The Dropout Nation Podcast: The Importance of High Expectations
On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, I take a look at Harvard’s Pathways to Prosperity report and argue that its underlying argument — that poor and minority kids are incapable of learning college preparatory education — is a failed idea, while others who support its recommendations do not consider the true underlying causes of the nation’s education crisis.
You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download directly to your iPod, Zune, MP3 player or smartphone. Also, subscribe to the podcast series. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, the Education Podcast Network, Zune Marketplace and PodBean. Also, add the podcast on Viigo, if you have a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android phone.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by RiShawn Biddle, RiShawn Biddle. RiShawn Biddle said: The Dropout Nation Podcast: The Importance of High expectations http://bit.ly/i6ogkF #edreform #edgap #BlackEdu #LatinoEdu [...]
[...] The lack of thoughtfulness on the topic isn’t all that surprising. After all, NAS admirably focuses on such critical issues in higher ed as the weakening of academic freedom and Great Books curricula that has been the hallmark of college education in this country for most of the past four centuries. But the association also seems to reflect a bent among some conservatives — most-notably Charles Murray — that not all kids are deserving of a college preparatory education, an argument that is also implicitly at the heart of the Pathways report (and an echo of the early 20th century view that blacks and immigrants were incapable of college-level work that led to many of the problems at the heart of American public education’s failures today). This school of thinking runs counter to the reality that higher education (be it college, technical school or apprenticeships) are critical for poor and minority children to move into the economic middle class. It is also a viewpoint that condemns these young men and women of all races to low-quality education and low expectations. [...]
[...] you listen this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast on importance of high expectations in ending achievement gaps, listen to the rebroadcast of December’s podcast on the need for [...]