The superintendent announced that he is seriously considering putting a school in South Norwalk as a neighborhood school for those who live there. What do you think?
If you don't think we have segregation in Norwalk already, take another look. Enrollment in iur elementary schools is way out of balance. Besides, attempting to balance on the backs of minority students is just wrong.
I always thought, as a parent, by busing lower income children to schools with more affluent kids that it would make some kids jealous, bitter, envious and therefore feeling more challenged by seeing kids who have those "trendy clothes", taking ski trips, taking cruises, and on and on. I really would like a mix in all of our schools but I'm not so sure it's working as it is now. I feel there's more pressure to buy "those trendy sneakers" (like the other kids have) than wanting to learn. Of course, I very well could be wrong. However, in the outside world, kids have to learn to get along with everyone when they become adults so they do have to learn at some point in their lives.
And what happens when all these kids get together once they reach middle school. Isn't it a little late to start mixing it up? Isn't that asking for trouble? Friendships have already been formed. And high school? It sounds to me like there are a lot of racist parents in Norwalk who want to separate their children from the South Norwalk kids. Sounds scary to me.
Accumulating evidence confirms the need for school integration. Black students' achievement decreases as their schoolwide proportion grows (Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2009). Attendance at high-poverty schools causes disadvantaged students' performance to decline (Rumberger, 2007). A review of studies evaluating court-ordered desegregation concluded that "the circumstantial case linking school segregation to the test score gap is compelling" (Vigdor & Ludwig, 2008, p. 208). Perhaps even more important than narrowing the test score gap are the positive behavioral outcomes from school racial integration: improved graduation rates, higher rates of employment, and higher earnings in adulthood, as well as avoidance of teen childbearing, delinquency, homicide, and incarceration (Guryan 2004; Johnson, 2011; Weiner, Lutz, & Ludwig, 2010). For both academics and behavior, benefits of integration for black students are unaccompanied by corresponding deterioration in white students' outcomes. Ethnographic studies of students who participated in racial integration programs confirm that students of different races benefit from working together and are better prepared for civic engagement. Interviews with adult graduates of integrated high schools in 1980 found that the black graduates felt more comfortable and confident about competing in a predominantly white economy (Wells, Holme, Revilla, & Atanda, 2009). Experiments add evidence. In one, Chicago public housing residents received vouchers to subsidize moves to private apartments. Whether they were offered apartments in racially isolated urban neighborhoods or in predominantly white suburbs was a matter of chance. Adolescent children who moved to the suburbs fared better than those who stayed in the city: They had lower dropout rates and were more likely to attend college (Kaufman & Rosenbaum, 1992). In another experiment, Maryland's Montgomery County government purchased apartments in more- and less-affluent areas and randomly assigned them to families that were eligible for public housing. Children—nearly three-quarters were black—who moved into and attended schools in more affluent neighborhoods outperformed comparable children who attended schools with higher proportions of low-income students (Schwartz, 2010). A third and more ambitious experiment curiously showed that residents who moved to lower-poverty neighborhoods didn't improve their academic achievement or obtain better employment. But they did gain better physical and mental health (Ludwig, 2012). Overall, research supports racial integration's importance in narrowing both academic and noncognitive achievement gaps. The prudent policy is to move forward to integrate schools.
Consider the fact that the majority of minorities live in South Norwalk - Norwalk itself does not balance itself well enough to allow a more diverse residency at other communities. For most of us..we can only afford to live in South Norwalk; thus a community that many rather not be or care of. It is our children that are deprived with a communicty school; forcing them to travel further then their school peers and placing a burden on their parents to travel a distance while others have a chance to walk to the school. I welcome a school community school and frankly I don't care who attends it. I'm sure that opposite communities of South Norwalk would not want their child bused at a distance that South Norwalk kids currently do. Let us have a racial discussion when we don't allow other ethnicities attend the South Norwalk School. For now, lets entertain the idea and embrace a wonderful opportunity for South Norwalk residents.
Isn't that called discrimination? I thought that is why we had bussing, so that schools would be integrated.
ReplyDeleteSegregation. Would the State Department allow this?
ReplyDeleteIf you don't think we have segregation in Norwalk already, take another look. Enrollment in iur elementary schools is way out of balance. Besides, attempting to balance on the backs of minority students is just wrong.
ReplyDeleteIs that Rivera's decision to make? I thought it was a federal law.
DeleteI always thought, as a parent, by busing lower income children to schools with more affluent kids that it would make some kids jealous, bitter, envious and therefore feeling more challenged by seeing kids who have those "trendy clothes", taking ski trips, taking cruises, and on and on. I really would like a mix in all of our schools but I'm not so sure it's working as it is now. I feel there's more pressure to buy "those trendy sneakers" (like the other kids have) than wanting to learn. Of course, I very well could be wrong. However, in the outside world, kids have to learn to get along with everyone when they become adults so they do have to learn at some point in their lives.
DeleteAnd what happens when all these kids get together once they reach middle school. Isn't it a little late to start mixing it up? Isn't that asking for trouble? Friendships have already been formed. And high school? It sounds to me like there are a lot of racist parents in Norwalk who want to separate their children from the South Norwalk kids. Sounds scary to me.
DeleteRichard Rothstein ASCD May, 2013:
ReplyDeleteAccumulating evidence confirms the need for school integration. Black students' achievement decreases as their schoolwide proportion grows (Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2009). Attendance at high-poverty schools causes disadvantaged students' performance to decline (Rumberger, 2007). A review of studies evaluating court-ordered desegregation concluded that "the circumstantial case linking school segregation to the test score gap is compelling" (Vigdor & Ludwig, 2008, p. 208).
Perhaps even more important than narrowing the test score gap are the positive behavioral outcomes from school racial integration: improved graduation rates, higher rates of employment, and higher earnings in adulthood, as well as avoidance of teen childbearing, delinquency, homicide, and incarceration (Guryan 2004; Johnson, 2011; Weiner, Lutz, & Ludwig, 2010). For both academics and behavior, benefits of integration for black students are unaccompanied by corresponding deterioration in white students' outcomes.
Ethnographic studies of students who participated in racial integration programs confirm that students of different races benefit from working together and are better prepared for civic engagement. Interviews with adult graduates of integrated high schools in 1980 found that the black graduates felt more comfortable and confident about competing in a predominantly white economy (Wells, Holme, Revilla, & Atanda, 2009).
Experiments add evidence. In one, Chicago public housing residents received vouchers to subsidize moves to private apartments. Whether they were offered apartments in racially isolated urban neighborhoods or in predominantly white suburbs was a matter of chance. Adolescent children who moved to the suburbs fared better than those who stayed in the city: They had lower dropout rates and were more likely to attend college (Kaufman & Rosenbaum, 1992).
In another experiment, Maryland's Montgomery County government purchased apartments in more- and less-affluent areas and randomly assigned them to families that were eligible for public housing. Children—nearly three-quarters were black—who moved into and attended schools in more affluent neighborhoods outperformed comparable children who attended schools with higher proportions of low-income students (Schwartz, 2010).
A third and more ambitious experiment curiously showed that residents who moved to lower-poverty neighborhoods didn't improve their academic achievement or obtain better employment. But they did gain better physical and mental health (Ludwig, 2012).
Overall, research supports racial integration's importance in narrowing both academic and noncognitive achievement gaps. The prudent policy is to move forward to integrate schools.
Consider the fact that the majority of minorities live in South Norwalk - Norwalk itself does not balance itself well enough to allow a more diverse residency at other communities. For most of us..we can only afford to live in South Norwalk; thus a community that many rather not be or care of. It is our children that are deprived with a communicty school; forcing them to travel further then their school peers and placing a burden on their parents to travel a distance while others have a chance to walk to the school. I welcome a school community school and frankly I don't care who attends it. I'm sure that opposite communities of South Norwalk would not want their child bused at a distance that South Norwalk kids currently do. Let us have a racial discussion when we don't allow other ethnicities attend the South Norwalk School. For now, lets entertain the idea and embrace a wonderful opportunity for South Norwalk residents.
ReplyDelete