Chapters 8 & 12 Countdown

Chapter 8 & 12

5 Sentences on the Big Picture

In Chapter 8, Kozol talks about the government programs over the past few decades to improve the education system of America. Most of these programs were designed to make huge strides in the education world, but in reality, most of these programs have failed to make any lasting changes. Kozol also highlights political leaders, and how many of their programs are the same as a decade ago, but the end date for their goal to be reached is pushed back further by a multiple years. Kozol also claims that too many inner city schools emphasize careers after high school, rather than trying to get students to reach for higher education. In Chapter 12, Kozol emphasizes the role of the teacher, their love for children, and how that should never be disregarded by people who think they know more about education than the employees who work in schools.

4 Key Passages

“Too much is expected of them when they come; too little is accorded to them when they leave.” (p. 198)

“Some of our most segregated urban neighborhoods lie just adjacent to well-funded districts serving middle-class communities. Less than a fifteen-minute bus ride often separates our wealthiest and poorest schooling systems.” (p, 204).

“But if the past may be relied upon to make predictions fro the future, we may sensibly expect that much of what is promised in the present set of goals, no matter how they dominate the national attention at the present time, will be retracted, or amended, or diluted, or else more or less forgotten long before that very distant date arrives. The testing protocols, unhappily, may be the only part of this that actually survives.” (p. 205-206)

“Teachers and principals should not permit the beautiful profession they have chosen to be redefined by those who know far less than they about the hearts of children.” (p. 299)

3 Key Terms

Program – a term used to describe government efforts to improve the education system in America that most often fail

Accountability – Kozol talks about the government not being held accountable for following through with their education programs. It is also mentioned with schools being held accountable to give true records to the government about test scores, and drop out rates.

Improvements – Kozol speaks about all the programs that are supposed to reap benefits to underprivileged children’s educations, but these benefits are often short lived.

2 Connections

Kozol mentions money being a key area that affects the achievement gap in schools. I am taking American Educational Thought, and we were talking about the causes of the achievement gap the other day. Our teacher mentioned that studies have been done, and that the main factors to lessen the gap are having a stable family, and religion, not money. The problem with these two factors is that they are difficult to change, because you cannot choose your family, and most people are the same religion as their family members.

Kozol also talks about the government rewarding schools with financial aid when they score well on standardized exams. Many of the schools in the book ended up lying in order to get the financial benefits the government offered. I went to a school where the standardized tests were not made a huge deal because my school always scored relatively well. Maybe students would do better if they were not told that the test was the only measure of their success for the year, and this would make the entire experience less stressful to them. I know I would have been much more afraid of the standardized tests every year if I knew that would be the only way a teacher would judge whether I was smart , and so if the teachers emphasize the tests less, then maybe the students will do better because they will not worry about the tests so much.

1 Question

If all of the government programs have ultimately reaped few benefits in education, then what needs to be done to bring a lasting change to the school systems?