saying poverty is an ''excuse'' exposes education ''reformers'' scam

[yurbud]

The author diagnoses the problem correctly, but is too kind in his conclusion.

Education reformers who parroted this line from education secretary Arne Duncan on down, show not only a profound ignorance and lack of experience in dealing with actual students, but further make it clear that their goal is to create a new revenue source for the already wealthy by commoditizing our children's education and trading them like sides of beef.

I also have to wonder if a secondary goal isn't to make K-12 education as vacuous and toothless as our TV news has become, so that people not only don't have the information to be active citizens, they don't have the intellectual tools to handle or even recognize critical information when they get it.

Duncan has chosen to ignore poverty's downward effect on test scores and focus entirely on what he calls "bad teachers" and "failing schools." Recently confronted by educators teaching in some of the nation's highest-poverty areas about the need to do something about the living conditions of their students, Duncan cynically responded, "poverty is not destiny."

***

Duncan's "lack of patience" has also been taken as a call for tax breaks for the rich, coupled with deep and widespread cuts in social services, public housing, and other anti-poverty measures. The entire burden of his Race To The Top reform has been placed on teachers and their unions, and narrowly focused on schools and on the classroom. In some urban districts, teachers' names are now being posted in the media next to their students' test scores, as if individual teachers are solely responsible for those scores. Inadequate accountability measures, such as value-added, are being pushed as alternatives to collective-bargaining agreements to determine which teachers are to be fired and how much those remaining are to be paid.

***

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that for the first time since the Education Department started counting, there are nearly a million homeless students in the United States. The Post reports that most drift with their families among motels, shelters and relatives' homes with a growing fraction living completely on their own, unparented, uninsured, ill-fed and surviving by their own devices.

***

The notion that rising unemployment, declining real wages, and a shocking increase in family poverty are mere "excuses," with little or no impact on student learning, is unworthy of our nation's top school leaders. It tells me that current school reform policies have little to do with sound social or educational research, but instead are ideologically or politically (in the worst sense) driven. In this political environment, Duncan's chants of "poverty is not destiny" sound downright pollyannish and even cruel in light of current conditions and his own policies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-klonsky-phd/the-year-they-begain-call_b_801931.html

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Some of my teacher friends have classes that are not only overcrowded but majority ESL

WTF, Arne?

[awoke_in_2003]

13. Shouldn't be a surprise...

Arne is an asshat of epic proportion.

[knitter4democracy]

2. He can visit our school any time.

Hell, he can teach in our classrooms, if he thinks it's that easy for teachers to overcome their students' poverty. We have many homeless students who are on their own, living out of cars and off friends' couches. We have huge numbers on free lunch--and that's part of why they're in our alternative high school.

If you want to answer the problems in education, you have to realize we're the canary in the mine first. Then, you have to get it through your head that teachers aren't the sole problem but merely a small portion of it (as it's the minority of teachers who don't teach well). Finally, you have to figure out what our real goals are; do we want critical thinkers with a true liberal arts education, or do we want robots?

[yurbud]

4. I worked briefly in a high school and had a range of levels of kids...

when I was teaching the lowest level kids, who also came from poor families, it took a lot of energy and creativity to keep them on task, and even then, they weren't working at the same level as middle class kids. By contrast, in the highest level class I taught, I barely had to give any instruction at all and spent next to no time on discipline issues--the kids were practically on autopilot. And probably not coincidentally, those kids were mostly solidly middle class and above.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. and solidly well-nourished. nt

[awoke_in_2003]

14. what about a free breakfast program?...

I know our school district has this, but I am sure a lot do not. It is the most important meal of the day, and it is hard to pay attention to the first half of the school day when all you can think about it the hunger in your belly.

[roody]

22. We have free breakfast and lunch and most of the food is not

very nutritious. High sugar breakfasts.

[awoke_in_2003]

24. that figures, Junk food..

was always an "option" when I was growing up- but we had good options, too.

[knitter4democracy]

27. We have that. It's not big enough.

The portions are merely snack-sized for teens, but that's all they get. They need twice that amount to truly function.

[Citizen Worker]

39. Robots don't ask questions or challenge the prevailing orthodoxy.

[yurbud]

3. the real shame is that we have to fight a Democratic president on this

and then he wonders why we aren't enthusiastic about voting.

[xchrom]

5. Recommend -- I have an unformed thought in my head that

Tells me if we had been rigorous in pursuing The
War on Poverty programs - there would be no Arne Duncan.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. War on Poverty...

got in the way of the "War on Drugs" and "War on Terra". We always have money for wars, never any for the people who need it.

[bluestateguy]

6. Bad and irresponsible parents is a major factor

including people who have no business and/or cannot afford to have kids.

And of course overpaid paper pushing bureaucrat administrators.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. What about those...

who could afford kids, but due to various factors had their jobs down-sized and couldn't find another one? And how many children were born due to the total lack of sex education in schools, since every sperm is sacred? Not everything can be laid upon irresponsible parents- sure they may play a part, but only one part. I whole-heartedly agree about administrators.

[bread_and_roses]

33. Blaming the poor for having children?

It is utterly depraved to demand that the natural human desire to have children be subordinate to income. The very notion is only possible in a culture that values nothing but money. And it is utterly depraved to blame the poor for being poor in a system that depends on a disposable labor force and a society that has left huge numbers living in what we used to call Third World conditions for at least three generations, allowing our inner cities to utterly decay, the schools to crumble, the jobs to be moved to the suburbs or overseas, the public transportation to be inadequate and expensive, and wages to stagnate when they don't drop.

Blame the poor. The very essence of the the Capitalist/Calvinist ethos. Tell you what - let's make sure every child has enough to eat, a school with adequate books and computers and paper and teachers and teachers' aids, a safe street to walk home on, a park in the neighborhood to play in, a library in the community, before-and-after school programs so parents can work, and a home with at the least adequate heat, light, and enough food.

Then we can take a look at parenting and what role it plays. Until then, all that blaming the parents does is perpetuate the notion that the poor have no one but themselves to blame for their condition.

[dkf]

7. Yet many Asian kid's parents make less per capita than our poor I would imagine.

How do you explain their dominance? If poverty was destiny Asian countries would still be full of starving people.

Why are they emerging while we slide? Are they racially superior? Gimme a break.

[MichiganVote]

9. Ok, even if they are, and I doubt it, what are they doing with this supposed brain power?

Is Asia primarily responsible for the world's newest greatest inventions? New or better forms of energy generation? Global warming initiatives or studies? Cures? Treatments? Economics?

Or are they just being hired by Billy Gates to save Microsoft the embarrassment of admitting their company is heading for the toilet?

[dkf]

11. Oh They will have the last laugh.

http://pda.physorg.com/news/2010-11-china-asia.html

China now contributes 20% of the world's researchers, the same as the United States and Europe.

http://m.npr.org/story/131351045?url=/2010/11/16/131351045/china-leads-other-nations-in-high-speed-rail-tracks

They lead in high speed rail tracks.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56c0f8e6-fbea-11df-b7e9-00144feab49a.html#axzz19drntfQ3

China surges ahead on clean energy investment
By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent
Published: November 29 2010 19:19 | Last updated: November 29 2010 19:19

http://www.cas.org/newsevents/releases/chinesepatents112309.html

China Leads All Nations in Publication of Chemical Patents According to CAS

China Wrests Supercomputer Title From U.S.
By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: October 28, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/technology/28compute.html

A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower.

[MichiganVote]

25. And all impressive achievements. But at what cost?

These are nice success stories about China. The type they want to promote. Yet there are other disturbing reports re: China and they don't include educating impoverished rural Chinese youth. What bothers me about the whole Asian education thing is that the negative side effects of their social gaps are ignored as often as the problems in the US.

[Fearless]

26. Or include those with disabilities... n/t

[Igel]

30. The problem is that you didn't answer the example.

If poverty --> low educational achievement, how do so many impoverished kids do high by the very standards that Duncan proposes? (And, not coincidentally, tend to do not so badly on other tests.)

The use that they put their education to would seem to propose the very correctness of the original objection and your later cavilling seeks to call into question.

(I think there is a valid counterargument to be made. I just don't feel like making it because I think it merely mitigates the objection without overturning it.)

[bread_and_roses]

36. On what data do you base the claim that "so many impoverished kids do high?"

Since there are so many studies which show correlations between poverty and poor educational outcomes (particularly for deep poverty in early childhood) I'd like to know on what basis you are making such a claim?

[MichiganVote]

38. If anything it merely proves that point that diversity among learners and economic classes

is alive and well. However that does not negate the claim that poverty is damaging to a child or to a child's education. To be able to study the affects of poverty on education, many variables must be considered. Those studies are very expensive and must include the testing results over time, among various economic and ethnic groups and all tests must be the same.

Those are not the conditions of educational testing today within or outside the United States.

[bread_and_roses]

35. There is no inequality, no hunger and poverty in "Asian countries?"

If, as I presume, you are referring to China and India? Poverty is still wide-spread, though decreasing. And with the new economies there are indications of increasing inequality - both of income and the consequent inequalities of health and education outcomes inevitable in capitalist economies.

There is a vast body of evidence correlating income with both health and education outcomes. But hey, blame the parents, not the system. It's so much more convenient for the Oligarchs to put the sole responsibility for caring for and educating our children on individuals, not society.
edit for punctuation

[MichiganVote]

8. This is the same response he rattles off each time he is questioned about the social gap

that "We" average tax payers notice each and every year. Duncan is quoted as saying this same thing over and over again. In fact its a favorite quote just about everywhere these days.

You know Arne was Co Captain of his Harvard basketball team during the 1986-87 season, his senior year. His team won a mere seven games and lost 17. Maybe Duncan is right. Despite a persistently low achieving team that never made any annual yearly progress, here he is today as a Secretary of Education.

But then we all know that.

What we don't know is why Obama supports such a loser.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. "why Obama supports such a loser"...

complicity or collusion- take your choice.

[dkf]

10. Maybe poverty correlates to the value parents place on education.

It makes sense that a parent who values education highly also got a better education and is compensated better.

If a parent shows little interest in their kids education and a teacher cannot kick kids out of that mindset then it may be a lost cause.

[awoke_in_2003]

19. and if said parents...

are scrambling at two low paying jobs just to keep a roof overhead?

[dkf]

20. I don't think that has much to do with it.

My parents never helped me with my homework from what I remember. But I knew they expected me to get As or Bs at least. And I always knew I was going to college. It never occured to me that I wouldn't.

[knitter4democracy]

29. For many of my students, it doesn't occur to them that they can.

They know it's insanely expensive, and they're struggling to have enough food and pay their bills as it is. It's not that their parents don't expect good grades, more that their parents are overwhelmed with everything as it is.

You should come visit my school, too.

[Hawkowl]

40. Neither did mine

Not to mention we were on foodstamps and free lunches much of the time. Oh and social services had to carefully monitor my family for abuse. Yes, I was in the top 1% of my HS class, and yes I was the first in my extended family to graduate from college. And yes I am in the top 5% income bracket.

BUT, I am an anomaly. I am an exception and not the rule. I realize that virtually everyone who is poor will do better with more aid. More proper nutrition, smaller class sizes, and individualized curricula along with tutoring and mentoring, because their parents can't give it to them.

Not everyone is as good as you. Does that mean we should just flush their potential down the toilet? What cost to society if we quash the next Mozart or Einstein simply because their parents were poor, ignorant, and abusive?

[knitter4democracy]

28. Holy effen' crap. That's a seriously messed up post.

If you entirely and 100% ignore what's been going on in our economy and the fact that many college-educated people are out of work and can't find jobs even after months and years, even, of searching and ignore the fact that bad kids can come from good homes, too, then maybe there'd be a lick of sense in that, but I seriously doubt it.

[Gormy Cuss]

32. There are many parents who value education precisely because they didn't get a good one.

They can wish for a better outcome for their own kids until hell freezes over but that alone will not give the child the tools to succeed. The child needs good educators and schools with the resources necessary to teach children who are starting from a severe disadvantage.

I grew up in and later worked in very low income communities and the vast majority of parents wanted their children to do better than their parents had done. That alone did little to improve the lot of their children. What did help were better schools, supplemental learning programs, and tutoring for those in primary and secondary schools -- not to mention generous Federal grant and scholarship programs at the college level for those who did manage to succeed in secondary school.

[bread_and_roses]

34. So people are poor because they don't value education?

That is utter nonsense. It doesn't matter how much you value education when you are part of an underclass deliberately left to stew in abject poverty as a disposable labor force. Which is what this country has done for - oh, about forever, but very deliberately and consciously in the past thirty years as the Oligarchs fought back the "War on Poverty" and the provision of even a marginal safety net. Nor does it matter how much you value education if your kid's school has forty in a classroom, holes in the floor, rats, no science lab, old textbooks and not even enough of them, no paper or crayons for the kindergartners, old broken computers - if any - and your kid risks his life walking down the halls or on the way home.

Tell me this: if we could magically make every single person job-ready to the level of their ability, where are the jobs for all of them?

And say one lacks either the desire or the ability to do a "skilled" job - where are the "unskilled" jobs that pay wages that will even marginally support a family even with two full-time workers? (Outside the public sector, which of course is being dismantled.)

But hey, anything to defend one of Obama's appointments, I guess.

[awoke_in_2003]

12. poverty is the root of most of our problems...

children cannot effectively learn when the are hungry, yet we whittle away at breakfast and lunch programs. But do not worry- the Gate's children will be just fine.

[handmade34]

21. "children cannot learn when the are hungry"

or abused, or neglected, or....

"poverty is not destiny", but it usually is without education

we have a seriously vicious cycle in this country and it will take extreme measures to break it...

[awoke_in_2003]

23. Very true...

but it will continue as long as we keep re-distributing the wealth the wrong way (up)

[Igel]

31. The HP article assumes the conclusion.

Having assumed it, it then adduces it as a necessary and sufficient cause for the observations. Since it is both necessary and sufficient, therefore it is the proper conclusion to assume, making it a necessary and sufficient case for the observations--and since it's both necessary and sufficient, we conclude it's the proper premise to assume . . .

After reading it not only do I feel as completely phd as Klonsky indicates he is, wallowing in utter amazement at the sheer quality of the phing employed, but I'm also possessed by exhaustion.

[fatbuckel]

37. Do you see how pissed teachers and their friends get when anyone suggests "bad teaching"