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CAT Tracks for May 5, 2010
GOOD DEED DOERS |
...should heed the maxim that "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished."
The irony...
That the "Holy Grail" in school reform has been the quest for the "Magic Bullet"...the secret ingredient that separates good schools from "failing schools"...good teachers from "failing teachers".
As the school choice author of today's earlier post admits...it's NOT "rocket science". In fact, the simple truth...it doesn't exist.
The driving force in the difference between schools and their test scores is the "clientelle"...the students that sit in the classrooms, more specifically their socio-economic background. It's not their fault...it's not their school's or their teacher's fault. It's due to circumstances beyond their control.
The irony...
That the field trip which created the furor in the article below...was to hear a talk by a rocket scientist.
From the detnews.com website...
School outing proves divisive
Trip for black kids to boost test scores riles peers, parents
KAREN BOUFFARD
A school trip for African-Americans pupils only at an Ann Arbor elementary school last week was meant to inspire them to greater achievement, but instead ignited protest from other children and their parents.
The 25 Dicken Elementary School students were taken to a talk by a rocket scientist. They were members of the "African American Lunch Bunch," a club started by teachers and administrators to improve their test scores.
Children who went were booed by classmates when they got back to school, said Ann Arbor School Superintendent Todd Roberts.
Parents of children who stayed behind raised a ruckus, and Principal Mike Madison sent home a letter saying the trip could have been approached and arranged better.
"This was an effort by staff to provide a group that was struggling more than any other group with extra support and address" the achievement gap, Roberts said.
"Obviously, when things cause confusion or upset you need to look at that and see if there are things that could have been done differently."
Michiganians voted 58 percent to 42 percent in favor of Proposal 2, the 2006 Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a constitutional amendment that bans discriminatory or preferential treatment of students on the basis of race, sex and other characteristics.
The ban applies to publicly funded universities, colleges and school districts.
Roberts said the Lunch Bunch club is run by teacher volunteers, and the money for the trip was donated. No public money was used to fund the trip, he said.
Leon Drolet, who led the campaign to get Proposal 2 on the ballot, said it's wrong for a school district to provide something to one group and not to another based solely on their race.
"If they want to say we're going to pull out struggling kids and take them on a trip to inspire them, that's fine," Drolet said.
"But don't say we're going pull out kids based on their skin color and take them on a field trip."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan opposed the amendment, and along with other groups, is fighting it in court.
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
