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Grex Aaypsi Item 43: A2 Schools try something new
Entered by roz on Sat Dec 10 18:47:16 UTC 1994:

The Ann Arbor School Board is going to let each school building
decide how to meet goals of closing the achievement gap between
white and minority students.  This follows on the heels of many
failed efforts to institute action at the Board level to close the
gap.  It seems likely that more innovative instructional methods 
might be started since each school gets to decide.  There's some
question about whether the teachers will like this, according to the
Ann Arbor News.  Sounds exciting to me, but I'm wondering what
others think.

5 responses total.

#1 of 5 by headdoc on Tue Dec 13 22:48:17 1994:

I didn't read the article Roz.  Did it mention why they think some teachers
wont like the idea of designing their own individualized program to attempt
to close the achievement gap?  My initial thought is that in some of the
smaller buildings, there may not be enough knowledge about the state of
the art to design a feasible program that will make a difference.  On the
other hand, each building does have a better sense of the children it serves
and so, should be better able to do a needs assessment for that population.
Ultimately designing a program which will be tailor-made to that population.
The question that I frequently ponder is whether or not the schools alone
can close an academic achievement gap.

#2 of 5 by scg on Wed Dec 14 05:47:34 1994:

        Despite it being good to give teachers more control over teaching
methods, I am a bit concerned that even with the reevaluation this is
still being treated as a racial achievement gap.  It seems to be one more
example of the tendency in American society to try to tie everything to
race, whether it should be or not.  I don't have the data at the moment,
but I read a few years ago about a study that showed it to be much more or
a rich/poor achievement gap than a black/white gap.  Granted, a
disproportionate number of blacks are living in poverty, but to call it a
black/white gap because of that is to ignore a potential cause of the
problem.  Moreover, it would probably be even better treated as a high
achiever/low achiever achievement gap.
        Regardless of the statistics, any student, regardless of race or
socio-economic status, should be helped to do the best they can do. 
Studying a gap between two groups that are distinguished from eachother by
factors other than achievement may give insight into what a cause for the
problem might be, and fixing the disparity may look better as a statistic,
but gaps between racial or socio-economic groups should not be the only
things treated once a solutino is found.  Schools and the community need
to help make sure all students are learning the most they can.  It is
likely that by treating all students as individuals and attacking their
individual problems, rather than treating them as races ofidentical people
with identical problems, the gap would lessen, dissappear, or even go the
other way.  No matter what the racial statistics look like, all students
will be better served by being treated as individuals, and by getting them
the help they need regardless of race.

#3 of 5 by srw on Wed Dec 14 06:35:37 1994:

I totally agree.

#4 of 5 by roz on Thu Dec 15 12:16:49 1994:

Steve G. raises an interesting thought -- if all you're addressing is the
achievement gap, wouldn't it be tempting to reduce the achievement of any
high achievers if it's too difficult to close the gap from the other
direction?

#5 of 5 by rcurl on Thu Dec 15 16:43:11 1994:

They partly do this, by not progressing fast enough for the high
achievers, who might become bored, and become slothful. Problem
solved..8-{.

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