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April 2, 2012

Faces of the achievement gap in Madison: The stories behind the statistics

Pat Dillon:  

In 2010, just five black and 13 Hispanic graduating seniors in the Madison Metropolitan School District were ready for college, according to data from the district and Urban League of Greater Madison. These statistics should make your heart race. If they don't, and you're white, you may be suffering from what anti-racism educator Tim Wise calls "the pathology of white privilege." If you do get it and don't take action, that is almost worse.

The issue affects all of us and fell a little harder into my lap than it does in most white middle-class families when my daughter told me last summer that I was going to have a biracial grandson. My response? "Not in this school district."

The dismal academic record of minorities has long been apparent to me, through my own experiences and the stories of others. But many people only hear about the statistics. To help humanize these numbers I asked students and parents who are most affected to share their stories so I could tell them along with mine. The experiences are anecdotal, but the facts speak for themselves.

 Related: In my view, the status quo approach to Madison's long lived reading challenges refutes Mr. Hughes assertion that the District is on the right track.  Matt DeFour's article:
Overall student performance improved in math and dipped slightly in reading across Wisconsin compared with last year, while in Madison scores declined in all tested subjects.
 Perhaps change is indeed coming, from a state level initiative on reading.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 2, 2012 4:29 AM
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Comments

"If you do get it and don't take action, that is almost worse."

What if you do get it and do take action and the people whom you are trying to help don't try to help themselves? I found this Isthmus article to be both anecdotal and self-serving at best. Perhaps touting the successes of students of color so that others might emulate them would make more sense, instead of feeble attempts to tug the heart strings of those the author accuses of engaging in "white privilege."

Posted by: dadanonymous at April 3, 2012 9:41 AM
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