Consultant and author David Rusk provided a slew of stats during a speech this week.
They supported his overarching point: The abilities of classmates are a prime factor behind a particular student's achievement in the classroom. If those of low income or abilities are segregated by zoning laws and other such public policies, then achievement is difficult. If low-income students are spread out into more diverse classes, they'll perform as well as other students.
Rusk gave one possible exception:
If a group of committed and skilled teachers converge on a school to work their classroom magic, they can help students achieve. One such case might be in play at the elementary school in York Haven. Students in that northeastern York County school are 61 percent low income, but third grade math students scored comparably with York Suburban's wealthy Indian Rock Elementary classes.
Rusk returned to York to mark the York City Human Relation Commission's 25th annual Frederick D. Holliday banquet as well as the 10th year since the York Daily Record published the original Rusk Report. Our part in giving the Rusk Report legs was among the high points for the newspaper in the 1990s.
The original report -- which basically states that a county with a hole in its middle, a collapsing York City, cannot prosper - can be viewed at: http://ydr.inyork.com/ydr/rusk
Leave a comment