WOW. This is the most concise, clear explanation I've ever read...

[YvonneCa]

...about how public schools' structure plays in to the school reform argument:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-tale-of-two-schools-whos-to-blame-for-the-differences/2011/08/21/gIQAHqAWVJ_blog.html?wprss=answer-sheet

Excerpt:

Although there are many other factors that distinguish an ineffective school system from an effective one, it is interesting to note that the five that have been listed above are not under any teacher’s control.

Yet modern education “reformers” think that evaluating teachers by test scores and closing schools will produce schools like South Side. Perhaps it is their own lack of experience that makes them believe that is true. Or perhaps it is their lack of courage to make the tough political decisions that would result in more equitable schools. In either case, the kids of Jamaica High School and its teachers lose.


My experience has been at the elementary level, and the same factors apply.

[immoderate]

1. I went to summer school at Jamaica High in 1963.

It was old then, but a magnificent classic building. It's on a hill, and overlooks a beautiful park. At least it was.

--imm

[TreasonousBastard]

2. My father went there, was in Arista, and ended up in Fordham Law School, but...

it was kinda heading south in the 60s so us kids ended up in private schools.

We could walk there, though, and fished in Goose Goose Pond Park in the summer, and ice skated in the winter.

Nothing like it is now.

[immoderate]

4. Goose Pond Park! Yes!

It was troubled when I went there, but it was the closest summer school for a kid from Far Rockaway. And it was near the main library in Queens.

You lived in "the Estates?"

--imm

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Well, at first lived in "Jamaica HIlls" which was kinda across the street frrom...

the Estates-- down the road from the golf course that became St. Johns.

Eventually, we moved into the Estates proper, not that it made all that much difference by the time we got there. The house was nicer, though.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. k n r

[YvonneCa]

5. Thank you. n/t