The Democrats over on the Washington House Education Committee (the same education advocates who torpedoed yet another charter school bill that would have given unprecedented opportunities to thousands of low-income children) are promoting a different path toward educational excellence: a bill to re-establish "The Washington Commission on Student Learning".
research has also pointed out that schools are more reflective of white, middle-class society. This can lead to a disconnect between students who come from different cultures and family conditions and the traditional school structure and expectations.the remedy?
Serious attention must be given to creating learning environments that are intolerant of racism and exclusion and in which high expectations are held for all students; curriculum and teaching practices must recognize differences in ethnicity, language, and culture and teachers must be skilled in teaching students unlike themselves; and in order to close the achievement gap, there must be understanding of the impact of language, culture, race, and poverty on student achievement.For the life of me I can't figure out how the hypothesis that the state's school system is "more reflective of white, middle-class society" would explain the fact that Asian-Americans are admitted to the University of Washington at 5.5 times the rate that Caucasians are admitted, or why the children of Vietnamese immigrants in Seattle, for example, graduate from high school more often and with higher GPAs than their white peers. But what do I know, I'm neither a professional educator nor a Democrat.
This bill gets one thing right, which is that high expectations should be held for all students. But what kid is going to take such "high expectations" seriously when he is also told that achievement is a function of race and wealth?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 25, 2004 05:44 PM