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Why does DYes engage in such hyperbole? I've been called Monica Conyers, and now I'm that kooky lady who throws the grapes just because I have a different point of view.
Hyperbole? you just compared a quasi-eugenics ethnic eradication program to SEED. I called you a "kook lady" [[your term) because you egregiously slandered SEED and progams like it by comparing it to a very dark and indefensible part of history. You did it and yet you are educated enough that you should know better. That is not "having a different point of view" that is having either an agenda or a tenuous grasp of facts.
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I understand your argument, and I definitely think that many of those who advocate boarding schools for urban children have the best of intentions. Many of the nation's elite boarding schools have had scholarships earmarked for poor and/or minority students. I'm sure that some sincerely believe if we just had enough vouchers, or places at Country Day or Cranbrook, we could transform Detroit overnight. However, the data and results for sending poor and working class African American students away from their neighborhoods to be educated is mixed at best. One of the most comprehensive surveys of these students was published in 1991 by Cookson and Persell in the Journal of Negro Education. Although these students were admitted to selective schools, they wrestled with issues of race, class, and culture. Other studies show that this wrestling affects school performance as well as identity formation and psychosocial development.
Again SEED and the others are not plucking kids from the "ghetto" and dropping them at Cranbrook to sink or swim. This is and should only be for DPS kids in Detroit. They will see the same racial/class make up they see on a daily basis in thier own school. Hopefully with less of the distractions that come with living at or below the poverty line in the country's largest, poorest city.
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It's never as simple as "get them out of that environment and they'll succeed in school." A case in point is the integration that is occurring in school districts throughout SE Michigan as parents flee the Detroit Public Schools. What we see happening is that these students are persistently at the bottom of the achievement gap, and under the provisions of NCLB, test score data must be disaggregated by subgroups. Instead of being able to tout test scores in the eightieth or ninetieth percentile to prospective homebuyers, these districts' test scores for the past decade have clearly shown the distance between white and Asian students' academic performance, and the performance of black and Latino students. Districts from Lake St. Clair to Jackson are now obsessed with "closing the gap." No one has come up with systemic solutions to close the gaps and facilitate quality education for these students. There are rays of light in specific settings, but no one has figured out how to scale these programs up so that all students will succeed in them
No one claims it's simple or that it will save every kid. However, it sure seem SEED has figured out a way to "close the gap" for a lot of them and that..what were the numbers? 35% higher in testing as compared to surrounding schools.
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We know how to educate poor kids who are struggling in school, and we know how to educate kids from non-Asian minority groups who are struggling as well.
Clearly 'we' dont if Detroit's latest test scores are to be used as a frame of reference.
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There are millions of pages of research documenting what's worked stateside and abroad. However, we only know how to do this in selective settings. Schools like KIPP, Bates Academy, and even the ones cited here ONLY work because they serve a selected population. None of these wonderful schools serve all students. Special ed, EBD students who aren't on IEPs, and students who are several grade levels behind in reading and/or math often find themselves out of these schools. If they can't make the grade, are regularly disruptive in class, or end up suspended or expelled, they are OUT of most of the schools and programs that reformers tout.
Did you even read the article about SEED schools>? It's a lottery based admission. they don't skim off the top. They take every kid that gets picked and work to keep him/her there. They have virtually 100% graduation rate and college attendance rate. How is this NOT something that should be tried here in conjunction with the magnet school?
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I think it's wonderful that people are advocating for change. I agree that the status quo is untenable. I am not even saying that the DPS ought to be preserved in amber in its current form. It's just that I have been immersing myself in this issue for years, and the answers aren't as simple as we'd like them to be
. you've immersed yourself in this issue for years yet you compare SEED, Piney Woods and the like to American Indian Boarding schools where they sought to "kill the indian to save the man"?