Steer children toward education that best suits them

Walt Gardner

taught for 28 years in the

Los Angeles Unified

School District

It's rare that a day goes by without news or commentary about the academic achievement gap between groups in this country. Despite the investment of vast sums of money and countless hours over the years to address the issue, the disparity stubbornly persists, leaving skeptics to maintain that since it can never be eliminated it should be accepted.

The reasons for their exasperation are not hard to understand. The U.S. Education Department reports that poor children enter kindergarten already three months behind the national average in reading and math skills, and never catch up. That's because it would take approximately 41 hours of intervention per week to raise their scores to those of their well-off counterparts, according to

Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children

, a 1995 book by Betty Hart and Todd Risley.

Even if schools were somehow able to find the money to fund the remediation, the gap would not disappear because during the period in question, advantaged children are not standing still. They continue to reap the benefits that their parents' social and economic backgrounds provide through after-school and summer activities.

This bleak scenario does not mean that schools cannot do more than they have to date. But they cannot ever do enough to eradicate the differences in average performance between groups that continue to preoccupy policymakers. This distinction is given short shrift by the media when stories are featured about schools that have improved test scores of disadvantaged children. They are cited as evidence that poverty is not destiny.

To be sure, there are schools that are doing a remarkable job in improving the education of these children. These schools collectively are referred to as high-flying schools and deserve accolades. But it is the gap that will not go away - even when one of the groups posts impressive gains - because the other groups are not stagnating.

If this view is valid, then the question is whether greater attention needs to be paid to other children who have been shortchanged in their own way. This group is composed of the gifted and the near-gifted. Admittedly, this smacks of elitism in a country that shuns differentiation in favor of democratization. But the proposal does not have to be a win-lose situation.

Other countries with which the United States competes in the global economy have long engaged in sorting out children. The age that this process is done and the means that are employed to do it are subject to debate. Singapore, for example, implements the strategy at the end of elementary school with its Primary School Leaving Exam, and continues it throughout the rest of the years of schooling. Americans can disagree with the specific details, but the process should not be rejected out of hand merely because it breaks with tradition.

Children who demonstrate no aptitude or interest in an academic curriculum can still be well served through courses specifically designed to meet their needs. Career and technical education no longer has to be regarded as a sign of inferiority. In fact, the only jobs that will be safe in the next decade will be those that cannot be sent abroad electronically, according to Alan J.Blinder, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. So plumbers, electricians and auto mechanics, for example, will be gainfully employed, while others with academic credentials will not.

That's why it's encouraging to see the formation of career academies across the country. They offer students workplace experience while they pursue standard coursework. A recent study by the Manpower Development Research Corp. identified more than 2,500 of these schools today, compared with fewer than 500 of them 15 years ago. And in July 2006, Congress reauthorized the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, which provides $1.3 billion annually to states and local school districts for work-related programs.

But the only federal initiative that specifically addresses the unique needs of the academically most able, who are the potential leaders of tomorrow, is the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. Since it was passed in 1988, however, it has languished in the shadows, with an appropriation of a paltry $9.7 million annually. Moreover, only half of the states offer additional dollars. In sharp contrast, the federal No Child Left Behind Act was allotted $23.7 billion, at last count.

It's time to accept the fact that all students have a contribution to make if they are given an education in line with their abilities. But because of our reluctance to implement pragmatic policies that reflect this reality, we shortchange them and weaken the nation.