|
Sitemap
| Jobs
|
Contact Us
|
Building Smart Education Systems |
Voices in Urban Education
Archives
Equity after Katrina
VUE Number 10, Winter 2006
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Educational Equity, after Katrina
By Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.
> Author's biography
The terrible destruction wrought by Hurricane
Katrina exposed for all the world what educators have
long known: America remains deeply divided by race
and class, and the lack of opportunities for poor people
and people of color have devastating consequences.
As Americans watched in horror, poor children and
children of color were, quite literally, left behind by the
storm and subsequent flooding.
The implications for education are obvious and profound. Although leaving no child behind is national policy, Katrina demonstrated that poor children and children of color lack the resources and support they need. Given those stark realities, the old solutions will not work. To live up to the promise of the idea of leaving no child left behind, America needs to address seriously the question of equity.
What would it take to achieve true equity? First, it requires a recognition that equity involves much more than financial resources. It also involves changes in power relationships so that all individuals have a say in decisions that affect them. It involves curricular and instructional changes that enable teachers to take students' cultural backgrounds into account. And it involves ensuring opportunities to learn – in and out of school – that many children are now denied.
Yet, by itself, equity is an insufficient goal. To ensure a bright future for all children, equity must be matched with excellence, and both must be achieved at a large enough scale so that all children in fact learn what they need to know to succeed as adults. Clearly, though, schools in large cities are falling short of these ideals, and they have for years. Katrina merely tore the mask off this reality.
This issue of Voices in Urban Education examines educational equity and excellence in the post-Katrina era. The authors speak in impassioned tones about the pervasive inequities that continue to divide Americans and suggest new possibilities for addressing these inequities and for producing equity and excellence at scale.
Gloria Ladson-Billings speaks with anger and sadness about the "aggressive neglect" in New Orleans and other cities that existed long before Katrina and that has denied educational opportunities – and, indeed, citizenship – to poor children and children of color.
> Excerpt
Charles V. Willie argues that excellence and equity cannot exist without one another, but that the nation has pursued excellence because it lacks the will to strive for equity.
> Excerpt
Jonathan Kozol vividly details the corrosive effects of the "apartheid" in American schools and the role of school reformers in perpetuating the separation of White and Black students.
> Full text with audio
Dennie Palmer Wolf and Hal Smith describe five key strategies for achieving equity and excellence at scale and state that residents of New Orleans and other cities afflicted by "stressed levees" deserve a transformation of their educational systems, not mere tinkering around the edges.
> Excerpt
The solutions recommended by these authors may seem ambitious. But as they all point out, the moral imperative for ambitious changes is strong. In the days after Katrina hit, many Americans appeared willing to accept that moral imperative – and act to improve the conditions they had seen. Political leaders and commentators were talking about equity and excellence in terms that are rare in public discourse.
Six months later, however, the initial enthusiasm seems to have faded. But the need has not faded. The need in most cities is as powerful as it was on August 29, 2005, and as strong as it was two weeks before that. The test for our society is whether we are willing to address it or choose to move on. But we do not need another hurricane to act. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "The time is always right to do what is right."
Archives
Equity after Katrina
VUE Number 10, Winter 2006
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Educational Equity, after Katrina
By Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.
> Author's biography
The terrible destruction wrought by Hurricane
Katrina exposed for all the world what educators have
long known: America remains deeply divided by race
and class, and the lack of opportunities for poor people
and people of color have devastating consequences.
As Americans watched in horror, poor children and
children of color were, quite literally, left behind by the
storm and subsequent flooding.
The implications for education are obvious and profound. Although leaving no child behind is national policy, Katrina demonstrated that poor children and children of color lack the resources and support they need. Given those stark realities, the old solutions will not work. To live up to the promise of the idea of leaving no child left behind, America needs to address seriously the question of equity.
What would it take to achieve true equity? First, it requires a recognition that equity involves much more than financial resources. It also involves changes in power relationships so that all individuals have a say in decisions that affect them. It involves curricular and instructional changes that enable teachers to take students' cultural backgrounds into account. And it involves ensuring opportunities to learn – in and out of school – that many children are now denied.
Yet, by itself, equity is an insufficient goal. To ensure a bright future for all children, equity must be matched with excellence, and both must be achieved at a large enough scale so that all children in fact learn what they need to know to succeed as adults. Clearly, though, schools in large cities are falling short of these ideals, and they have for years. Katrina merely tore the mask off this reality.
This issue of Voices in Urban Education examines educational equity and excellence in the post-Katrina era. The authors speak in impassioned tones about the pervasive inequities that continue to divide Americans and suggest new possibilities for addressing these inequities and for producing equity and excellence at scale.
Gloria Ladson-Billings speaks with anger and sadness about the "aggressive neglect" in New Orleans and other cities that existed long before Katrina and that has denied educational opportunities – and, indeed, citizenship – to poor children and children of color.
> Excerpt
Charles V. Willie argues that excellence and equity cannot exist without one another, but that the nation has pursued excellence because it lacks the will to strive for equity.
> Excerpt
Jonathan Kozol vividly details the corrosive effects of the "apartheid" in American schools and the role of school reformers in perpetuating the separation of White and Black students.
> Full text with audio
Dennie Palmer Wolf and Hal Smith describe five key strategies for achieving equity and excellence at scale and state that residents of New Orleans and other cities afflicted by "stressed levees" deserve a transformation of their educational systems, not mere tinkering around the edges.
> Excerpt
The solutions recommended by these authors may seem ambitious. But as they all point out, the moral imperative for ambitious changes is strong. In the days after Katrina hit, many Americans appeared willing to accept that moral imperative – and act to improve the conditions they had seen. Political leaders and commentators were talking about equity and excellence in terms that are rare in public discourse.
Six months later, however, the initial enthusiasm seems to have faded. But the need has not faded. The need in most cities is as powerful as it was on August 29, 2005, and as strong as it was two weeks before that. The test for our society is whether we are willing to address it or choose to move on. But we do not need another hurricane to act. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "The time is always right to do what is right."
|
Annenberg Institute for School Reform Brown University, Box 1985 Providence, RI 02912 |
Telephone: 401.863.7790 Fax: 401.863.1290 |
AISR_info@brown.edu
|
© all material AISR