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Mpls Public Schools: a victim of 'conservative' reforms | Why I oppose the Separate But Equal doctrine | Re: [Mpls] Why I oppose the Separate but Equal doctrine | Re: [Mpls] Why I oppose the Separate but Equal doctrine #2 | Re: [Mpls] Why I oppose the Separate but Equal doctrine #3 | Unequal inputs cause unequal outcomes
Unequal inputs cause unequal outcomes
District officials say they are spending less on SW area schools than
on the high poverty schools elsewhere in the district. This may be
true if you are talking about the money allocated to and administered
by the site management teams from certain funds.
But when it comes to spending money where it counts, I think that the shoe
is on the other foot. It stands to reason that the district has been spending
an awful lot more on classroom teachers in SW area schools than it does
in the high poverty schools. The community school reorganization plan created
a situation where SW area community schools were generally under-enrolled
(lower than average class sizes) and had teachers with far more
experience, on average, than the high poverty schools.
What I am saying is that in terms "educational inputs," the high poverty
schools are, on average, grossly inferior to the low poverty schools. The
state's voluntary desegregation rule doesn't require equal outcomes,
but it does require more or less equal inputs. If I were to file an educational
adequacy lawsuit, that would be the basis of it. That's why Dennis Schapiro,
a potential defendant in such a lawsuit says there is no correlation between
teaching experience and instructional effectiveness. That's what the district
would have to prove in order to beat the rap.
I propose that the district make its schools a lot less unequal by
desegregating the inexperienced teachers. This would reduce the
exposure of students in the high-poverty / high minority schools to
inexperienced teachers. Students in low-poverty schools could
also reap substancial benefits from improved supervision and training of
inexperienced teachers who will sooner or later bid into the low
poverty schools.
-Doug Mann