QUOTABLES

David Brooks--We need "intrusive paternalism"

Conservative NYT columnist Brooks has it all figured out. You don't really help suffering people in Haiti or Harlem by "throwing money" at them. The Haitians' problem is, they're irresponsible and they have a different religion, says Brooks:

There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized.

As for black folks in Harlem, we just need to get rid of their culture and replace it with "a culture of achievement." Here's Brooks' "intrusive paternalism" solution to poverty there:

...the Harlem Children’s Zone and the No Excuses schools, are led by people who figure they don’t understand all the factors that have contributed to poverty, but they don’t care. They are going to replace parts of the local culture with a highly demanding, highly intensive culture of achievement — involving everything from new child-rearing practices to stricter schools to better job performance.

Why we swallow Race To The Top

Nevada’s school superintendent, Keith W. Rheault, said in an interview that some Nevada educators had initially grumbled about the federal program but had fallen silent as the state’s tax revenues plummeted last year.

When you’re starving and somebody puts food in your mouth, it’s amazing what states will do,” Mr. Rheault said. (NYT)

Holiday quotables

The language of schooling

We seem trapped in a language of schooling that stresses economics, accountability and compliance. (Mike Rose, Why School?)

Harlem Children's Zone in Chicago?

"We've been programmed out, and we still have the same problems. We need a communitywide effort that includes the schools, the police, the hospitals, the politicians, the universities all working together."Bishop Arthur Brazier, longtime head of The Woodlawn Organization, is working with University of Chicago officials to craft a plan for the neighborhood. The city's education and crime woes call for a bold, comprehensive strategy, he said. (Chicago Tribune feature on Harlem Children's Zone)

More HCZ

President Barack Obama is so impressed with the early successes of the Harlem program that he's set aside $10 million for 20 communities to replicate it. Cities will compete next year for seed money to launch similar "Promise Neighborhoods" in low-income and crime-plagued areas. (Trib)

Me: $10 million? For the entire coutry? That's impressed? HCZ's budget alone in $48 million.

The "reconstitution" of L.A. Fremont High

L.A. Unified did so little to improve Fremont High School that eight years ago, the state took on decision-making authority over the school and nine others in L.A. Unified. Students were reading primary-grade picture books; dropout rates were legendary. The state was supposed to provide an improvement plan that would show results within 18 months; if that failed, it would take over the school entirely or impose other sanctions. But no sanctions were imposed, and here's where Fremont is now: 12% or so of students are proficient in reading and writing. About 2,000 students start out as freshmen; by senior year, there are proficient less than 600. (L.A. Times editorial)

Did school closings contribute to Chicago violence?

Duncan said no, but...

Last week, Mayor Daley appeared to rule out a change in attendance boundaries. "The day that the city of Chicago decides to divide schools by gang territory, that's the day we have given up the city," Daley said. (Sun-Times)

When Arne Duncan came to Chicago last week, he echoed Daley's statement and denied, over and over again, that his Renaissance 2010 school closing policies contributed in any way to recent incidents of school violence. He even got angry when a Catalyst reporter dared to bring it up regarding the closing of Carver High, turning it into a selective enrollment military academy, and shipping kids across gang territories to an under-resourced Fenger High.

But on Thursday, CEO Ron Huberman, under pressure from angry parents, Jesse Jackson and other community leaders, reversed his own policy and promised to open up Carver to some of those Fenger students previously excluded. This, would appear to contradict Duncan's emphatic denials and serve as an admission that the original policy was flawed.

Weekend Reads

Harlem school's successes were "no miracle" says Noguera

Posting as a guest on Gotham Schools, Pedro Noguera counter punches with NYT's conservative columnist David Brooks , "The Harlem Miracle," and makes mincemeat out of his arguments. Brooks had claimed that the jump in test scores at the Promise Academy school within the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) had "completely eliminated the black-white achievement gap," a affirmation of Joel Klein's conservative "no excuses" faction (EEP).

In fact, argues Noguera, who co-directs the Broader and Bolder Approach (BBA) policy coalition, the gains made by children at the school and within Geoffrey Canada's HCZ are attributable to a combination of quality education and a focus on their social and emotional needs.

The Promise Academy, praised by David Brooks, is a wonderful school, but it is not unique and hardly a “miracle.” There are several schools in Harlem and other parts of New York where poor children are achieving at high levels. Many of these are charter schools, but some are public and private schools. In most cases, these schools succeed not because they impart middle class values, (there is very little evidence that the middle class is the only group that values hard work and courteous behavior) but because of high academic expectations and a clear, coherent approach to educating children. Most importantly, these schools succeed because they also address social, health and psychological needs of the children and families they serve.

BTW, what happened to the giant EEP rally?

Organizers didn't say which five cities were going to be part of the education tour. Sharpton energized the crowd, leading a few hundred drizzle-kissed onlookers in the familiar chant: "No justice! No Peace!" (Daily News)

Brother Fred writes:

What if the Education Equality Project bunch call a rally and nobody shows? Rotherham predicted 40,000. Oops.