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Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:40:51 -0400 (EDT)
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From: "Bonnie Freeman" <bfreeman@famlit.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:913] RE: Educating America's new majority
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Mary Ann,
I was in you recent workshop in Kentucky and wanted to say that you just
awakened discussion. Thank you. Please send me a more complete
bibliography. Some of the citations mentioned were not in the handout.
Thank you.
Bonnie Lash Freeman
bfreeman@famlit.org
-----Original Message-----
From: nifl-povracelit@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-povracelit@nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Mary Ann Corley
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 1:05 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:911] Educating America's new majority
"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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