Sent to the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 13, 2015
Richard Whitmire agrees that no school district this year deserved the Broad Foundation Prize because none showed sufficient improvement ("Loosing the Prize," Feb. 13). Whitmire thinks the answer to "turning around" school districts is more "gutsy leadership," a closer relationship to charter schools, and pushing students to take more demanding courses.
All this macho talk ignores the big problem: poverty. The level of child poverty in the US is at an astonishing 25%, the second highest among industrialized countries, and in some urban districts, the poverty level is 80%. (In contrast, child poverty in high-scoring Finland is around 5%).
There is strong evidence that poverty is the major problem in American education: When researchers control for the effect of poverty, our performance on international tests is at the top of the world. Poverty means poor diet, inadequate health care, and lack of access to books: All of these have devastating effects on school performance. The best teaching and strongest exhortations to work hard have little effect when students are hungry, ill, and have nothing to read.
Let's not worry about "turning around" school districts. Let's work on protecting children from the effects of poverty.
Stephen Krashen
original article: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-whitmire-broad-prize-education-20150213-story.html
Richard Whitmire agrees that no school district this year deserved the Broad Foundation Prize because none showed sufficient improvement ("Loosing the Prize," Feb. 13). Whitmire thinks the answer to "turning around" school districts is more "gutsy leadership," a closer relationship to charter schools, and pushing students to take more demanding courses.
All this macho talk ignores the big problem: poverty. The level of child poverty in the US is at an astonishing 25%, the second highest among industrialized countries, and in some urban districts, the poverty level is 80%. (In contrast, child poverty in high-scoring Finland is around 5%).
There is strong evidence that poverty is the major problem in American education: When researchers control for the effect of poverty, our performance on international tests is at the top of the world. Poverty means poor diet, inadequate health care, and lack of access to books: All of these have devastating effects on school performance. The best teaching and strongest exhortations to work hard have little effect when students are hungry, ill, and have nothing to read.
Let's not worry about "turning around" school districts. Let's work on protecting children from the effects of poverty.
Stephen Krashen
original article: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-whitmire-broad-prize-education-20150213-story.html
You may add to the list a lack of connections and networking opportunities.
ReplyDeleteAbigail Shure