"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Monday, October 25, 2010

Hope Rising to Challenge Despair in Wake County

Wake County School Board's Gang of 5 has been working overtime since last year's local election to undo one of the most successful socioeconomic integration plans in the nation.  John Tedesco has been the diminuitive driver of the anti-diversity Koch-funded forces who, until last week, seemed about to succeed in putting in place a policy assuring the return to segregated schooling.  Now it seems as if the coalition of resegregationists has cracked, and the entire house is cards is about to come tumbling down. 

Meanwhile, there are new levels of interest nationwide in socioeconomic integration (except in the U. S. Department of Education) as a way to boost achievement without turning schools into the brainwashing penal pedagogy camps of the KIPPs and their knock-offs. A new study by the Century Foundation, "Housing Policy is School Policy," reminds us once again that education reform is something that does not happen JUST INSIDE the schoolhouse.  Until we begin to take seriously this fact, we will continue to treat educational symptoms without addressing the underlying disease, thus allowing the advocates of America, Inc. to continue to savage the public schools.

Valerie Strauss has a discussion going at WaPo, and here is Richard Kahlenberg's piece that addresses some of the concerns that have been expressed regarding socioeconomic integration.

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