Week-long debate focuses on education issues

Given that results for black and Latino students are improving, is the achievement gap something we should be trying to solve at all? Isn’t there a danger of doing more harm than good? All this week, Russlynn Ali and Richard Rothstein debate the achievement gap. On Monday, they discussed whether we’re paying too much attention to the achievement gap. They also will debate the No Child Left Behind law, reasons for lagging minority achievement, reforms to boost students’ performance and more.

Ali is the executive director of The Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based think tank focused on closing the achievement gaps separating low-income students and students of color from other young Californians. Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC, and author of Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap (Teachers College Press, 2004). He was formerly the national education columnist for The New York Times. Follow the debate in The Los Angeles Times.