Integration reduces school inequity
By Brent Sclafani
My Turn
Burlington Free Press
April 27, 2007
Jonathan Kozol's book "Shame of the Nation: The Return of Apartheid Teaching in America" is a perfect title for describing the inequities that exist in inner-city public schools in our country. The vast majorities of students in these schools are children of color and poor. These schools suffer from the constant pressure of high-stakes testing promoted by the "No Child Left Behind" law. According to the logic of this law, by implementing certain teaching programs and classroom management techniques, all children should succeed with "no excuses."
Although assessment is critical in the teaching/learning process, test results in these schools do not adequately take into account conditions that include a lack of school resources due to under-funding, inexperienced teachers and the stresses of families living in poverty. Kozol documents numerous curriculum programs that have been tried in these inner-city schools and have failed because "the structure of apartheid and inequity remain unchanged."
Here in Burlington, the school board has had the courage to address this "structure of inequity" issue by commissioning a task force to investigate the impact of low socio-economic segregated schools in the Burlington school system. Reviewing research both nationally and locally on the benefits of socio-economically integrated schools, the task force concluded that children from low socio-economic families have a much better chance of academic success in integrated schools. The school board is currently examining different options in order to accomplish this goal.
In addition to socio-economically integrated schools, in order for all children to be successful, schools need highly trained teachers. Recognizing this critical factor in creating quality education for all students, the Burlington school system has provided teachers with research-based "best practices" professional development in the teaching of literacy, science, curriculum design and classroom management. Next year the focus will be on math.
When the Free Press published this school year's test scores, it was upsetting to see the disproportionate number of students at Wheeler and Barnes who did not meet the standard. I thought about the high quality of teachers at these schools and how hard they and their students work every day. I also thought about how unfair it is to continually put predominantly low socio-economic students together in one school, when we know how difficult it is for them to academically succeed, let alone sustain success.
I know firsthand about the effort of teachers and students at Barnes, as well as the challenges, because I taught there for 21 years. I'm currently teaching at Champlain School, where the school population reflects the socio-economic diversity of the city. It is a school, like all Burlington schools, that strives for equity and excellence; and although we, too, need to continue to find ways to help all students meet the standard, unlike Barnes and Wheeler, the socio-economic diversity of our student population supports the teaching staff's ability to find the time, energy and resources to address the academic and social-emotional needs of all the students.
It is a moral outrage that certain children in the United States do not have an equal opportunity to reach their full potential because of the inequities in our public school systems, which in large part stem from putting children of low socio-economic families together in one school. We have an opportunity in Burlington to address this issue even though it has been basically ignored on the national level. In addition to creating schools where all children have a better chance of succeeding academically, these socio-economically integrated schools also provide critical opportunities for children to learn to appreciate differences in one another and to discover the commonalties that make us all human. I look forward to the changes proposed by the Burlington school system that will promote and support the dreams and aspirations of all of the children in our city.
Brent Scalfani lives in South Burlington.
