The Fight Goes On

The 2008 edition of Education Week's Quality Counts was released a couple of days ago. It presents a new framework for strengthening the teaching profession, based on a yearlong analysis of the best thinking and current practices in the field.

Quality Counts grades the states across six areas of education performance and policy. While the U.S. posted a grade of C overall, the average state earned a D-plus on public school achievement, the poorest showing of any graded category.

In response to this report and articles in two of our Utah newspapers about the findings, I wrote the following "Letter to the Editor":

The findings of new education reports indicating a persistent achievement gap (s) between Whites and Latinos are quite disconcerting. A 50%-60% Latino drop out rate and up to a 30 pt. achievement gap in some academic areas are inexcusable. Obviously collecting and analyzing data are not sufficient.

Nor will identifying lack of resources as the culprit be an effective answer to the lingering dilemma, especially if it is used as an excuse not to do anything. Plus, there are questions to be asked about resources if they are to be used effectively such as:1) What is meant by resources--money, books, qualified and culturally response educators, technology, opportunities, the students themselves?, 2) Which resources are linked to which learning outcomes for Latinos?, 3) Which combination of resources are most effective?, 4) Which type of classrooms need which resources?, 5) What is meant by sufficient resources?, 6) How do we make resources equitable and not just equal?, and 7) How can Latinos learn to take greater advantage of the resources that are already available?

It's also important to remember that resources are not self-activating? In other words, just providing resources without the proper use of them will not bring the long desired results.

There is no question that most educators are working extremely hard to address this achievement gap (s) issue. Therefore, working harder isn't the answer but maybe working smarter is. Working smarter might include encouraging a closer connection and collaboration between researchers and practitioners and policy makers concerning the most effective use of resources.