As I am reading Shame of the Nation I can’t help but feel disheartened that the poor conditions and segregation in schools have been going on for YEARS and little has been done about it. What I find even more alarming is that I was completely unaware of the terrible conditions and the increasing segregation in schools before I started at NEIU this semester. In the book Kozol provides chilling statistics and personal stories from the children within the schools themselves. He goes into the troubled schools and gets to know the students so he can put a names to the statistics. As I am reading this book I can't help but wonder how we as a nation have allowed children to be sent to rat, asbestos, and lead paint infested schools for years? How have we created expensive stringent standardized testing in all schools and failed to fix the buildings themselves up? Not surprisingly the schools with the worst conditions are the ones that are occupied by minority students.
Kozol points out that in the two largest educational innovations in the past decade the issue of race has been ignored. Obviously, by ignoring this issue the problem is getting even worse and by allowing schools to become more and more segregated we are creating children who do not know anything outside of their own ethnic group. Kozol believes (and I agree) that the world would be much better if we knew each other. So many of our problems are caused because we have no knowledge of the other group. In addition, by allowing out schools to become segregated and letting the schools that primarily serve minority students fall apart we are sending the message to our minority students that they don't matter. Reading this book made me think of a discussion I had in a different class about the Brown decision. The clark doll test provided substantial proof that went on to help them win the case. In the doll test it showed how segregation impacted the mental status of school children. A similar study was performed earlier this year and unfortunately many of the children still felt that being white or lighter skinned was better. (To see videos of the children's answers and more info on the study go here: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/17/ac360-series-doll-study-research/)
Kozol shows in his book how the conditions of public schools have digressed to those in the 1960s. As Brian pointed out, some states and cities are working to improve the conditions and lesson the gap. Unfortunately, little improvement has been seen in Chicago and we are still one of the worst school districts in the nation.
Amy as I am reading this book I am asking myself the same questions you are asking. How have we let our schools become so bad? How can we sit around while some many children go to school infested with rats and asbestos? It is ridiculous that so much money has been spent on creating all these standardized tests as you say, and none of it has been spent on improving the conditions of the buildings. The schools are so focused on increasing test scores they fail to realize the physical conditions of the school may be one of the reasons why the test scores are so low. I would not be able to concentrate and learn in a classroom filled with rats, or in one that has no heat or air conditioning. I think that if half of the money used for all these initiatives to raise scores was used to improve the buildings conditions, the test scores that they are so worried about would actually increase.
ReplyDelete"How have we created expensive stringent standardized testing in all schools and failed to fix the buildings themselves up?"
ReplyDeleteAmy, I'm finding (depressing) answers to this question the book I'm reading (Lipman's High Stakes Education). One answer is that the tests can distract attention from all the ways in which our schools are failing our children. Failing to meet their needs now and failing to prepare them for the world. It's easier to demonize the students and teachers than it is to address why certain funds are available for some CPS schools and others mysteriously disappear. I agree that it's infuriating.
I think people have latched on to tests so much because they provide such a clear statement - numbers, percentages, percentiles etc. - and people like these things because they're concrete and tell us which direction the school is going. It's the simple and easy way out of a more real measure of learning (or progress), so that people who don't understand education can see a 30 second snippet on their TV news and think they get it. And IF those numbers show improvement, well that's even more important than fixing the broken windows. After all, if you can show progress in such a poor, run-down environment, you can say that the physical elements don't matter as much. I guess that's what they're thinking, anyway.
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