Demanding 'no excuses' of schools and 'grit' of poor children... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Demanding 'no excuses' of schools and 'grit' of poor children... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Demanding 'no excuses' of schools and 'grit' of poor children while ignoring the real problem 

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Poor children fall behind in education race.

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By Maureen Downey

Professor Paul L. Thomas of Furman University writes the"The Becoming Radical" blog, which examines education issues with much-needed clarity. He does not paint a pleasant picture of current school reform.

Below is a recent blog post  he wrote on the challenges of educating kids from impoverished backgrounds. He takes on one of the new reform words: Grit.

But Thomas has a longer, more academic essay on this issue here in which he expands on the themes in his blog. I wanted to share some of that academic article as it informs the blog:

Thomas writes:

In the few years since the start of CC implementation, the narrative and policies among reformers have shifted slightly away from the hardline “ZIP code is not destiny”—likely in response to scholarly and public challenges to CC. Yet they remained mired an ideology that is only marginally different and goes something like this: “poverty matters, but educators and schools must focus on only what educators and schools can control—measurable school and teacher