As a country, we continue to struggle with creating equitable opportunity for all- including those mired in poverty. Addressing the achievement gap is a way, ostensibly, of doing so. I argue, though, that attempts to address the achievement gap
As a country, we continue to struggle with creating equitable opportunity for all- including those mired in poverty. Addressing the achievement gap is a way, ostensibly, of doing so. I argue, though, that attempts to address the achievement gap are simply more distractions from the real need to address poverty itself directly. As Matt Bruenig writes in referring to Michelle Rhee and others who posit schools as the way to address issues of poverty, “Anyone who says this is an enemy of poor people, full stop.” (See Paul Thomas for more on “word magic” of language such as “achievement gap” here.) The achievement gap is a function of poverty, not a function of schooling.
1. We must remember that the achievement gap is a gap that is determined by standardized, high stakes, testing. These tests work from a normalized perspective of culture, which means that “normal” is determined by those who have the privilege of benefiting from that culture. And testing necessarily creates winners and losers- those of privilege will always beat those without. Money and color= privilege in this scenario, so it follows that those with money, whiteness and all of the privilege assoc