Tuesday, August 21, 2007
This'll be rich
The Chron writes an editorial entitled:
A way to close the achievement gap between white and minority students in California Well, gosh darn, if they knew all this time, why haven't they said anything? Let's take a look!
With the right amount of political will and community support, narrowing California's racial achievement gap could be much easier than healing America's troubled racial history. Well... yeah. That seems like a tautology. If you have the right amount of stuff, then yes, things will happen, by definition of "the right amount of stuff." Still, I don't think that really counts as a solution, so let's read on.
Would the state have the political will to tackle the solutions that emerge?
Those solutions are unlikely to be new or revolutionary, because schools that have been successful with African American, Latino and low-income students have already shown that these students perform at a high level when they're offered the following things: frequent results feedback, a committed principal who reaches out to parents, engaged teachers who have high expectations for their students, and a flexible schedule that allows for longer school days or extra courses. I'll be darned. We knew the answer all along!
I guess the "way to close the achievement gap" is to "have the political will to tackle the solutions that emerge." A bit of polishing seems to give the solution as:
The way to close the achievement gap is to do the stuff that will close the achievement gap. Thank God for the Chronicle. By the way:
Ultimately, what these white and Asian parents must realize is that the achievement gap affects them, too. The future of the California economy depends on all students receiving a decent education. I see this a lot, and consider it the dumbest argument in the history of the universe. (Some exaggeration) There is no possible way to view the facts in such a way that the tiny benefit of overall education to a person somehow outweighs receiving that education herself. I suppose this only applies if you think of people as people. If you think of races as grand uniform hive minds, I guess this logic might make sense.
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