Rothstein, Concluded

Richard Rothstein recently posted a lengthy essay at the Economic Policy Institute Web site responding to various critics--most prominantly Checker Finn--who've been writing in recent weeks about his views on race, class, and educational achievement. I've blogged overmuch on this topic, but I'm going to go back to the well one more time, because the first page of the essay actually tells you everything you need to know about the basic fault line in this ongoing debate. Rothstein says:

Mr. Finn asserts that good schools are "powerful enough instruments to boost poor kids' achievement to an appreciably higher academic plane." Nobody - not I, nor anyone with whom I am familiar - disagrees with this assertion. But what is commonly argued (and the notion that I dispute) is not that good schools can boost the achievement of disadvantaged children to "an appreciably higher plane" but rather that such schools can "close the achievement gap;" i.e., produce achievement from lower class children that is approximately equal to the achievement of middle class children.

Or, to rephrase:

Checker Finn believes that good schools can appreciably increase poor student learning. I, along with all reasonable people, believe that too. Therefore, for the remainder of this essay, I'm going to argue against a different assertion--one that Checker Finn did not make, and which most reasonable people do not believe--which is that good schools can completely erase the achievement gap.

This is classic, straw-man-driven rhetorical misdirection. Moreover, it's a hugely important distinction from a policy perspective, because--Rothstein's frequent assertions to the contrary--NCLB is not based on the premise that good schools can erase the achievement gap. It's based on the premise that good schools can raise disadvantaged student performance to a defined level, proficiency. A school can make AYP under NCLB and still have huge achievement gaps, as long it gets all students over that minimum standard.

On a number of levels, the entire ongoing public debate about the NCLB and the achievement gap is driven and sustained by an inability--or unwillingness--to recognize this distinction.