[Mr Roboto]

^ Yes, indeed, the situation is a little more complex than magically swapping out entire demographics of people in CPS while completely ignoring the forces that caused the situation in the first place.

And again, the point TUP made is silly because he didnt specify what type of asian students; Korean, Indian, Chinese or Hmong, Cambodian and Laotian? Asian is not monolithic. Depending on the region, city, and community, they can have vastly different performances in school. Nigerian immigrants typically vastly outperform american blacks in poor public school districts as well. Appalachian whites from poor mining communities fare poorly compared to Chicago suburban whites.

Why do these groups perform differently? I will give that most likely the main reason is the expectations the parents and students have for themselves, along with the rest of their community, and society at large. But why do these expectations differ, and what historically has happened that led up to these expectations.

So yes, the circumstances are a little more complex than the misleading post TUP gave. Of course there are cultural differences, but what were the conditions that created that culture?

And the resources for public schools, urban vs suburban etc, have only in the recent decade or so began to even up. Previously there were also substantial disadvantages when schools were in a lower property tax district. While resources, principals and teachers clearly do not tell the whole story, they did and still can have a negative impact. Why is Liz Dozier (who is very attractive btw) so worried about losing the federal grant money she has previously used to help turn Fenger around? When you are dealing with children with so many negative surrounding forces, you need all the resources you can get to counter with more positive influences, more positions, more face to face interaction. Which is actually why I am all for public schools in struggling communities to have a higher share of resources from tax money than those that are in more affluent communities - they need those more to help turn things around. We also need more Liz Doziers, but thats asking a lot. Im sure if parents and students themselves do their part things would improve, but in the meantime, its the efforts of people like her that will help make the turn around and help the students and teachers make the changes for themselves.

Obviously the culture overall will need to change, and the expectation level will need to rise. I simply do not like blunt simplistic declarative statements that have absolutely no realistic bearing on the actual issues that are play here. They are not constructive, in fact the tone was so defeatist and negative one could infer that he was essentially stating any efforts to improve the situation would be a waste of time so why not swap out all the students and replace them.