Both Twin Cities papers in recent days have run editorials about closing “the learning gap,” the difference in academic performance between children from low-income families and those who are better off, and between black or Hispanic children on the one hand and whites or Asians on the other.
The Star Tribune in Minneapolis wrote Sept. 4 about the opening of a new Cristo Rey school, one of a network of private Jesuit high schools for low-income students that combine demanding academic standards with part-time jobs that allow students to earn most of their tuition. The headline read, “A new school to help close the learning gap.”
The Pioneer Press in St Paul wrote about a new initiative focused on African American and African immigrant students, the two groups that have the worst outcomes on Minnesota state tests, and headlined it, “Closing that gap.”
The Cristo Rey model is very effective, but it is also very small – 19 schools this year, in various cities, with about 4,400 students total. Students don’t need to be academic standouts when they apply – more than a third are required to participate in academic assistance programs to help them catch up – but they have to commit themselves to a lot of hard work.
Almost all of those who stick with the program for four years will graduate and go on to college well prepared to succeed. But many decide that 10-hour school days are not for them, and leave for less demanding academic environments. No program like this, no matter how successful it is with the students who seek it out, can do much to close the learning gap overall.
The Pioneer Press editorial assumes that unequal outcomes “represent a crisis in the opportunity department,” and goes on to say, “If large numbers of our young learners aren’t learning, our commitment to fairness and equality requires us to take action. Either that or get rid of that ‘All men are created equal’ business.”
But that’s begging the question. People aren’t created equal in their desire to take advantage of opportunities, or in their ability to do so.
In athletics, where the lifetime stakes are not so high and the individual differences in performance are less clearly linked to socially significant groupings of race, class and gender, people generally accept this and it isn’t even particularly controversial. A good school athletic program encourages all children to strive for their personal best, provides coaching appropriate to their level of performance whatever it is, and still recognizes and celebrates truly outstanding athletes.
In academics, many schools fall far short of those goals. The effects may be more apparent in groups with larger numbers of disadvantaged students, but focusing on the groups rather than the individuals in them puts the spotlight on reducing inequality rather than increasing success.
Reducing inequality would be a welcome outcome, but making it a primary goal tends to deflect attention from strategies that might raise achievement in general.
Creating a learning environment that demands and rewards hard work is one such strategy. Students at schools like Cristo Rey would likely do just as well elsewhere if they worked just as hard, but the problem is that elsewhere they probably wouldn’t work as hard because doing so is not really expected or effectively encouraged.
Having more such schools would be a good thing. There’s just no reason to expect them to “close that gap.”