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This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers

Monday, February 01, 2010

No Way To Bridge Gap



          No Way To Bridge Gap
        If the recommendations from three student achievement gap summits truly offer the best way to build a bridge, somebody better build a boat instead.
        The summits last year focused on Hispanics, American Indians and African Americans. The recommendations released this week are underwhelming in their vagueness and familiarity.
        It's hard to understand how simply increasing funding — in a state that already spends $2.4 billion a year on education — will improve test scores.
        And it's impossible to comprehend how offering campus jobs to students who are supposed to be in class will increase graduation rates.
        If all it takes is cash, schools like Albuquerque's Rio Grande High, with a 91 percent Hispanic student body and almost $1 million in extra funding, would have better than a 52 percent graduation rate.
        Participants were asked to offer up bold ideas. Instead they pitched mostly old ideas, everything from diversity training to community involvement. Only the American Indian summit introduced accountability, tying teacher pay to student performance.
        Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia says teams have been assigned to each set of goals. But New Mexico's students and taxpayers deserve concrete programs that work — whether it's the study-skills tutoring APS does or the tougher work and high expectations African American students told task force members makes them rise to their potential.
        In other words, they need a bridge, not a boat.
       

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