It shouldn’t be controversial that the most important “stakeholders” in Cambridge public schools include our approximately 7,000 students, 35% of whom qualify as “low-income.”
And yet in “District stakeholders oppose holding back 3rd graders” Cambridge Day made the mistake — a harmful one — of labeling residents and staff able to attend a School Committee meeting not as some stakeholders, but the stakeholders.
Research shows that those making public comment aren’t representative. They’re wealthier and whiter, for a start.
On March 3rd, the School Committee discussed a motion aimed at addressing the crisis of Cambridge public school students who effectively cannot read.
Who does this problem most affect? It’s Black and low-income students — only 29% and 28% of whom, respectively, meet ELA expectations in grades 3-8. (For all students, it’s only 58%.)
No Cambridge resident should be satisfied with this. But theDay’s misleading headline amplifies the voices of a few mostly well-to-do residents and teachers union members. (Our union, a subsidiary of the MTA, has every right to express its opinion, but the Day should at least be aware they aren’t neutral, having long stood opposed to accountability measures.)
Doing so — while leaving out those of the people most affected by the problem — is a huge disservice to our Black and low-income students.
Given how strongly the online headline sets up the idea that “stakeholders” rejected the need for strong measures (the print headline flat-out takes a stance: “Don’t hold them back”), the article will leave most readers thinking we don’t have a crisis. But we do. It falls almost exclusively on vulnerable students, while generally sparing the more well-to-do. This problem needs all our attention, empathy, and energy to make right. We can’t do that if we don’t know that things are dire.
Eugenia Schraa Huh / Washington Street, Cambridge
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Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Headlines hide literacy crisis
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It shouldn’t be controversial that the most important “stakeholders” in Cambridge public schools include our approximately 7,000 students, 35% of whom qualify as “low-income.”
And yet in “District stakeholders oppose holding back 3rd graders” Cambridge Day made the mistake — a harmful one — of labeling residents and staff able to attend a School Committee meeting not as some stakeholders, but the stakeholders.
Research shows that those making public comment aren’t representative. They’re wealthier and whiter, for a start.
On March 3rd, the School Committee discussed a motion aimed at addressing the crisis of Cambridge public school students who effectively cannot read.
Who does this problem most affect? It’s Black and low-income students — only 29% and 28% of whom, respectively, meet ELA expectations in grades 3-8. (For all students, it’s only 58%.)
No Cambridge resident should be satisfied with this. But theDay’s misleading headline amplifies the voices of a few mostly well-to-do residents and teachers union members. (Our union, a subsidiary of the MTA, has every right to express its opinion, but the Day should at least be aware they aren’t neutral, having long stood opposed to accountability measures.)
Doing so — while leaving out those of the people most affected by the problem — is a huge disservice to our Black and low-income students.
Given how strongly the online headline sets up the idea that “stakeholders” rejected the need for strong measures (the print headline flat-out takes a stance: “Don’t hold them back”), the article will leave most readers thinking we don’t have a crisis. But we do. It falls almost exclusively on vulnerable students, while generally sparing the more well-to-do. This problem needs all our attention, empathy, and energy to make right. We can’t do that if we don’t know that things are dire.
Eugenia Schraa Huh / Washington Street, Cambridge
Like this:
Related Stories
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.