In Public Schooling, Social Policy

During The Decades After Brown V. Board Of Education There Was Terrific Progress. Tens Of Thousands Of Public Schools Were Integrated Racially. During That Time The Gap Between Black And White Achievement Narrowed.

Hypersegregated Inner-city Schools - In Which One Finds No More Than Five Or Ten White Children, At The Very Most, Within A Student Population Of As Many As 3,000 - Are The Norm, Not The Exception, In Most Northern Urban Areas Today.

But For The Children Of The Poorest People We're Stripping The Curriculum, Removing The Arts And Music, And Drilling The Children Into Useful Labor. We're Not Valuing A Child For The Time In Which She Actually Is A Child.

By Far The Most Important Factor In The Success Or Failure Of Any School, Far More Important Than Tests Or Standards Or Business-model Methods Of Accountability, Is Simply Attracting The Best-educated, Most Exciting Young People Into Urban Schools And Keeping Them There.

President Obama Still Places Far Too Much Emphasis On Relentless Testing With Standardized Exams.