The Great Debate

Watch the debate HERE.

Charter schools or public schools?  Fire teachers as a solution?  Resources are the solution?  Today's post is about a fascinating debate between Diane Ravitch and Geoffrey Canada.  The two go at it and cover a plethora of education-related topics.  Ravitch, who worked for the Bush administration, openly admits the mistake supporting a heightened focus on testing.  She uses her knowledge of research and a recent visit to Finland to back up her opinion that firing teachers and opening charter schools is the answer.  Canada uses his hands-on experience leading a charter school to back up his opinion that firing teachers and opening private-funded charter schools is the answer. 

The bottom line?  Poverty needs to be taken into account.  Poverty-stricken families have less access to resources.  From my experience teaching in a poverty-stricken urban school, some (not all) families do not appreciate the resources, nor education.  Their children engaged in minimal 2-way conversation and are  neglected emotionally and physically.  The children are not read to every night, homework demands little concern, and when the parents come into the school they think it appropriate to cuss at both the children and adults in the school.  Obviously, there are many hard-working parents who value education.  Sadly though, there are not enough of them for me to be able to paint a prettier picture.  As Ravitch once said, "The education system in this country cannot alone solve poverty, and in many cases it will inherently reflect poverty."

How is Canada's solution of firing teachers or closing schools going to solve the issue?  The same children and families in the neighborhood will still be there, as will the poverty.  What exactly do standardized tests tell us?  We already know which kids are going to pass and which kids will fail...it's about poverty.  You can put 'great' teachers in impoverished schools and the kids will improve.  Great teachers will do that.  However, these teachers are not superheros and will not be able to close the education gap between the poverty-stricken and wealthy students.  As long as poverty exists, the gap will exists, and we have to stop blaming teachers for poverty!  America, including Geoffrey Canada, needs to advert our attention to the impact of poverty on education.