Professional Documents
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Website Professional Reading 3
Website Professional Reading 3
Website Professional Reading 3
Manning, J.P. & Gaudelli, W. (2003). Modern Myths About Poverty and Education.
Social Studies and the Young Learner, 16 (2), pp.27-29.
this analysis within a scholarly text about elementary Social Studies, as this
analysis was missing in my public school education. Many educators are working
largely reinforced culturally, and through policy, within schools and districts.
Manning and William confront myths about poverty and public education;
their analysis and critical thought around these myths are frameworks that I
holistic development of each child I work with, within systems that don’t always
support their success. Manning and William write from an American perspective,
yet I believe their analysis is useful within the Canadian context as well. They
confront the myth that U.S. public schools are failures within the No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) Act; which requires improved test scores to receive federal
funding. There is an understood connection between socioeconomic status
(SES) and race, that can be reflected in test scores, and in turn places the
takers. It is important not to mask violent histories of negligence by the state, that
affect low SES communities, and the cycle of marginalization that this violence
perpetuates (Sawtschuk, p. 24). The next related myth that Manning and William
highlight is the belief that student test scores measure the quality of the school
they are associated with. This myth invisiblizes material realities of systemic
poverty and racism in the United States and Canada, and their effect on public
counterproductive as those schools and districts with lower test scores are likely
in greater need for support and educational resources. Manning and William
to the “teaching to test” system that currently exists in many places, which
that aim to foster critical thinking and responsible civic engagement (Sawtschuk,
p. 25).