Re: Still Separate, Still Unequal

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

RE: Jonathan Kozol's article in Sept 2005 issue of Harper's Magazine:


One thing I like about this article is that he has some discussion 
about the testing debacle that's been foisted on these kids.  Also, 
he describes the anti-developmental, anti-intellectual and 
militaristic treatment that they receive in school, justified by 
their principals with the explicit reference to basic skills and 
standardized tests, and concludes that this has something to do with 
an agenda to use the public schools to reproduce a docile working class.

I don't remember if he developed these ideas much in Savage 
Inequalities, but that was written before NCLB, right?

Anyway, he makes another point that we must all hammer out to the 
public in any way we can.  He points out that the elementary grades 
test scores spikes of 5 years ago (No Excuses, "High Flying Schools," 
etc) have not persisted into secondary schools. Therefore, he says, 
those early test gains didn't reflect real learning, else they would 
have empowered the kids to spiral upward year after year.  High 
stakes regimes go back 10 years in several states.  Using the 
standardistas' own metric, test scores, they have FAILED these kids miserably

Pete Farruggio



At 03:15 PM 8/28/2005, you wrote:
> In a message dated 8/25/05 9:56:26 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
> campbellp@mail.montclair.edu writes:
> Wholeheartedly concur! Kozol's piece rocks.
>
> The photo essay that follows the Kozol article is also very moving.
>
> Nancy Creech