After reading, admittedly only four chapters at this point, I find this book to be well written, well documented, and depressing. When the author finally offers ideas to improve, I think the systemic changes are too big for me to tackle. I can and will do what I can for my students and the district that I work with, but a call for state wide or nation wide change seems too colossal for one person (or even the 10 in our cohort).
One main difficulty that I ask you, my reader, to help me with is how the author, in the first three chapters, seems to paint almost all of your school issues on race issues. More often than not, however, when I looked to her studies in the notes, I see that the studies point more to poorer classes rather than on race. I find this offensive. The focus on race seems a red hearing. If instead the focus is on creating a more equitable class system and helping to create a healthy middle class, I would not be as turned off nor as depressed about her findings. In fact, her race baiting does not seem to be supported until she shares the study by Oakes (57) about admittance into honors classes. This study shoes racial inequity, but was conducted in 1992. I question and truly believe based on my California experiences that this does not occur at such a level today, 24 years later! Does it still happen, yes. Does it happen often here in California? I doubt it. The change is happening and will continue. Change must happen, as Darling-Hammond begins to show in Chapter 4, in the states, not the federal government. I look forward to the author's analyses and possible solutions in the coming chapters. I do hope, however, that the racial focus lessens.
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About MeAfter teaching for 20 years, I've decided to pursue a master's degree! Archives
July 2017
CategoriesThis is me working on my classwork... usually at night after the heater is off.... sitting long times makes me cold!
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