Education Law

Increasing our social capital

BoardBuzz attended a forum held by the FEA (Forum on Education Accountability) on Capitol Hill earlier this week which provided an excellent opportunity for the public discussion of current issues facing educators. The forum hosted several key educational experts and was aptly titled, ?Enhancing School and Family Capacity to Support Student Success.?

The speakers diagnosed some of the problems in the present educational climate, before laying out potential changes to help to rectify them. Striking BoardBuzz was the emphasis placed on reform measures necessary to be made outside of school walls. Too often the debate starts and ends with teachers. If children are not performing, teachers are held accountable. But clearly there are many factors outside educator?s control that must be taken into account when analyzing the underperformance of certain schools. The speakers stressed the differences between the performances of children from impoverished verses more affluent communities and the results were telling.

The fact that children from areas of high poverty do not perform as well as their more fiscally advantaged peers should not come as a shock to anyone. The schools are just not as good, the educators are just not as inspired, qualified, and capable, right? We fill these same schools with gutsy principles like Morgan Freeman?s character in ?Lean on Me? and teachers with the bravado of Robin William?s in ?Dead Poet Society? and we can sit back and watch those kids test scores soar.

Flawless as this logic seems, BoardBuzz was shocked to hear interesting statistics at the forum suggesting otherwise. Low student performance was correlated to other factors besides teacher inadequacy.  Particularly standing out was the correlation of low school performance in areas with weak social capital. Factors such as the safety of the community and positive community activity such as involved religious groups and family participation in their children?s learning can all be linked to better educational results.

The significance of this cannot be overstated, education reform requires holistic community measures be taken.  It seems obvious then that the discussion must move beyond just educator?s use of class time and teacher accountability to a wide scale collaborative effort on multiple fronts.  In order for educational progress be made cooperation is required between several community entities to increase social capital. BoardBuzz hopes this community approach will provide students the robust structural support they need to excel.  In short, it takes a village to raise a child.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on July 02, 2010 (boomark / email).