The Myth Of Helplessness Summary

When reading “The Myth of Helplessness” and “What I Learned about School Reform” both articles pointed out very strong points, some very alike and others very different. The article that stood out to me the most was “The Myth of Helplessness” coming from a big city like Houston you see a lot of these issues going on around us. Houston has its poor and wealthy areas, but the education system is not that different. I believe that a school’s poor performance is really based on the people who run the school. I come from a High school that is pointed out to be one of the “worst” in my district. Yet, my class took home about two millions worth of athletic and academic scholarships. “The difficulties caused by social problems have become an excuse
Greene’s article claims that there’s evidence proving testing actually made low performing schools implement more on teaching (Greene 481). Each author has a distinctive view on certain positions. From my perspective, Ravitch’s statement makes the most sense. Before we had STAAR teacher’s didn’t worry as much about the exam or students scores. Now, when you walk into a classroom one of the main things a teacher will say to their students that they will make sure to teach what will be on the test and skip the stuff that won’t be on it, and after all the test taking the class will be more of a review. The main problem in public schools is not social income, it’s mainly based on the administrative, the ones who run the school. Another issue in low performance in schools would be school choice. Ravitch pointed out that aren’t low income families given the same opportunities to be able to use their federal funds to transition their children to different schools like affluent families (Ravitch 497). Meanwhile, Greene claims that the school’s in poor neighborhoods just take the students for granted (Greene