Quote:
Originally Posted by Dutch
Oh snap, you're absolutely right, Ferguson, you just keep doing your 1 out of 10 rated high schools then. Is that what you are saying?
|
You are grossly oversimplifying a complex situation. In the huge majority of cases, schools don't fail because they need to be "fixed" in terms of better teachers, more resources, etc. They fail because the communities they serve are struggling. Put a bunch of kids in school who are underprepared, often undernourished, and usually don't get the encouragement/motivation that kids in schools that are doing well get, and that school usually performs poorly.
My daughter goes to an elementary school that is a "9" by Great Schools. The district to the southeast of us (a little closer to the "city') is an 8. The district to the northwest of us is a 10. The 8 district has more poor kids of all races than our 9. And our 9 district has more poor kids of all races than the 10. It's not that the teachers and resources are any different. It's the clientele. Sure, poorer kids CAN perform well, but they very frequently start out behind and don't get the support/motivation from home that kids who come from homes of more means do.
In short "fix the schools," quite often means "fix poverty." Sure, I can point to kids who grew up in poverty who made it out. My father is one of them. But for every one I can point to who made it out, I can point to 20ish more who didn't.