Dr. Science and the school boards and how to help black kids do better in 1997. Strategies in the war against the much-discussed performance "gap."

No. 60 April 30, 1997 Two Cents and worth it. Come and get it.

Dr. Science returned to the fray . . . with a 35-minute slide lecture to two school boards (high and elementary) in a joint meeting. About data collection again. Again, no one asked why. An elementary board member wondered what questions the data "asks."

Another mused on whether such data collection -- intended apparently to help kids move from junior high to high school -- might help to solve transitional problems from sixth grade to junior high. A high school board member asked a technical question.

That was about it, except for the elementary boarder who asked about confidentiality since the data would include "special services" used, such as social worker and counsellor. She received assurances all around.

The goal does seep through. It seems to be wholesale analysis with a view to wholesale or retail changes. Dr. S. believes in such changes, it appears, but his stated goal is data collection and analysis.

Let your fingers do the typing . . . He offered to do technical work, apparently at no charge. He apparently does it for a living and is understandably engrossed in it. For him "the bottom line," is "we can do this." Nothing to it, he says, except typing 500 records into a format he supplies. Nothing is needed "up here," he says, pointing to his head, but rather "back here," pointing to his lower back, where typists feel strain. A little typists' back strain, and away we go.

Dedicated to data, Dr. S. is also dedicated to black kids' school improvement, having allied himself with those who say -- sometimes harshly, even insultingly -- that the high school doesn't care about them. (They generally leave the elementary schools alone, which is curious indeed.) He has two bees in his bonnet: data collection and black kids' achievement. What remains unclear is the connection between the two.

School reform . . . Meanwhile, the elementary superintendent, whose district has appeared overly interested in kids' feeling good and insufficiently interested in learning, is having a change of heart. To judge by recent comments, his district is coming out for academic achievement, performing some breast-beating in the process.

Indeed, he shocked and amazed his listeners at a board meeting -- work enough for one night, though the ones he shocked may not be the ones he amazed.

More school reform . . . Meanwhile, the high school's new plan to boost black achievement will encourage teachers to involve "seemingly disinterested" [uninterested, right?] students, require more sensitivity training for staff, and evaluate teachers partly on their success at "forging strong ties" with black students, as reported in Leavings, our local Frontier Press weekly, heh.

The school will also hire more minority staff and keep those already hired, review curriculum as to its relevance to African Americans [more Toni Morrison, less Shakespeare?], work more closely with freshmen to ease transition from junior high, and forge stronger partnerships with [presumed black] parent and community groups.

It will also do [more] standardized testing of [black?] kids, continue remedial programs [underused by blacks, one hears], recruit more black kids for honors courses [assuming diffidence, not ability and industry, is what holds them back?], and get division heads (English, etc.) to produce their own black-achievement strategies [pegged to black kids?].

It only hurts when you try hard . . . The goal is to raise black kids' performance, which on a four-point grade scale is mostly below two-point -- a whole point below the average non-black. Focus seems to be on grade point average, which of itself might encourage or pressure teachers simply to give higher (inflated) grades. Hence the new annual testing mentioned above, I presume. [How ‘m I doin’, Ma?]

There is also mention of black students' "comfort level," which the casual observer would say is very high. That is, black kids do not cringe and shuffle along with heads down but demonstrate high spirits, even in some cases intimidating white kids. So where's the discomfort?

What the school apparently has in mind is an academically encouraging environment, replete with high expectations and lots of help. Apart from the seeming racialist aspect of this emphasis on blacks, there is some flimsy or even slippery language. May we translate expectations as "demands"? Or is that too severe? "Masculine," as Dr. Science has said, warning us.

Whatever you call it, high expectations or demands, such a climate may produce not comfort but discomfort. "Your son is doing [such and such], and I won't put up with it," said the fourth-grade teacher of one of our perfect children; and we cheered till the rafters rang. The last thing we wanted was her putting up with substandard performance.

How comfortable this made our child feel is another matter. The kid of whom more is expected, even with lots of help offered, some of it more like castor oil than spoonfuls of sugar, will feel uncomfortable some of the time, I guarantee you. So how useful is this language of comfort when you might mean something else entirely?

The corporate model . . . Back to Dr. Science, if we may. I have it from an old corporate hand that there are more than one of him in the world. Such doters on data have descended on corporations with their collection baskets held out, often bearing the name consultant.

They talk fast and get very technical, intimidating executives. This report from corporation-land confirms my belief in the microcosmic nature of our village, where we have a little bit of everything.

Sometimes there's an end to it, however. A high school board member (one day after the two-board meeting discussed above), brought Dr. Science up short, saying enough already of this data business. "I want narrative," he said, meaning interpretation, and Dr. S., not born yesterday, seemed to get the message.

But the local NAACP president got defensive and accused the board member of disrespect. Two boards have fallen all over themselves showing respect to Dr. Science, and once one of them objects, it's disrespect. We should probably chalk that up to the heat of the moment, but it shows what an uppity board could be up against in this very sensitive arena.

May we at this point go slightly philosophical, without direct reference to anything? According to the famous thinker-out-loud Michel Foucault, there’s no building on others’ ideas, no tradition or deep truths to be found, no pattern. We think according to the era we live in. It's not "I think, therefore I am," but "I'm in this era, so I think this way.” There's no history of thinking, just "discourses" piled on top of each other.

So the talk today in universities is not about issues but about talk. He's influential, presenting a sort of death wish for scholarship. If you see a lot of fuzzy thinking or non-thinking around, cherchez le Foucault.