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From: "Mary Ann Corley" <macorley1@earthlink.net>
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Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:911] Educating America's new majority
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"Educating America's new majority"
By Pedro A. Noguera and Eileen Moran Brown
The Boston Globe, September 20, 2002
THE RECENT MCAS results confirm once again what many of us already knew: The
communities with the lowest test scores are the communities with the highest
percentage of poor children - especially poor immigrant children. Cities
like Boston, Holyoke, Springfield, New Bedford, Chelsea, and Lawrence see
their economic woes reflected in their schools' MCAS performance. In fact, a
ranking of Massachusetts school districts by the percentage of children who
receive free or reduced-price lunches would be a nearly exact inversion of a
ranking of districts by MCAS scores. The strong correlation between poverty
and poor academic performance has always been known to those involved in the
implementation of new standards
and assessments. The unanswered question, however, remains: Given all the
talk about school reform, why haven't we done something about it?
The state Department of Education reports that as many as 12,000 students
are in danger of being denied high school diplomas if they are unable to
pass the MCAS this year. The number of failures is even greater when we
consider that many students have dropped out of school even before entering
the 12th grade. Failure rates of this magnitude pose a serious situation
that cannot be taken lightly. Having large numbers of young adults unable to
find work because they lack the skills and credentials will be a problem for
the entire state.
A recent report by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth points
out that more than a third of workers in the state - 1.1 million people -
lack the skills to compete for jobs in today's economy. We know that
education can and should be the key to addressing widening disparities in
wealth and opportunity. We also know that jobs in the new economy will
require a higher level of technical skill than the blue-collar jobs of the
past. The key factor in the success of America's ''new majority'' will be
our public schools. The challenge will be to give teachers the tools,
skills, and credentials they need to be effective in
reaching this new population and meeting the demands of a rapidly changing,
high-stakes educational environment.
Reformers have initiated school reforms without thinking about teaching
reforms. Reformers too often incorrectly assume that reducing class sizes,
raising student standards, or creating small schools could be accomplished
in a vacuum without teachers. However, studies confirm that the quality of
teaching is the single most important factor in closing the student
achievement gap.
A new Carnegie Corporation Challenge paper calls for a major overhaul of the
teaching profession. The paper summarizes the challenges facing the teaching
profession and offers a conceptual answer: Treat teaching as a modern
clinical profession.
This concept and other teaching strategies will be explored next week at a
symposium in Cambridge. More than 200 educators, policy makers, and
philanthropists will delve into the complexities of educating America's
''new majority'' - the African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, and
Native American communities who, together, represent the majority
populations in major cities across the United States today. Discussion will
focus on methods to recruit and prepare teachers of color, ways to keep
teachers in the profession, and models for education and public policy.
In addition, the symposium will look at public education's role in reducing
poverty and expanding opportunity for all children. With this in mind, we
hope to highlight three simple, yet important, academic standards that can
truly help create a better future for our children and our society. We
suggest that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will not achieve a ''passing
grade'' until it can:
Ensure that all students have access to well-trained teachers from
diverse backgrounds who have been educated in the
content area that they teach.
Ensure that schools can serve the nonacademic needs of poor children
(health, nutrition, safety, counseling, etc.) that affect
their ability to learn.
Establish basic educational standards for facilities, instructional
materials, personnel, and safety and hold all schools and
school districts accountable for meeting these standards.
Of course, we need more than these standards. Parental and community
engagement, a curriculum that promotes a tolerant and informed civic
culture, and strong and effective educational leaders are just some of the
other important factors affecting school performance. However, if the state
were just to make the three areas noted above a priority for educational
policy, we believe that significant progress would be made.
Massachusetts is not alone in coping with larger numbers of failing students
and schools. Wide disparities in academic performance that are manifest
along racial and socioeconomic demarcations - the so-called achievement
gap - represent a challenge to the entire nation. However, we believe the
state that gave birth to public education can and should be the national
leader in showing what it will take to fulfill the promise of ''leaving no
child behind.''
Pedro A. Noguera is the Judith K. Dimon Professor of Communities and Schools
at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Eileen Moran Brown is president
of Cambridge College.
This story ran on page A19 of the Boston Globe on 9/20/2002.
(c) Copyright <http://www.boston.com/globe/search/copyright.html> 2002
Globe Newspaper Company.
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