Poverty Matters
30 Nov 11
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Abstract
The central thesis of this article is that the increased pressure from high stakes testing, children who come from impoverished households are held to the same standard of their wealthier peers. Considering these students begin school, not to mention life, at a disadvantage, holding students to the same standard when they lack the same experiences and resources seems unfair. If we are going to hold these students to the same standard than we must provide them with better resources for learning.
DeWitt argues that teachers know more about the problems poor communities and children are dealing with, than many decision makers and administrators of services, and that they need to see their role, not just as educators, but as advocates - speaking up and speaking out about the growing numbers of students living in poverty?
"One of the tragedies of the ideology of public education is that educators only think of themselves as educators. There may not be a lot that administrators and teachers can do in their roles as administrators and teachers but nobody understands these problems better than educators and I think because of that they have an obligation to be more active in the public realm." Richard Rothstein (DeWitt. Vanguard. P.16)
Read more http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/11/poverty_matters.html?cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS2
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