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Wednesday, July 12, 2006
A Diversity Dilemma
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m conflicted today about what to post on. There is a very good suggestion to talk about parent involvement, but it stems from post by a parent whose situation has already been discussed in extreme depth.
So I’m going to go with this, with promises to get back to parental involvement a bit later. The reality with No Child Left Behind is that it’s a way harder system to navigate and win at if your school is diverse. The law looks to examine schools not just on how well their kids do on the whole but how well certain groups of kids do. African-Americans. Latinos. Kids from poor families. Kids with disabilities. Kids who don’t speak English well. The more categories in which you have at least 40 kids, the more targets you have to hit.
Hence the diverse Lakeside High, acclaimed by Newsweek for its percent of kids in AP classes, didn’t make AYP. Neither did its feeder school, Henderson Middle.
Many parents want their kids to attend a diverse school. They say it resembles the real world and teaches their kids skills beyond fractions and five-paragraph essays. But there is a downside to diversity and that is the need to divvy up resources to teach kids with different needs.
Parents and teachers, tell us your experiences with diverse schools. And parents tell us if you chose a less diverse school over a diverse one because the overall test scores are higher and because you felt your child would get more attention.
Talk to me, and please keep it civil and on point…
