Brave words would include recognizing the "moral responsibility" noted by Ellison. Brave words would speak against assumptions that fail. Brave words would admit the following about both our social and educational failures:
à ? The achievement gap in education is a reflection of the equity gap in the lives of children. To scapegoat school and teacher quality as causes of the achievement gap perpetuates a social status quo that protects the interests of those already in power by deflecting our attention away from our cultural failures. Once students pass through the doors of any school, their lives and worlds are not magically erased. Education takes place in the context of lives and society. As a result, our schools are some of the most direct reflections of those lives and our society.
à ? Teacher quality is important, but holding teachers accountable for student achievement and firing teachers labeled failures based on those test scores mask the real in-school inequities perpetuated by teacher assignments. One direct and significant failure of public schools is that teacher assignments exacerbate the social inequities children suffer in their lives. Children fighting from the bottom of stratified lives often find themselves at the bottom of stratified existences in their schools as well.
Speaking to teachers in 1963, Ralph Ellison addressed then the exact educational concerns we have today (including the inordinate drop-out rate of African American males), and he challenged his audience to set aside deficit views of struggling children: "Let's not play these kids cheap; let's find out what they have."
But instead of blaming schools, teachers, or children themselves, Ellison proposed, "As we approach the dropouts, let us identify who we [emphasis in original] are and where we are."
Brave words.
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