The Arc of
History:
Where Are
We Now?
President Lyndon Johnson
signed the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act on
April, 11, 1965, in Johnson
City, Texas, site of the rural
school where he received his
first lessons. He invited his
first teacher to the ceremony.
There was promise in the
$1.3 billion piece of
legislation: $1 billion in aid to
public schools, with a
formula meant to ensure
most of it would reach the
neediest students, $100
million for textbooks and
library materials, and $100
million for community
education centers.
For Dr. Pedro Noguera, a
professor of education at
New York University,
construction of that bridge
stopped long before
completion, a casualty of
indifference and a shift
toward accountability rather
than equity.
Left adrift have been millions
of low-income students, who
find themselves confined to
schools with few resources
and a shortage of quality
instruction.
“That brought additional
funds into schools serving
poor children – but by no
means equalized
[resources],” Noguera said of
ESEA, most recently
reauthorized as the No Child
Left Behind Act.
“And what happened is over
time we’ve lost sight of that
vision that President Johnson
had, which is that in order to
make education a pathway to
opportunity and mobility …
you had to equalize learning
opportunities.”
Today’s inequity is evidenced
“By this act we bridge the gap in the gaps in teacher and
between helplessness and
teaching quality that define
hope for more than five
the educational experiences
million educationally deof poor students versus
prived children,” Johnson
affluent ones, Noguera said.
said.
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Poor students are more likely
to be taught by teachers who
are inexperienced or
uncertified, and by teachers
paid less money than their
counterparts in more
affluent schools. Poor schools
are more likely to battle
“churn,” a never-ending
exodus of good teachers who
leave for other districts, often
for more money and fewer
challenges.
Federal policies requiring
school districts to distribute
high-quality teachers more
equitably have been stifled
by a willingness to grant
districts waivers from NCLB
requirements, or by failing to
enforce requirements. It’s an
approach that the
Congressional Black Caucus
has questioned.
Noguera believes that reform
opportunities from the
reauthorization of federal
legislation have been missed
and some things have been
made worse. “What we’ve
done in No Child Left Behind
has not moved the dial nearly
far enough,” he said.
“What we’ve seen is that,
in some states, the waivers
have actually institutionalized
disparities.”
Money is seen as one way to
Click the image above to activate the video.
Dr. Pedro Noguera.
attract good teachers to poor
schools and keep them there.
Money-based solutions
include tactics such as giving
teachers financial incentives
for teaching at poor schools,
or eliminating the salary
disparities that make good
teachers want to leave
low-income schools for
affluent ones.
Incentives would make
teaching in poor schools
more attractive, Noguera
said.
reward them; we should
make that work very
attractive,” he said.
and experienced educators
should aid new teachers, he
said.
Improving the instruction
poor students receive could
also be accomplished by
strengthening teachers
already there. Professional
development, increased time
for planning and reflection,
and partnerships with
university-based educators
and researchers are all
policies and strategies for
bolstering teachers,
especially inexperienced
ones, Noguera said.
“I want colleges of
education to send their
faculty into the schools with
those...novice teachers to
work with them, to help them
so that it’s not just the new
teacher trying to figure it
out,” Noguera said.
“If we want to get teachers,
highly effective teachers, who
Teacher training should
are going to commit to
require a similar level of rigor
working in high-poverty
as the training of doctors,
communities, we should
“How do we engage these
students? How do we address their learning needs?
Those are big questions that
novice teachers should not
be expected to answer on
their own.”
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