On the one hand, a fundamental premise of NCLB is that public schools are the great equalizer.  They take in children from all walks of society and give them equal opportunity for success.  On the other hand, children arrive at school with different capacities for learning and barriers to learning to surmount.

Rather than get caught up in discussions about "either/or" it fundamentally seems more useful to take the broader approach of "both/and" — the performance of our public schools should be measured based on how well they meet the needs of ALL children and we as a community have a responsibility to acknowledge that children's well-being is fundamental to learning and do our part to ensure every child arrives at school ready to learn.

The challenge of finding meaning in the data makes it hard to have a genuine conversation about how both community-based and school-based variables are correlated with student achievement.

Readings "About Both"

January 2008 - 2007 Minnesota Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity - The legislature and governor share a "D" on racial equity, Organizing Apprenticeship Project (Executive Summary). (OAP Report Card Archive.)

November 2006 - Every Child, Every Promise: Turning Failure Into Action - Education reform must involve more than schools. We need “whole child reform” involving the whole of childhood, Search Institute/Child Trends study commissioned by America's Promise Alliance (Full Report).

March 2006 - Ending the Blame Game on Educational Inequity: A Study of “High Flying” Schools and NCLB - Only 1.1 percent of high-poverty schools consistently achieve at high levels on standardized tests. This finding directly challenges the results of policy studies published by the Education Trust and Heritage Foundation which claim that 15.6 percent of high-poverty schools are highly performing.  The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) makes the same mistake.  The law provides performance incentives for schools to help all students reach proficiency, but ignores the fact that, due to economic and social conditions, students start school at very different levels of readiness.  As a result, the law holds schools responsible for factors outside their control, Arizona State University.

September/October 2004 - Schools and the Achievement Gap: A Symposium - Commentaries on the proposition that school reform cannot succeed without major economic and social reform, Poverty & Race Research Action Council.

Rethinking Schools Online: The Promise - A special edition about the promise of desegregation.