Onondaga Community College Syracuse Ny

Onondaga Community College Syracuse Ny

Onondaga Community College Syracuse Ny

Does it make any sense to establish test scores as the goal of education? If that’s how we measure success, students in the bottom half who are poor, disabled, or barely speak English will always be left behind.

Politicians and Wall Street financiers like to blame teachers and their unions for low test scores. Wrong. The real fault lies with a society that refuses to take responsibility for conditions in which our children must live and learn. If we really cared about our children, we would (1) train teachers to support the social, emotional, and intellectual development of their students, (2) encourage and support local civic organizations to fight for our kids, and (3) demand national policies that build economic opportunity for the poor.

In her book, As Bad as They Say? Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx, Janet Grossbach Mayer describes her combat experience – teaching kids in one of America’s poorest school districts. Her real-life, hands-on lessons contrast dramatically with the claims made by the financiers of public school reform.