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  Posted By:
  kmarsh at 04/10/2008 11:30:47 AM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis, thank you for such a well-written and informative article. I am researching a paper on the regional differences of racial identity, academic achievement and standardized testing. Your article is great launching point.
  Warmly, Kris
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  Posted By:
  shankfree at 03/24/2008 12:17:33 AM
  Comment:
  Great points about addressing the inequality have been raised. Another point I would like to highlight amidst all this is the need to pick up sharp minds when they are young and ensure they are given the resources necessary to develop their young minds to their respective potentials. This needs to be done across the racial spectrum. If America has to maintain its supremacy in the scientific realm and stay at the forefronts of science and technology, there needs to some provision to allow acceleration for deserving candidates. No Child Left Behind must not be morphed into All Children Left behind...
  
  SK
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  Posted By:
  amscam at 03/02/2008 8:58:07 AM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis,
  I think your piece was very well written and addresses issues that people often forget about when improving education. You can't solve one problem, without solving others. Keep writing thought provoking commentary such as this, to encourage more talk and more ideas on improving the education and quality of life for our children.
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  Posted By:
  rianaelyse at 03/01/2008 10:07:38 AM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis,
  let me begin by noting how well summarized your thoughts on this issue were. it is often difficult to condense both education and housing problems within such a small discussion, but again, well done!
  
  additionally, as an educator, i would like to comment on the needs as i see them in our urban schools. resources, albeit useful to those with affluence, are NOT, in my opinion, the problem. coming from the resource-stricken detroit public schools, i was often of the belief that "if we just had more resources, we would be on par with/better than other schools." but now that i'm teaching in atlanta public schools, i'm of a much different vantage point. my children have the WORLD handed to them in terms of resources (either because my school gets so much BECAUSE we're such low SES) or because i busted my bottom getting donations from community members, and they don't know what to do with it! it is SO difficult getting them to understand what it means to respect people, property, and potential. what i'm asking for is assistance with a paradigm shift, not additional resources.
  
  i believe this to be attainable through additional teachers in the room, longer school days, year-round schools, a national curriculum, and mandatory parental participation (yes i said it - and i meant it!). though school is public, our dollars need to mandate various responsibilities brought on by both the government AND home.
  
  i could go on forever, but i digress. continue to teach, inspire, and deliver.
  
  peace,
  riana.elyse
  
  
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  Posted By:
  ritmo77 at 03/01/2008 1:23:25 AM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis,
  I found your article very intriguing and timely. While I am neither an educator nor in the education field, I do live with a 3rd grade teacher who teaches in the Oakland School District. Rarely does a week pass when we do not discuss the frustrations that he and his colleagues have with "teaching to the test" (whatever the test of the moment may be.) Testing kids at such a young age seems like we're weighing the calf before we've even begun to feed it. The cultural bias of the test also adds an additional layer of complexity for those educators working with non-anglo populations, especially when they are non-English speaking. Factor in inadequate teacher salaries, lack of school resources, unstable family situations for the students, and the increasing responsibilities heaped on teachers and you have a recipe for unmet expectations.
  
  Best,
  JG
  
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  Posted By:
  rianaelyse at 02/28/2008 8:22:57 PM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis,
  let me begin by noting how well summarized your thoughts on this issue were. it is often difficult to condense both education and housing problems within such a small discussion, but again, well done!
  
  additionally, as an educator, i would like to comment on the needs as i see them in our urban schools. resources, albeit useful to those with affluence, are NOT, in my opinion, the problem. coming from the resource-stricken detroit public schools, i was often of the belief that "if we just had more resources, we would be on par with/better than other schools." but now that i'm teaching in atlanta public schools, i'm of a much different vantage point. my children have the WORLD handed to them in terms of resources (either because my school gets so much BECAUSE we're such low SES) or because i busted my bottom getting donations from community members, and they don't know what to do with it! it is SO difficult getting them to understand what it means to respect people, property, and potential. what i'm asking for is assistance with a paradigm shift, not additional resources.
  
  i believe this to be attainable through additional teachers in the room, longer school days, year-round schools, a national curriculum, and mandatory parental participation (yes i said it - and i meant it!). though school is public, our dollars need to mandate various responsibilities brought on by both the government AND home.
  
  i could go on forever, but i digress. continue to teach, inspire, and deliver.
  
  peace,
  riana.elyse
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  Posted By:
  cwardell at 02/28/2008 12:38:35 PM
  Comment:
  Good article. You raise some good points. I was having a similar discussion the other day, and was struggling with issue of school funding. You present desegregation as one inroad toward the solution of the resource distribution problem. The immediate, and perhaps rather naive choice, seems to be that we should restructure the funding system altogether and try to decouple the funding within school districts from the property taxes paid there. While, controversial, it seems that this issue must be dealt with, at least in part, from that standpoint.
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  Posted By:
  Edward Joyner at 02/28/2008 8:36:30 AM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis has raised some cogent points about the influence of ideologically driven and evidence free social policy. Clearly the inability to engage parents and educators in crafting this policy doomed it from the start. Asking schools to overcome the tremendous social and economic damage done to many poor children is asking the tail to wag the dog. William Julius Wilson, James Comer, and others have pointed out the effects of the ecology in and around schools that limits their influence on student achievement. On the other hand, the other elephant in the room is the growing influence of anti-intellectual attitudes among far too many students of color, especially males. I have been a teacher, principal, college professor, and social activist for over 39 years and I see too many African American children that have squandered the hard-fought gains of the movement. We have to help them see that commercialized pathology is not Black culture, that our young ladies deserve more respect, and that we cannot improve our lot through beefs and fratricide. Our achievement would improve tomorrow if we could get our children to see the wisdom of Benjamin Mayes who said: When born behind in the race of life, one must run faster." Or Malcolm X who said" Education is our passport to the future for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." I asked my students to memorize and actualize those quotes. In some instances, we are dying from self-inflicted wounds.
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  Posted By:
  Edward Joyner at 02/28/2008 8:23:27 AM
  Comment:
  This is a brilliant commentary on the influence of shortsighted, ideologically driven policy that has created more problems than it has solved. Long distance policy making is part of the problem rather than part of the solution. The social, political, and economic ecology around poor schools is a formidable barrier for many students and families. The other elephant in the room is a growing anti-intellectual attitude among our youth, especially males, and their unwillingness to take advantage of the resources that do exist in schools. I have been a teacher, principal, college professor and school reformer and I see too many kids that are suffering from self-inflicted wounds. We need some internal reforms that will help our children understand the difference between commercialized pathology (in some popular culture genres) and the Black value system that helped us to make a way out of no way.
  
  Dr. Lewis is on point and his suggestions would put people in schools that might help our kids see the wisdom of people like Benjamin Mayes who said: When you are born behind in the race of life, you myst run faster."
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  Posted By:
  sooyeon at 02/27/2008 11:27:52 PM
  Comment:
  I agree with the author that there needs to be a society-wide movement to put an end to inequality within the schools. However, I have to wonder if the right place to start is desegregating housing. I think that there may be other less drastic ways to start the process of ensuring that every child gets the educational opportunities he/she deserves. I think that the place to start if by restructuring the funding system of public schools. As of now, the schools in the nice, higher SES neighborhoods are primed to receive more government and public funds than the schools that truly need it. I do not think that a couple grants here and there, more well-publicized than actually helpful, are enough to make underfunded and low-achieving schools somehow more equal to the "best" schools.
  I definitely agree that whoever takes office as our next president needs to have a specific and immediate plan of action to change the education system. Every moment lost is one more student who does not learn to read, who does not want to learn, and who does not achieve academic success. To some, these children may just be numbers, but they're not. They are our children, all of our children.
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  Posted By:
  havestrength at 02/27/2008 8:06:10 PM
  Comment:
  my question around this issue always lies around the real challenges of applying federal education policy effectively. as a proponent of the idea that we should always be thinking about "different strokes for different folks," i wonder if we need to really put funding, as dr. lewis suggests, into researching the needs of our educational system(s). i think addressing desegregation in new york city would look a lot different than desegregating miami, or dallas, or rural lousiana. i think we need a number of serious task forces around the country and some "real talk" with people in communities before education reform will really have a chance to be successful. hopefully sen. obama (or whoever our new president turns out to be) will have the courage to push for the sort of community engagement that will be needed to bring all students equal opportunity in the classroom.
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  Posted By:
  ldg at 02/27/2008 3:42:25 PM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis brings up excellent points in this article, not the least of which is the very large difference between Clinton and Obama on the issue of throwing out No Child Left Behind. As exciting as the Obama "movement" has become and as it inches ever closer to making history it is the job of people (especially the so-called educated "up-scale" voters") to vet the candidates. On health care, education, and affirmative action (yes, even this issue) - one may be surprised to find the subtle differences between Obama and Clinton crack wide open, and even more surprised to find that Obama may be on the wrong side of the issue. (See comments Obama made about tying affirmative action to class status instead of race). Is it possible that we are not interrogating these differences because we may not like what we are going to hear? -LDG
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  Posted By:
  MassInterest at 02/27/2008 11:23:54 AM
  Comment:
  Dr. Lewis, I think you have raised several noteworthy points. Unfortunately, issues of educational equality are not often raised by those who are most affected. Housing segregation is a key factor to raise because it has systematically operated as a way to maintain educational inequality. Ironically, it is something that many of us do not notice until someone like you points it out. Yes, of course, the parents of children who are receiving inferior resources feel the effect, but what are they going to do? Move? Who's going to pay for that? The catch 22 to residential segregation or neighborhood zoning is that is has been designed to keep certain groups strategically away from others, thus as a result some families just don't have the same access to opportunities as others. This is a hard article to respond to because there are so many (deep set) issues that have contributed to the current differences we observe in educational (in)equality. I'll be very curious to see how the next administration attempts to address this.
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  Posted By:
  Nsmith at 02/27/2008 11:07:27 AM
  Comment:
  This is definately on point Dr. Lewis! The Supreme Court's decision in Milliken v. Bradley - which said that suburbs could not be included as part of a desegregation strategy - effectively killed any chance that that goal would be achieved. I suppose we now return to the pre-Brown goal of ensuring that our separate schools are truly equal.
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  Posted By:
  RS. at 02/27/2008 10:25:39 AM
  Comment:
  Well said, in terms of scrapping a policy which seemingly has long-term negative effects on the well-being of our nation.
  
  This piece does leave me with one question for the author and others who feel desegregation is a step in the right direction. That question is what direction? Let me go around the mulberry bush (no pun intended) to explain. To me it seems that some small communities of people (some Amish, Asian, Muslim) are allowed by our capitalist system to be separate but still have access to sustainable resources. Now I do agree that desegregation gets our children that are in need closer to those resources. That is needed! But our nation which is one that fosters minds and hearts that tolerate and accept poverty among us and promote abuse of others for gain. As long as exploitive capitalist is who we are, inequality is what we get. We must ask ourselves why have we back peddled in our efforts to do away with separate and unequal. I think it is because America believes in being separate and unequal. So, does desegregation lead us to an America that not only looks the part but at its core believes in together as equals? If not, then we will be separate and unequal again, because at the core and birth this is what America is. I guess my question simplified is, can someone explain how desegregation leads to a change in values and beliefs of Americans? Granted you buy into America needs this change to successfully leave no child behind (pun intended).
  
  Let me end by reiterating I agree that desegregation efforts need to reoccur if it gives increased access to relevant resources for our children who are in need. - RS.
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  Posted By:
  endtheoccupation at 02/27/2008 10:06:19 AM
  Comment:
  we cannot address the problems with the education system without addressing the problems with housing. good to see you bring that up. until we find a way to have truly mixed (economic and racial) school districts, the reality is the resources these schools have will be a direct reflection of the income bracket of their residents. rich neighborhoods = rich kids = better educational resources. until we consider a way to resolve this issue, the inequity in education will only continue. time for a robin hood theory, indeed!