Dorothy Strickland - International Reading Association

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Snow, Burns, and Griffin (1998) describe low SES as both an individual risk factor and a group risk factor. A low-status child in a generally moderate or upper-status school or community is far less at risk than that same child in a whole school or community of low-status children (p. 124). School funding plays an important role in the socioeconomic status of schools and communities. Recent studies have reanalyzed the research on school funding and its influence on the SES of schools and school districts. Biddle and Berliner (2003) analyzed the average annual expenditures per student for each of the United States and the variation among districts in total revenues per student within each state. They found that while the disparities in funding differ sharply among the states, they were greater within some states than among the states as a group. Unlike the Coleman Report (1972), which reported that school quality (and level of school funding) had little-to-no impact once home and peer factors were taken into account, Biddle and Berliner state that funding inequities do make a difference (p. 8). Home Environment Even before children enter kindergarten, the achievement gap is in place. The U.S. Department of Education’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K; 2000) shows that by the time children are five years old, there is a gap in school-related skills and knowledge between African American and European American children, even when their mothers have equal years of schooling (it is important to keep in mind that the quality of the mothers’ schooling is not factored into these measures). Phillips (2000) analyzed several gap-related surveys in an attempt to describe age-related changes in the Black-White gap as children move through the grades: Taken together, we estimate that at least half of the black-white gap that exists at the end of twelfth grade can be attributed to the gap that already existed at the beginning of first grade. The remainder of the gap seems to emerge during the school years. (p. 136) Although little is known about the child-rearing practices that may affect children’s school performance during the upper elementary years and beyond, it may be safe to say that differences (not deficits) in child-rearing practices may contribute to the gap. Explanations such as that offered by Ogbu (2002) attribute much of the problem to Black youth cultural patterns and behaviors that are counterproductive for academic success. Other researchers dispute this conclusion. Ferguson (2002) speculates that what Ogbu observed was “a clumsy attempt by black students to search for a comfortable racial identity.” Indeed, as preadolescent and adolescent students attempt to find their place in society, their personal goals and behaviors often diverge from what the school expects and demands. When these students come from cultural backgrounds that differ greatly from that of the school, their attempts to “find their place” may put them at risk of missing out on important educational experiences offered by schools and society. Linguistic Background The low achievement of poor African American and Hispanic children has often been associated with their dialect or language. During the 1960s, linguists looked closely at language diversity as a cause of school failure. Those studies revealed key principles of language learning that remain helpful to teachers and curriculum developers: All language varieties are equally valid; all language varieties can accommodate all levels of thought; and any variety of standard English is not intrinsically better than any nonstandard dialect (Gopaul-McNicol, Reid, & Wisdom, 1998, p. 7). Similarly, research in the language development of children for whom English is a second Copyright © 2005, 2010 by Dorothy S. Strickland 2
language supports the belief that the learner’s home language should be valued and accepted as part of second language acquisition and learning. This does not deny the fact that the form language takes has economic, social, and political importance. Nor does it suggest that helping students achieve competence in Standard English is not an important goal of the school. It does suggest that much of the low achievement of language-minority students may be pedagogically induced or exacerbated and therefore amenable to change (Rueda, 1991). Perhaps most important is the need to keep in mind that all children learn the language to which they have been exposed. The tendency to equate the use of language other than Standard English with incompetence must be resisted (Strickland, Ganske, & Monroe, 2002). The intermediate grades provide an excellent time to guide children in an exploration of various languages and dialects. Preadolescent children are capable of comparing and contrasting various ways to express ideas, both orally and in writing. They can also begin to make judgments about when certain forms of language may be more appropriate than others. Expanding children’s language repertoires to accommodate a wider range of situations and linguistic capability should be the ultimate goal. Quality of Instruction Many researchers have turned their attention to what is increasingly considered to be a key factor contributing to the achievement gap—the differences in the quality of instruction that students receive. According to Haycock (2001), rather than focus on poverty and parental education, we should begin to concentrate on what takes place in the classrooms that minority students attend. The problems listed by Haycock include the following: students in high-poverty and highminority schools are not being challenged; minority students are placed in low-level classes with a curriculum that does not prepare them for college; no provision is made for students who require more time and instruction to get on grade level; teachers are often not qualified in the subjects that they teach; schools with 90 percent greater enrollment or minority students have a high percentage of underqualified teachers than predominantly White schools. Other researchers (Darling-Hammond & Hudson, 1989; Ferguson & Brown, 1998) have linked teacher quality with student achievement and called for a look at both teacher quality, and teaching quality. The Achievement Gap and Standards All too often, educators tend to deal with complicated problems by rank-ordering the issues and dealing with them one at a time. The failure to close the achievement gap may be telling us that such a linear approach is not the best strategy for addressing the achievement gap (Singham, 2003). Indeed, the value of standards, as a critical element in closing the achievement gap, must be viewed as one important part of a complex web of possible solutions. Following are several ways that standards can positively influence schools where students are low achievers. Promoting a Shared Vision Stability and sense of mission is important in any school community. It is often missing in low- SES schools. The process of setting standards or aligning local standards with existing state or nationally generated standards can inspire teachers and administrators to seriously consider their goals and commitments to students. Viewing standards as part of an overall mission statement can provide new teachers with a better sense of what the school expects from them and what they should expect from students. Teachers who have grown accustomed to teaching particular Copyright © 2005, 2010 by Dorothy S. Strickland 3
Page 1: The Role of Standards in Closing th
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Dorothy Strickland - International Reading Association

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