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Voices in Urban Education
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Small Schools and Race
VUE Number 2, Fall 2003
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
In Search of Authentic Reform
By Patricia A.Wasley, Dean of the College of
Education at the University of Washington.
> Complete bio
Although Americans have tried numerous education reforms over the past few decades, most have failed to narrow the gaps that separate more-privileged students from poorer students and students of color. Authentic reform would include authentic equity, authentic learning, and authentic relationships, which small schools would help engender.
Early in my education career, I taught in a large urban high school in Australia where one-third of the students were poor white kids. The others were all recent immigrants from several countries in Africa or Southeast Asia. They were all poor, too. The high school was tracked, and the only kids in the college-bound classes were the least poor of the white kids. Because I was a new teacher, I taught the kids in the middle and low tracks. The unspoken assumption was that the “better” kids should get the best, most experienced teachers.
Over several years, those of us teaching in the lower tracks developed a series of experiential activities for our students. We re-created battles on the original historical sites.We sailed for a week on one of the America's Cup boats. We bicycled five hundred miles along the coast, tracking the placement of small towns and the development of the area. These kids were amazing — just amazing. Students accurately plotted our course on the boat using the algebra and geometry that they had rebelled against in the classroom.When I could hardly walk after the bicycle trip, a sympathetic young man handstitched a sheepskin seat cover for me. In the evening, while sitting around the campfire, they read, with feeling and appreciation, the poetry of soldiers and settlers. They were so very bright, so engaging, and so often defeated inside the walls of the school.
Unfortunately, these kids were part of a system that believed they needed a different and less rigorous curriculum than the one the wealthier kids received. They didn't always have educators who believed in them or who had the skills to teach them the basic, necessary skills in reading and math. And they sometimes didn't have families who knew the system well enough to advocate for them. As a result, these kids frequently didn't do well, and many dropped out. I agree with Michelle Fine (1991), who asserts that dropouts demonstrate their intelligence by refusing to stay in a school system that makes damaging assumptions about their capabilities.My experience in Australia mirrors much of what has happened for well over a hundred years in this country. Privileged kids are well served by our educational system; kids of color are not.
Since I began my education career, many approaches have been initiated to close the gap in achievement between kids of color — mainly Black, Latino, and Native American kids — and their higher-achieving counterparts. The list of efforts is long. During the 1960s, we tried to create more relevant curricula, bused kids to integrate schools, and experimented with open classrooms. In the 1970s, we implemented instructional leadership; tried curriculum mapping; developed multicultural curricula; raised teacher expectations, particularly for girls; adopted student learning objectives; and applied lessons from “effective schools.” In the 1980s, we worked on high school reform, performance assessment, outcomesbased education, and site-based decision making. And, in the 1990s, we developed standards at the local / district, state, and federal levels in all the disciplines and began the work of building high-stakes accountability.
Archives
Small Schools and Race
VUE Number 2, Fall 2003
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
In Search of Authentic Reform
By Patricia A.Wasley, Dean of the College of
Education at the University of Washington.
> Complete bio
Although Americans have tried numerous education reforms over the past few decades, most have failed to narrow the gaps that separate more-privileged students from poorer students and students of color. Authentic reform would include authentic equity, authentic learning, and authentic relationships, which small schools would help engender.
Early in my education career, I taught in a large urban high school in Australia where one-third of the students were poor white kids. The others were all recent immigrants from several countries in Africa or Southeast Asia. They were all poor, too. The high school was tracked, and the only kids in the college-bound classes were the least poor of the white kids. Because I was a new teacher, I taught the kids in the middle and low tracks. The unspoken assumption was that the “better” kids should get the best, most experienced teachers.
Over several years, those of us teaching in the lower tracks developed a series of experiential activities for our students. We re-created battles on the original historical sites.We sailed for a week on one of the America's Cup boats. We bicycled five hundred miles along the coast, tracking the placement of small towns and the development of the area. These kids were amazing — just amazing. Students accurately plotted our course on the boat using the algebra and geometry that they had rebelled against in the classroom.When I could hardly walk after the bicycle trip, a sympathetic young man handstitched a sheepskin seat cover for me. In the evening, while sitting around the campfire, they read, with feeling and appreciation, the poetry of soldiers and settlers. They were so very bright, so engaging, and so often defeated inside the walls of the school.
Unfortunately, these kids were part of a system that believed they needed a different and less rigorous curriculum than the one the wealthier kids received. They didn't always have educators who believed in them or who had the skills to teach them the basic, necessary skills in reading and math. And they sometimes didn't have families who knew the system well enough to advocate for them. As a result, these kids frequently didn't do well, and many dropped out. I agree with Michelle Fine (1991), who asserts that dropouts demonstrate their intelligence by refusing to stay in a school system that makes damaging assumptions about their capabilities.My experience in Australia mirrors much of what has happened for well over a hundred years in this country. Privileged kids are well served by our educational system; kids of color are not.
Since I began my education career, many approaches have been initiated to close the gap in achievement between kids of color — mainly Black, Latino, and Native American kids — and their higher-achieving counterparts. The list of efforts is long. During the 1960s, we tried to create more relevant curricula, bused kids to integrate schools, and experimented with open classrooms. In the 1970s, we implemented instructional leadership; tried curriculum mapping; developed multicultural curricula; raised teacher expectations, particularly for girls; adopted student learning objectives; and applied lessons from “effective schools.” In the 1980s, we worked on high school reform, performance assessment, outcomesbased education, and site-based decision making. And, in the 1990s, we developed standards at the local / district, state, and federal levels in all the disciplines and began the work of building high-stakes accountability.
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