Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Jefferson County School District proves Diversity has its benefits

After having watched the way public schools operate over my now 17 years in public policy, it is pretty clear to me that the chief purpose of school districts is to make themselves look good. Whether they actually are good is, of course, another story.

Richard Innes has discovered a very creative way the Jefferson County School District is making one of its schools look good through its forced busing plan. White students are being bused to Shelby Elementary School, a school that has failed to meet its requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act four years in a row.

Innes explains Jefferson County's plan to improve the school:
If Jefferson county can dilute the number of low-scoring students in this school by busing in kids from better-off parts of the school district, it possibly will boost scores in the school, at least for a little while, without having to make any real changes in educational performance.
Ingenious. No?

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