In a message dated 12/4/2001 4:29:34 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>... I have to disagree with Mr. Mann that the point of the article was "bashing bad parents", but rather advising parents not to be so worried about which school their child will attend as the defining factor in what kind of people they will turn into...[snip] Ms. Mickelsen mentions "freaked out" parents asking questions about math and reading curriculum, learning styles, etc. Many of these parents seem so anxious, she observes, that there have been tours... "where I want to pass out Xanax before we start roaming the halls." Why so much anxiety about finding "the right school" in Minneapolis? Ms Mickelsen speculates that it might be "collateral damage from the culture wars...Conservatives predictably declare public schools a failure...And liberals have demanded public schools overcome all the ills of society including racism, poverty, and parents who screw up." I am quite certain that "liberals" have demanded nothing of the sort. Ms. Mickelsen is setting up a straw man, i.e., attributing to an opponent a position one can demolish with the greatest of ease. I've never heard anyone seriously argue that public schools can overcome all the ills of society, or that the "academic achievement gap" between white and black students, for example, can be completely eliminated without also eliminating poverty and racism. No one denies that extra-school factors affect how students do in school. However, Lynnell Mickelsen articulates a position that is just as extreme in the other direction as the one she attributes to 'liberals,' and just as ridiculous. "Relax. Your kids will turn out fine. Or they won't. Either way the school won't have much to do with it. Because most of the time, it's the family, stupid. If parents stay sober, etc.." In other words, if you do a good job as a parent, your kids will probably do fine in school and in life. The implication is that if your kids don't "turn out fine," it's because you are a bad parent. That just happens to echo the school administration's propaganda. The Minneapolis Board of Education argues that educational outcomes have little to do with the allocation of educational resources among schools in the district and practices, like ability grouping, which the district promotes. That was also a line of defense the state of Minnesota used in an educational adequacy lawsuit involving the Minneapolis School District (NAACP / Xiong et al. Minnesota). I was a plaintiff in the NAACP / Xiong case. If I were a resident of Edina or Minnetonka, assurances that the schools are unlikely to screw up or under-educate my child can be backed up with statistics on dropout / pushout rates, on-time graduation rates, the percentage of students who pass the Minnesota Basic Standards Tests on the first try, etc. If I were a resident of Edina, Minnetonka or one of many other towns in the Twin Cities Metro area, I wouldn't need to shop around for a good public school. I wouldn't need to consider alternatives to the public school system. And I certainly wouldn't need the assurances of a tour guide at one of the public schools that if I do a good job as a parent, my child will "turn out fine." But I am a resident of Minneapolis, where reading instruction isn't ordinarily done in the public schools. A surprisingly large number of kids, especially kids from low income neighborhoods are designated "low-ability" learners. The districtwide high school dropout / pushout rate is about 50%, and considerably higher for the students who are excluded from the academic / college preparatory programs (about 75% of the students are tracked into a work readiness curriculum). If the school district admitted that poor and unequal educational outcomes were due, in large part, to unequal resource allocation and practices like ability grouping, they would have to do something about it. Instead, they are sticking to their courtroom strategy. My advice to parents: worry, and demand excellent and equitable schools for all. -Doug Mann, Kingfield Doug Mann for School Board web site <http://educationright.tripod.com> _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
