Still Scratching my Head.

Fred: I did not attend the meeting referenced above in the article but I’ve participated in plenty of them. Like you, I too was struck by the fact that “there’s not a single mention of what can be done within families, by families and for families.” That’s the other elephant in the room. Until the role of the family is strengthened and greater accountability is held, we will continue to to be confronted by too many black youth who contribute to the achievement gap.

It is downright heartbreaking and frustrating to have a discussion about this issue all the time. This problem can be and must be addressed not by posturing and more “discussion” and more “finger pointing and blaming” but by people who have a clear vision for the community into the future.

I’m still scratching my head.

And as in the proverb, we can’t see the elephant. We don’t know exactly why there’s a gap.

So, we need to talk about the different parts of the elephant that we’re aware of—a solution can only come from not just hearing, but *listening* to one another’s views. Such conversations are difficult because they are charged with issues of race, and/or real or presumed agendas. They are nonetheless the route forward.

I don’t know what those conversations need to lead to—does anyone?—but the idea of the achievement gap continuing is a heartbreaking, agonizing thought. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, this country changed after it saw children attacked by police dogs and blasted by firehoses. There are children subject to a gnawing attack dogs and blasting hoses of low achievement. If we could better see the elephant or that gnawing attack dog, we’d take dramatic steps. We need to talk about that elephant/dog so we can get to where we take action.

It states in part (p.8, Equity and Excellence Rationale): “On a district wide basis, the academic performance of minorities lags far behind that of the majority population. Minorities are significantly overrepresented in lower curricular paths and significantly underrepresented in advanced courses of study. Disproportionately high numbers of minorities are the subject of disciplinary action. Clear racial and socioeconomic imbalance exists in the district’s schools… Measured by the critical index of progress toward educational opportunity, the Ann Arbor School District, in this regard, is in crisis. The Committee on Excellence recommends a set of broad ranging steps to address the entirety of the problem and to move the district toward the goals of equity and excellence. One part of the recommendations concerns educational programming and the instructional process. The Committee on Excellence firmly believes that the classroom itself is the key to achieving quality education for all students. The recommendations address the needs for immediate attention to clearly identifiable groups of underachieving pupils, reduction in pupil-teacher ratios, enhancing teacher expectations and the level of rigor in all curricula and the enlightened and non-arbitrary use of assessment tools. The other part of the Equity and Excellence recommendation involves racial balance.”

I think there are very likely similar documents from earlier times as well, I just haven’t had time to look for them.

My comment in the interview was focused on the narrow issue of “first public, well-disseminated report on academic achievement in the district” as correctly noted in the article. I based my inference on two things. First, the report dated July 28, 1989, includes the following in a cover memo. “Please find attached a report, _Key Indicators of Students Progress_, to be presented to the Board of Education on August 2, 1989. This report is our first attempt to profile the school district using a variety of key indicators of student performance.” Second, I have not located prior reports that published achievement measures by racial-ethnic group within AAPS.

I am very interested in gaining insights on strategies for closing the achievement gap through an examination of past practices and results — as well as by other means. Just because I am currently not aware of published achievement measures by racial-ethnic group prior to 1985/86 for AAPS does not mean they do not exist. If any reader has earlier data or knows of such data, I would appreciate a reference so I could include them in my thinking.

Thank you, Chronicle and Jennifer, for providing a place and context for Schoolsmuse, me, and hopefully others to exchange information and views on this very important issue. The issue goes to the heart of our ability as a society to sustain democracy and a decentralized economic system that both work for ALL citizens.

I think we can draw the conclusion that these activities didn’t work to end the equity gap–although perhaps things would be much worse if they hadn’t been done.

2. I’m glad that Susan Baskett and Simone Lightfoot are taking the lead on this. Having said that, I don’t know who, or how, this meeting was set up. I do know that I hadn’t heard about it, so I think it was not an “open” meeting. That no doubt had an impact on its attendance. I’m not saying that it “had” to be an open meeting, or a widely-advertised meeting, but it seems that–particularly given the controversy about the lunch bunch–wide buy-in is important. At the budget meetings in the fall, participants were asked if they would like to be on sub-committees related to parts of the strategic plan. I know I volunteered to work on equity issues, but more important than whether I should be in the room, I think it is important to wrap this work into the district’s strategic planning.

3. I also think it’s really important to acknowledge how HARD it is to do this work. Yes, there are individual locales that have overcome these issues, but there are many more locales that haven’t. We can, and should, try a lot of different tactics, and they won’t all work.