No Surrender

Well, we busted out of class
Had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a 3-minute record, baby
Than we ever learned in school

As most people who know me (and as you can tell from the titles of my blog posts), I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. However, many people don't realize that part of the genesis of this is the fact that we both grew up in same town and graduated from the same High School (although a number of years apart). Having had a few common teachers in High School, the reputation Bruce Springsteen left behind in school as being a complete slacker and a disruptive force in the classroom is far cry from the man we all know today. On the other hand, I was a rather serious student in school and was glad to have been in all honors classes, finishing #11 in my graduating class of over 220 students. So, as much as I admire Bruce Springsteen today for his philanthropy, his inspirational writing, his values and all he has accomplished, I have to say I am glad we were not in the same classes.

The point is that different people have different needs in school. These differences require varying educational techniques to maximize their academic potential and to motivate students to learn. While Bruce Springsteen has gone on to unimaginable fame & success, he clearly would have struggled with advanced classes in school.

On the other hand, I recall a time when I was accidentally placed in a "College Prep" English class instead of "Honors" and was quickly bored, as well as distracted by the shorter attention spans of my classmates. I was looking for a challenge, yet my classmates needed more attention to get past elements that I found to be more rudimentary. My personal experience is a prime reason why levels in schools have been created and are important to be continued. This is further supported by a study entitled "Detracking America's Schools - Equity at Zero Cost? " (Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, v. 15, no. 4, Fall 1996, pp. 623-645 L. M. Argys, D. I. Rees, Dominic J. Brewer ). In this study, the main conclusion was "abolishing tracking in America's schools would have a large positive impact on achievement for students currently in the lower tracks, but that this increase in achievement would come at the expense of students in upper-track classes."

I have great respect for Superintendent Osborne and the members of the Board of Ed, for the time they devote to our community and for the intelligence and good intentions I know they bring to their roles. I fully realize their desire to provide excellence for all students. However, different students need differentiated instruction and trying to combine these students in a single classroom will inevitably result in the teacher teaching to the lowest common denominator, depriving the highest achieving students of being challenged to their full potential.

Let's address the elephant in the room - This is not and should not be about race. There are high achieving students of all races and everyone should be given an opportunity to reach their full potential. However, the changes being proposed in our school district would require significant investments in Professional Development and take a long time to properly implement. I am disappointed that this proposal surfaced this past week and is targeted to be implemented in the upcoming school year, yet during 4 months of budget discussions, increases in spending for Professional Development to address this gap were never mentioned.

I urge the Superintendent and Board of Education to re-evaluate and reject the proposal being discussed and engage the community in a dialog on how best to improve our school district. The current plan sounds like simply the surrender of our highest achieving students in an unproven experiment for which our community will be paying the price for years to come.