Our President
Forum 2002 Address
To Shorten the Shadow: Providing High Expectations in Education
Con't
She said the teacher didn't pay any attention to me — she said, "You'll get it, you'll get it."
And she said, "I did get it, and I went on to Harvard to get my Ph.D. in French."
Her story is one of the great stories in American education, as she now is the president and leader of Brown University. And she says that we can never let a child give up high expectations.
Now, let me talk to you about low expectations. Let me read to you an account of a recent court hearing in New York State: "In a ruling that shocked educators, a lower New York Appeals Court decided last June in the case — the guarantee of a sound, basic education in the state's constitution did not extend beyond the eighth grade."
This court statement went on to say that "it is enough to equip students with whatever tools they might need to function in society. The court found whether that means sitting on a jury, voting in elections, or finding a low level service job."
The College Board will accept our duty to brighten educational horizons for all students. But the fact is that long before students ever take or even hear of a PSAT or an SAT, too much of public education is failing to educate too many low-income children. Unequal test scores are not the result of bias in America's standardized tests. And they are certainly not the result of unequal capabilities or unequal potential among various groups of American students. We must see the disturbing numbers for what they are: an undeniable indictment of the persistence of unequal opportunity in American schools.
