Much ink has been spilled on school performance, but are we asking the right questions?
Most of it is directed to de facto segregation. That is, schools with mostly minority students perform worse than schools with mostly white students. But is that right question?
I think a better question is what is the balance of performers vs. disruptors.
I have been in public schools with majority white and I’ve been in schools with a big mix of students. In both kinds of schools I have found performers of all kinds of backgrounds and disruptors of all kinds of backgrounds. The success of the schools depends more on how the students and staff encourage the performers and minimize the impact of the disrupters.
If you move the performers to “better schools” will you deprive some of the remaining students of the “protection” and role models of the performers?
