an 8th grade level. The student does the work and does it well and then the teacher gives the student an excellent grade, the teacher is likely to be penalized because that student usually gets low grades and the teacher is making the other teachers look bad. I’ve seen this happen with a teacher friend of mine.
“US whites today score about a standard deviation above US whites of three generations ago.”
Very interesting, cite?
So very, very blessed to have our kiddo in private school… and not paying seattle taxes..
Our public screwl system is so, so broken. I quit school in the 7th grade and am now 46 years old…extremely successful, retired at 44, happily married for over 14 years, an avid reader (taught myself since teacher was too busy to help me) and am extremely happy. Not one single public screwl teacher had even a shred to do with my success, none of it, public screwl teachers suck and are so totally selfish, at least every single one I had. Biased? Maybe, but based on MY experience, public screwl teachers are totally worhtless… To me anyway. Not one took the time to help me, not one! I did it all on my own.
Doesn’t clapping and being raucous and speaking loudly get you in trouble not because ‘the teacher is white and doesn’t understand’, but because it distracts the other students?
I’d certainly hope so, at any rate.
Zuzuzpetals: “Did you miss the post about which state has the highest math scores? It was not California, but it was a state which ranks high in the NEA/AFT/AFSCME presence list. Very high.”
In a bottle of preservative in the Marine Biology exhibit of the the Natural History Museum, London, floats an intestinal worm from a sperm whale. In large whales these parasites can grow to enormous size. I don’t credit intestinal parasites for the whales’ large size.
By some measures, North Dakota was the top-scoring US State. Back when I studied the relation between instutional structure and performance on standardized test scores, I used NAEP 4th and 8th grade Math and Reading percentile, proficiency, mean and mean scores by parents’ race and level of education.
Citation for the narrowing of IQ gap between Blacks and Whites: http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/dickens/20060619_IQ.pdf
Herrstein and Murray (the Bell Curve authors) themselves acknowledge:
This is from the Bell Curve, quoted in Thomas Sowell’s review of it, quoted here.
As Sowell, in his review, points out, once one concedes that the fifteen point difference in IQ between whites in the 1940s and whites now is environmental, it becomes difficult to claim that the fifteen point difference between blacks now and whites now is genetic.
“US whites today score about a standard deviation above US whites of three generations ago.”
Hey, wait a minute - I’m 3 generations ago.
Success only comes before work in the dictionary - but consciousness raising consultants have at least convinced some people there’s a way around it - my kids attend the Boston public schools - where the soft bigotry of low expectations thrives.