Poverty Matters!: Questions Needing Answers
In "Poverty Matters!: A Christmas Miracle pt. 1," I conceded the new refrain that no one is discounting the negative influence of poverty on student learning, specifically on the narrow representation of learning through test scores. I also ventured to identify the broad positions of the education reform debate, acknowledging the problem with suggesting anything has two sides but believing that this characterization is fair—with the "No Excuses" Reformers embracing rugged individualism ideology and trusting schools can be a powerful social reform mechanism and Social Context Reformers arguing that social norms create as well as maintain inequities regardless of merit and that school reform will succeed only within larger social reforms. I also confessed that I began my teaching career as a social reconstructionist (more in line with the "No Excuses" Reformers in some ways) but have come to see through the evidence of my nearly thirty years as an educator that the Social Context Reformers are where my allegiances lie.
Here in part 2, I want to be brief, but I think it is time that the "No Excuses" Reform movement answer some
Here in part 2, I want to be brief, but I think it is time that the "No Excuses" Reform movement answer some