RSD schools expect little of students, and they get it: James Gill
Published: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 7:10 AM
By James Gill Follow
Public education in New Orleans may be much improved following the post-Katrina rush to charters, but a way will always be found to give poor black kids the shaft.
Lance Hill, director of the Southern Institute at Tulane, has been perhaps the most vociferous in denouncing the injustice done to students abandoned to the city's lousiest schools, while charters bask in plaudits.
G.W. Carver High would be high on any list of lousy schools, but that does not mean the kids there lack the will to succeed. Last year one third of them signed up for the advanced placement classes that provide college credits for those who pass the year-end exam.
Your heart must ache for the Carver kids, all of whom failed the exam, but educators quoted in the paper are made of sterner stuff. They pronounce advanced placement classes a success because they have apparently raised the kids' self-esteem. In case you don't understand how failure can do that, Carver Assistant Principal Toyia Washington explains, "They realized they were capable of