What’s It About: Race or Parents?

In last Sunday’s Washington Post, English teacher Patrick Welsch argues that we’re missing the mark in the way we talk about the 'achievement gap.' Yes, he says, schools need to better serve low-income children and students of color — but parents need to step up, too.

As he describes it, one day his virtually all-black class of 12th-graders at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, performed terribly on yet another test. So he asked them, “Why don't you guys study like the kids from Africa?"

One of the students replied, "It's because they have fathers who kick their butts and make them study."

Challenging Welsh, another student shouted, "You ask the class, just ask how many of us have our fathers living with us." So he did, and not one hand was raised.

The article is a great read if you're interested in how parents and culture impact education — and what the response is like among educators. Don’t miss it.

The takeaway for me is not that we should let schools off-the-hook to better serve poor kids. Rather, it's that we need to open up a new front in our national campaign to improve student achievement. We need to inspire, demand, and support parents to be there for their kids. We need to be specific about what makes a good school and a great teacher, and we need to encourage parents to challenge their schools and teachers, and step up to strengthen their roles.

It’s not just about the schools. It’s also about the parents.

Comments

[John Stallcup on October 24, 2009 at 11:50 AM]

Parents matter a great deal but the idea that parental involvement is absolutely necessary for school success, seems to contradict the programs that succeed without it, like KIPP. Many school systems thru out the world mitigate the impact of working parents with little time for involvement in their child's education by taking up much more of the school aged child’s time with school activities. Typically in the US 80% of a child’s waking hours in any given year are not spent at school. Japan’s 240 day 5 day 8-4pm and half day Saturday school year is a good example. The question should be how does a Taiwanese child whose only parent is a single mom working as a cocktail waitress manage to attain much higher levels of educational achievement than our suburban middle class children with two parents?

[Robin on October 24, 2009 at 05:13 PM]

I think the teacher asking this question makes him a racist, and it is inappropriate. Africa is a pretty big continent. So what country in Africa is he referring to? How would African American students in America no anything about students in Africa. The teacher has no knowledge of what is going on in another continent although he may think he knows by watching American news. I am surprised that greatschools would put this article on their website and think this is ok.