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October 30, 2006
Scores and Parents
Categories: Classes
Recently, CMS schools' scores on state math exams plummeted, due to a revamped, tougher exam. (See this article in the Charlotte Observer.) Crtics had long said the test was too easy, which artificially inflated gains on the exams during the 1990's. Once a new, tougher exam was put into place, scores went down. Not surprisingly, the largest drop in scores came from poor and minority students.
Tommy Tomlinson's column says the new scores should spark a sense of outrage that should be equally shared by various parties. That outrage should be inwardly directed ("I have not done enough") as it should be directed outward.
I don't particularly like Tomlinson's column; I think it's bad commentary and poor rhetoric. I think he's generally right -- that the failure of these students is a communal failure. After all, it's not as if a few bad apples are scoring poorly. It's systemic. More about that in a second.
What really irks me, though, are the comments to Tomlinson. There are a few that are just juvenile and dumb -- "eat less barbeque, you liberal freak". There's a lingering racist element to a lot of the comments; the failure of black students is to be expected because they don't have the necessary character and intelligence to do well. What stand out is the focus on parental responsibility. The argument is that the failure of these students is because they live in an home that does not value education, that tolerates disrespectful behavior, and generally does not care about school. Again, there are racial overtones to these comments.
Parental involvment matters. A lot. But what are schools supposed to do if it is not forthcoming? Many parents can't or won't be involved in the education of their children. Given that premise, what is to be done? Ruling out drastic legal action against parents -- like ticketing or fining parents who don't come to parent-teacher conferences, what can we do? One option is to just say "too bad" and consign certain children to failure. But that's unacceptable. Our democratic principles, even our misguided meritocratic ones, say we can't do that. It's not the 8 year old's fault his parents don't care about education.
Given those premises, some sort of institutional or communal response would be necessary. More on that later, since I have to go teach now.
Posted by Nakia at October 30, 2006 02:52 PM