Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Is it fair to expect teachers in high-poverty schools to be miracle workers?

Think about three different scenarios:

• A doctor who specializes in hard-to-treat patients.

• A farmer struggling with drought.

• A cop assigned to a high-crime neighborhood.

Would you expect these three to experience outcomes — such as number of patient deaths, size of crop yields or number of cases solved — similar to those of their counterparts who face fewer challenges?

Sure, we expect the same professional standards regardless of work environment; being in a tough spot is no excuse for incompetence.

But an expectation of results is typically adjusted based on circumstances.

It only makes sense.

Yet, when it comes to schools, this kind of logic goes out the window.

www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/09/is_it_fair_to_expect_teachers.html


1 comment:

JHB said...

On Wednesday November 2nd the Poverty Reduction Initiative in Kalamazoo along with KPS and the Lewis Walker Institute at WMU and other community partners will present a lecture by Richard Rothstein, Fellow with the Economic Policy Institute and former National Education columnist for the New York Times. He has authored over 28 books and publications on the impact of Poverty on Education. Look for more details in the upcoming weeks. Richard Rothstein's visit is part PRI's 12+_month focus on Poverty and Education, other speakers and community discussions will follow.