Palo Alto, California schools Superintendent Kevin Skelly says educators are “deluding themselves” when it comes to closing the achievement gap. And, notes the San Jose Mercury News, he dares to say what’s become almost unspeakable publicly:
It’s just not possible for the average kid who comes to this country in seventh or eighth grade, or even third grade, without a word of English and parents with little formal education, to match the achievement levels of kids whose mom has a Ph.D. in English from Stanford and can afford to stay home and spend time supplementing the education of her kids.
Completely eliminating the achievement gap would be “the triumph of hope over experience,” said Skelly, adding that when educators set that lofty goal, “we’re not being honest, and it’s to our detriment.” In Palo Alto, home of Stanford University and dozens of Silicon Valley companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Facebook and Xerox, “socioeconomic and educational differences are arguably magnified,” notes writer Sharon Noguchi. “While many professors, high-tech workers and other professionals have paid a premium to live in the city to send their children to highly regarded schools, other parents come from working-class backgrounds, some busing their children from East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park.”
Make no mistake, Skelly said, his schools should — and do — try to bring up the achievement of Latino and African-American students. But idealistic rhetoric creates high public expectations for schools, while letting families, politicians and society in general off the hook, Skelly believes. By themselves, schools can’t overcome the influence of parents, friends and communities, he said.
As a group, students in Palo Alto are well above California’s state averages, but the gaps are also wider than average. On the state’s academic performance index for 2008, the district’s Asians scored 972, whites scored 934, Latinos 746 and African-Americans 700. “That’s a 234-point gap between white and black students, up one-third from 2003 and nearly 50 percent higher than statewide figures,” the paper notes.
We ought to pay some attention to the fact that we are talking about the gap in meeting a minimal proficiency standard. Everyone doesn’t have to be a genius. But everyone should be able to read and cipher at a functional level.
Comment by Margo/Mom — February 4, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
Given the resources of Palo Alto schools, it’s surprising that black and Hispanic students do only a little better there than in the state as a whole.
My daughter was educated in Palo Alto schools. I think the schools are designed to do well with the children of very well-educated parents and aren’t good at helping less advantaged children.
Many of the black and Hispanic kids are bused in from East Palo Alto under a desegregation agreement. The bused-in kids come from much poorer and much less-educated families than the district kids.
When my daughter was in middle school, she said none of the Hispanic students in her Spanish classes did the work. It was considered uncool. They passed thanks to their native language fluency but earned D’s and C’s because they didn’t learn standard grammar or writing skills. Some of the black kids worked hard and did well; others did not. She thought the presence of some Palo Alto black students, children of educated parents, made it socially acceptable for an East Palo Alto black student to try to do well in school. There were no such Hispanic strivers in her class.
A friend whose kids went to a different elementary school said that when East Palo Alto students lagged behind, they were dumped into special ed — with a lousy teacher — instead of getting help that would enable them to catch up.
Comment by Joanne Jacobs — February 6, 2009 @ 10:55 pm
Superintendent Skelly should check out http://www.nifdi.org and watch the posted film titled – Closing the Achievement Gap – and then adopt the same program, Direct Instruction, for his schools. He would get the same results – moving kids from the bottom quadrant to the top quadrant in test scores in five years and that includes Hispanic and Afro-American students. Of course, doing that would take a man of considerable character and courage considering he has already publicly committed himself to the status quo but I am sure we could all forgive him for making that mistake if he would be willing to make it right. I hope he does. Time will tell.
Comment by Rocky Dail — February 7, 2009 @ 10:30 pm
Superintendent Skelly responded and apologized for his comments in the Mercury News article during a Palo Alto school board meeting on Tuesday.
For more details, see:
http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=7845
Comment by The Paly Voice — February 11, 2009 @ 6:10 pm