It's Not All About the Benjamins?

In this week’s New York Times Sabrina Tavernise analyzes a study that concludes that “while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period.” 

            On the one hand these findings reflect the progress that our country has made regarding the problem of race.  I can imagine that for people who lived through Jim Crow and who struggled for liberty and justice during the Civil Rights Movement, this progress is to be applauded.  No, our country is not yet the example of racial harmony that that Dr. King envisioned it would be, but we have come a long way since people were not allowed to eat at restaurants simply because of their race. 

The study that Tavernise examines seems to indicate that income does more to determine educational success than does race.  She cites another study that asserts that parents with more income are more able to expose their children to places like museums than are parents with less income.  To fix education according to this line of thinking, now that we’ve slayed the Race Dragon, we need to kill the Income Monster too.

Nonetheless, that mechanical thinking is exactly what James J. Heckman, an economist at the University of Chicago, cautions against.  As he explains in Tavernise’s article, “ ‘The danger is we will revert back to the mindset of the war on poverty, when poverty was just a matter of income, and giving families more would improve the prospects of their children.  If people conclude that, it’s a mistake.’ ”  Heckman’s claim is an important but uncomfortable one: namely, that there is more to poverty than simply not having money.  Later Tavernise quotes Charles Murray, who works at the American Enterprise Institute, when he argues that “ ‘When the economy recovers, you’ll still see all these problems persisting for reasons that have nothing to do with money and everything to do with culture.’ ”  While I wish that Tavernise had allowed Murray to elaborate upon his understanding of “culture” and its contributions to the achievement gap, this thought, as stated, provides fodder for contentious debate.  If income is not the root cause of the achievement gap and if culture is deeply personal, does that mean that there is something fundamentally wrong or flawed about many Americans and that the only way to close the gap is to correct their ways of life?  What does that mean for the purposes of our jobs as teachers in Baltimore City?  Is the teacher a mechanic who has to give the broken car a new engine? 

Although I agree that narrowly defining income inequality as the source of the achievement gap risks oversimplification, adopting Heckman’s and Murray’s stance is a much messier, more complicated, and perhaps more judgmental approach and one that we – especially in Teach For America – likely do not like to or want to hear.  Are Heckman’s and Murray’s views the ugly truth, or are they just ugly?

To read more, check out http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?_r=1&ref=education

Congrats Maryland! But Let’s Keep Up the Hard Work in Teaching Our Students Financial Literacy

I’ve got to say that I can’t wait until April 1^st. No, not because it’s April Fool’s Day or because it means the school year is almost ending – but because April is the official financial literacy month. I think financial literacy is so important that I’m going to start celebrating it a little early this year – in February.

In Baltimore, third quarter just started last week. This means that – for the first time – students from 1^st grade to 12^th grade are finally learning about personal finance in their social studies and government classes. It’s about time that students are learning this material in school, at a young age – so that they are prepared to make important financial decisions as they reach their early teens. This is especially important for students to plan for what they want to do after high school – whether it’s work or college.

This is a huge step for Maryland schools. In 2010, the State Board of Education adopted a state curriculum for personal financial literacy education, and required all school systems to implement a K-12 program of instruction by September 2011. Even more important, Maryland understood that it couldn’t stop with just standards and a curriculum – it won three grants to provide teachers professional development:

1. 
   
   $48,000 from PNC Bank to train teachers on delivering financial literacy instruction


2. 
   
   $25,000 from the Investment Company Institute Education Foundation to develop webinars on teaching savings and investing.


3. 
   
   $75,000 from the federal College Access Challenge Grant Program to support college financial literacy instruction.

The most exciting part is the federal College Access Challenge Grant. Since 2007, this program has provided states matching grants to support efforts to prepare more low-income students to enroll in and succeed in college. In 2010, the program was dramatically expanded when Congress decided to devote $750 million over five years under the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. This has allowed states like Maryland to win an award, which in turn, has led high-poverty cities like Baltimore to benefit.

This can have a powerful effect in Baltimore, where many students might profess the desire to go to college – but not know the costs and risks involved. The College Access Challenge Grant will train guidance counselors, and middle and high school teachers and administrators on how to teach about college loans, debt, federal student aid, and the FAFSA application for financial aid.

But all good things will eventually come to an end. These grants will soon run out, and I hope that teachers will be sufficiently prepared to teach one of the most important life lessons about financial planning. With April coming upon us, I urge the Maryland State Department of Education to continue its commitment to financial literacy, through teaching and assessment - and especially focus on how it will prepare students for their careers and college after high school.

To read more about how Maryland is implementing its personal financial literacy education, read here.