"The History of Education" Episode 4

In the conclusion of Episode Four of “The History of School,” Diane Ravitch reminds us that “you can’t have excellence without equity.”  The American school system seems to be torn between these two “goals,” with one often undermining the other.  In other words, historically, the focus has shifted from equity to excellence with our nation’s recurring need to “perform” and come out on top.  Sure, we say that we want equal opportunity for all and we make attempts to mirror this “belief” within our education system, but for whatever reason, we seem to do a sub-par job when it comes to the actual execution of establishing educational equity because our hunger for “excellence” always gets the better of us.  When will we finally stop flip-flopping between the two and pretending to place uniform emphasis on both concepts and find ourselves at equilibrium?  To be honest, I found the “educational trends” discussed in this episode overwhelming.  The back-and-forth nature of our flawed system is exhausting, and it takes a toll on students and teachers alike.  American education has had little stability over the years, and still we are unsatisfied.  For example, while the concept of school choice and voucher programs may seem at first appealing and as a way to provide all students with the power to direct their education and encourage “equal opportunity,” such programs actually tend to increase segregation and hamper equity by dividing students based on the types of students they attract.  Private school also tend to take funding away from traditional public schools, and do not address the root cause of why segregation occurs in the first place: poverty and racial/ethnic differences.  Other components of our education system, such as tracking, also take away from equity among students. When will we begin to see that sometimes our “best intentions” actually have some of the most negative consequences?