Chapter One

Chapter one is pleasant and hopeful. This section clearly identifies many SES issues that have become major problems in the way our academic system evaluates literacy (or anything else for that matter). Although I respect the intellect of the authors, I do question their abilities to back up their wonderful suggestions.

Students like Derek and Collin, for practical purposes we will refer to them as one entity answering to "Collek", are far too common. I know, because I am an ex-Collek. The problem is, I was a Collek not because of SES issues, but because my parents were uninvolved and I was a self-obsessed moron who completely wasted her potential until very recently.

First of all, we cannot blame Collek's problems on SES issues such as heritage, economic status, or other factors. CERTAINLY they are more than likely the cause. However, that does not guarantee that if we closed all of the SES gaps listed in the chapter (such as wages, technology, heritage, gender, etc), Collek would decide to stop being difficult and do what is expected of him because that is the world he lives in.

Perhaps paragraph 3 has been harsh. Allow me to take a different approach via paragraph 4...

The authors of this book are clearly educated and represent exhaustive research and knowledge in their field. However, that does not mean that their knowledge in any way prepares them to make changes to domestic policy to improve the American academic status. Problems such as wage gaps, technology gaps, healthcare gaps, gender gaps, or heritage cannot easily be fixed without a massive re-examination and possibly re-vamping of numerous areas of domestic policy. Education is not the only issue that the government has flubbed on, nor is it the only issue that depends on other issues. The texts "let's level the playing field" approachs sounds great on paper. Do you know what else looks good on paper?...communism. If I recall, that was also a huge embarrassing, not to mention unpleasant, failure.
That's confusing-let's elaborate...

If I wanted Collek's mom to make more money I would perhaps dabble in the economic sector of domestic policy. STOP RIGHT THERE. What do I know about the econimic sector of domestic policy?...Nothing. Because I have spent most of my time doing exhaustive research in the education field.
If I wanted Collek to have federally provided health insurance it would require massive changes (well, Obama care is something, isn't it?) in domestic health care policy. If this did happen, guess who gets to pay for it? Collek's mother, right out of her own paycheck next to "Federal Deductions."
Furthermore, these are civic/political issues that Americans ALREADY don't agree on. Does the end justify the means? Can we agree as a nation to change things for the better of the academic whole? Not likely, and perhaps not realistic. Nothing is truly bipartisian, and education is no exception.

Closures?
Chapter one presents interesting propositions and addresses serious problems in a way I appreciate. Why do we focus on AYP if it isn't a fair assessment? How can we change it?..It all starts with ideas. I don't have any, so hats off to these people for coming up with some.

Questions?
I would be interested to hear about the authors' political affiliations. Also, this is only chapter one, do other chapters elaborate on ideas for change and how we can accomplish those changes? I hope so!