GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Where does reading begin for children of low SES? Public Libraries and school libraries. What have we done to these institutions? Bled them dry systematically. And then our “rescuers” like Robin Hood Foundation (the same one our “Education” Mayor’s daughter happens to work for) can ride in on their white horses!

It always comes back to the home life, doesn’t it?

Norm gets it right–we’ve got to address the growing speech/language disparity before students enroll in kindergarten. Otherwise, it’s just a losing, uphill battle with increasingly disinterested students and increasingly frustrated educators.

Unfortunately, whenever such 0-5 years issues are addressed (traditionally beyond the reach of K-12 policies), Klein et al immediately pounce, allege defeatism, and ignore the veracity of the conversation. But whether the corporate-ed, MBA brain wizards like it or not, this field isn’t a business; it’s (or should be) a partnership between schools, families, and communities. And to ignore the influence and foundational importance that a family has on a student before she ever enters a classroom is appalling and insulting.

Yes, teachers have long used the often chaotic home lives of low-income students as a scapegoat for low achievement. This, too, must stop. But the harder policy makers squeeze teachers and directly tie professional success to individual student scores, the more desperately teachers will point to the obvious factors that inform the development of our students. I often wonder how Bloomberg would react if, on any given day, some of the servers at Bloomberg L.P didn’t function because they were tired or sad or had just been having a bad day…

A single program or initiative can never hope to address these issues. We need a farsighted, thoughtful approach that brings families, educators, and policy makers together to, finally, act in the true interests of our kids.

Black students graduate three years behind White kids…Black students have a drop-out rate of 53%..If we combine this drop-out rate with the highly conservative estimate that 16% of these students will fail to pass state required exit exams, we arrive at a figure, indicating that only 37% of Black students will receive high school diplomas…Functional illiteracy is one indicator of the demise of a community..The Black community presently has an adult illteracy rate of over 44% and climbing…A great deal of young adult and juvenile Black male offenders are incarcerated at alarming rates within our correctional institutions…A large percentage of these offenders are “functionallly illiterate”…”If you don’t read, you don’t know and will never find out”..(Green)..Illiteracy remains that villian which continues to cause so many of the problems of the Black community and problems confronting other minorities…”Between the Rhetoric and Reality” Lauriat Press;Simpkins&Simpkins,2009…written by two African American brothers, can be previewed on either “Amazon.Com, or Borders”.