By Mary

January 5, 2006 6:59 PM | Link to this

I remember seeing the program about Shaker Heights. It is important to know about the gap of averages among racial groups, and try to help struggling students,etc. However, it is apparent, that education nor society seems to fully understand the root causes - i.e, poverty, single parent homes, cultural, educational systems, etc. Meanwhile, some in the “gifted” community believe some schools try to close the gap by sitting on our high ability students of all races. What about the gaps in math and science we have compared to other cultures? Could that gap be even larger? I believe there were recent news stories and commentaries (including in the Dayton Daily News) about the San Jose area, where white families were leaving because the Asian students were doing so much better than white students. I would like to see more emphasis on the “value added” and growth for individual students rather than simply how “average scores” for student groups compare. There are high ability students in all racial groups whose education is stagnated by focussing simply on bringing up scores of low achievers or low ability students. It is not just “low ability” students falling through the cracks. See www.nationdeceived.org “how schools hold back its brightest students.” What does averaging scores really tell us about individual students? Also, some gaps will never be closed. Students are individuals even within their own racial groups. We all have differing abilities. The goal should be to make the most of individual abilities.