Every time the administrators of RUSD release test scores, we are subjected to the same excuses over and over as why our test scores are below the state average.
One of the most popular excuses is this:
The district test scores are below average because of the low-income and inner city students and the challenges of teaching them; many of these students are also minorities.
I am offended by this allegation. I think it is extremely racist to suggest that only white suburban children can learn. But I digress, this post will not be about the minority children of RUSD - it will be about the white children.
I have been told again and again, that the white children of this district are doing very well. I understand that this may be a matter of perception, but I find it disturbing that only 68% of our WHITE 10th graders can read at a 10th grade level!! This does not suggest to me that the white children are doing “very well” at all.
So the next time someone tries to blame the district's poor results on those disadvantaged minority children, try to keep in mind this following thought:
The districts results are bad because our current (and past) administration is under serving ALL of the children in this district, not just the children of color.
2 comments:
I was reading before I was in Kindergarten. I was reading Michael Crichton in 7th grade. I was reading at a college level by 10th grade. I doubt any of that had to do with the schools I went to though. My mom and grandma both taught me to love reading, and I still do. I think many of the minority parents don't care. The children of minority parents who do care stick out like sore thumbs (or healthy ones for that matter), because they usually do very well and in some cases better. I honestly believe that it has more to do with the parents than anything else.
There seems to be a growing problem in Racine in general that leads me to believe that fewer and fewer people actually care about what's going on around them. They are so caught up in their own little worlds of how they feel like acting at that given time, they really just don't care. It's sad.
A parent is a child's first and most important teacher. Like you, my children were reading before Kindergarten and both (at 4th and 6th grade) read at the upper high school level.
I may have already told this story, so if I did, I apologize.
When my son was in 1st grade at Jefferson (the gifted school, mind you) he wanted to check out the 2nd Harry Potter book. He had already read the 1st one at home over the summer.
The librarian told my 6 year old old that 1st graders were not allowed to check out "chapter books" and directed him to the early reader section (Eric Carle, Dr. Suess, etc). He told her, "I read those when I was 3 and 4".
She did, however, allow him to check dinosaur books out of the non-fiction area. So I guess I have her to thank for my child's love of non-fiction. It was the only kind of books he could check out.
This may be where our district has a problem, they do not allow children to excel in their early years and by the time they get to high school, much of their natural interest in learning has been killed.
Post a Comment