New York state once believed poor children could meet high expectations.
uncertain
children → believe → expectations
This week, the Board of Regents showed just how far Albany has retreated from that conviction when it chose to further erode the state’s high-school graduation requirements.
asserted
it → show → requirements
Hearing the news recalled my experience a few months ago, as I discussed education as a guest on an NPR talk show in Albany.
asserted
I → hear → Albany
When I mentioned that Mississippi has become a national model for improving children’s literacy, my fellow panelists laughed out loud.
asserted
panelists → mention → literacy
Yet they were incredulous: What could New York possibly have to learn from a backward state like Mississippi?
uncertain
York → have → Mississippi
Quite a lot, as it happens.
asserted
it → happen → ?
On the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation’s report card, Mississippi’s fourth-graders outperformed ours in reading.
asserted
graders → outperform → reading
Black and Hispanic fourth-graders there scored much higher than their peers in New York, even though Mississippi spends a fraction of what we do on public education.
asserted
we → score → education
For generations, New York boasted of the seriousness of its educational institutions.
asserted
York → boast → institutions
We built one of America’s great public university systems and some of its most selective public high schools.
asserted
We → build → schools
Our state Board of Regents predates the US Constitution.
asserted
Board → predate → Constitution
That seriousness was still very much alive when I became a fifth-grade teacher in the South Bronx in 2002, soon after Michael Bloomberg won mayoral control of the schools.
asserted
Bloomberg → become → schools
Under Chancellor Joel Klein, charter schools were welcomed with open arms.
asserted
schools → welcome → arms
Philanthropists and education entrepreneurs flocked to a New York that was determined to become a national center of education reform.
asserted
that → flock → reform
Underlying it was a bedrock belief that poor children can achieve at high levels.
Poverty made education more difficult, but did not excuse failure.
asserted
education → underlie → failure
When students weren’t learning, the proper response was better teaching, stronger schools and higher expectations.
asserted
response → learn → ?
That idea has fallen entirely out of fashion — and today, New York’s academic results are stubbornly mediocre.
asserted
results → fall → fashion
Worse, Albany has spent much of the past two decades weakening expectations and abandoning accountability mechanisms designed to produce better results.
asserted
Albany → spend → results
The state expanded appeals and alternative pathways around graduation requirements.
asserted
state → expand → requirements
By 2018, nearly half of NYC high schools were using “credit recovery” programs for students who’d failed or never completed required courses.
asserted
who → use → courses
Incredibly, the state eliminated a basic literacy skills test for prospective teachers in 2017 and certification requirements five years later.
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state → eliminate → 2017
A restrictive cap prohibits any new charters in New York City, despite their popularity and track record of success.
asserted
cap → prohibit → success
And this week, the state Board of Regents accelerated the decline.
asserted
Board → accelerate → decline
Members decided that with the class of 2028, New York’s students will no longer have to pass Regents exams to receive a high-school diploma.
asserted
students → decide → diploma
The exams themselves will remain, but the state will sever the link between passing them and graduating — the very thing that gave the Regents exams their meaning and consequence for generations.
asserted
that → remain → generations
Regent Felicia Thomas-Williams captured the philosophical change: “You don’t assess a fish on climbing a tree because fish can’t climb trees,” she said.
asserted
she → capture → trees
Reading, writing, mathematics, science and history aren’t innate talents that some children possess and others simply don’t.
asserted
others → possess → that
They are things that schools exist to instill.
asserted
schools → exist → that
There’s nothing compassionate about looking at a child who has not been taught well and concluding that perhaps reading proficiency was the wrong thing to demand of him.
asserted
proficiency → ’ → him
Which brings me back to Mississippi.
asserted
Which → bring → Mississippi
While New York spent years minimizing the need to require achievement, Mississippi concentrated on teaching children to read.
asserted
Mississippi → spend → children
It embraced evidence-based reading instruction, invested in teacher training and coaching, identified struggling readers early, and intervened when children fell behind.
asserted
children → embrace → readers
And it got better: Its fourth graders now outperform ours in reading for a fraction of the cost.
asserted
graders → get → cost
That ought to humble us.
asserted
That → humble → us
The New York education system I entered nearly a quarter-century ago was deeply imperfect; the reformers of that era made mistakes, sometimes enormous ones.
But they were ambitious for children.
asserted
they → enter → children
They believed poor children could learn more than they were learning.
uncertain
they → believe → more
They believed schools could get better.
uncertain
schools → believe → ?
They believed achievement gaps were problems to be solved.
asserted
gaps → believe → ?
And when children failed to meet an academic standard, their first impulse was to ask what adults must do differently.
asserted
adults → fail → what
New York has not earned the right to abandon that principle.
asserted
York → earn → principle
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
