Richard Rothstein accepts Activist for Public Schools Award from CPS's Lisa Guisbond. (Photo by Larry Aaronson)

No sooner did Richard Rothstein graciously accept his Activist for Public Schools Award from CPS than he challenged CPS members and other progressive reformers to rethink issues of educational equity and the “achievement gap.” Demonstrating his adherence to evidence, he passed out a chart showing huge gains in math scores for Massachusetts black 4^th and 8^th graders between 1992 and 2009. The evidence, he said, does not support the idea that our schools have utterly failed black students. On the contrary, they have made such great gains in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, that they essentially closed the gap that existed between them and white and students in 1992. The gap persists because whites have also made gains during that time.

Rothstein’s point was not that school quality doesn’t matter, nor that we cannot improve schools for black students, but that if reform activists buy into the idea that schools alone can make up for larger social inequities and close the “achievement gap,” we are buying what amounts to a losing battle for teachers and schools.   → Read More

Richard Rothstein

Join us Thursday, April 14, at our CPS Annual Meeting when we honor the extraordinary contributions of researcher and author Richard Rothstein. Don’t miss this rare chance to hear and exchange ideas with the author of Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap and many other fine books and articles. A research analyst for the Economic Policy Institute and former education columnist for The New York Times, Rothstein’s analysis of education policy and its impact on public school children is unfailingly clear, incisive and based on solid evidence.

Writing in the Washington Post “Answer Sheet” blog, Rothstein said this:  “Making teacher quality the only centerpiece of a reform campaign distracts our attention from other equally and perhaps more important school areas needing improvement, areas such as leadership, curriculum, and practices of collaboration…. Blaming teachers is easy. These other areas are more difficult to improve.   → Read More

Boston families and staff at many schools throughout the city are in various states of shock, grief, and outrage this week, after the mayor-appointed School Committee voted Wednesday night to close, merge or allow charter takeovers of 21 schools. Amid cries of “Shame on you!” and “You don’t care about the kids or the babies on their Bob 2016 Revolution Flex stroller!” from the crowd of many hundreds, and protected by a line of police, the members one by one cast their votes in favor of School Superintendent Carol Johnson’s plan. The closings and mergers will have a sharply unequal impact, falling most heavily on students of color, English language learners, students with special needs, and low-income areas of the city.

These huge disruptions are only the beginning of what’s in store for Boston, as charter operators are lining up to launch many more schools, which will drain millions of dollars away from the public schools.   → Read More