Merrow: Comer Schools are Beacons of Hope

In his August 30, 2011 Huffington Post Taking Note column, Two Town Halls, and a Peek into the Future, PBS Newshour education correspondent, John Merrow expressed his dismay over media coverage of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute’s Annual Martha's Vineyard Event, "Separate but Unequal: Closing the Education Gap" held on August 18th at the historic Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.

Merrow, who was one of 400 people in the town hall audience, described the event as "a slam-dunk winner from Day One. It had everything going for it: (1) It was organized by Henry Louis “Skip” Gates and his capable team at the Du Bois Institute at Harvard; (2) The moderator was the incomparable Charlayne Hunter-Gault; and (3) It had cast of heavyweights: Dr. James Comer, Diane Ravitch, Michelle Rhee, and Professor Angel Harris of Princeton. Even the title of the event was reassuring: "The Education Gap"—not "The Achievement Gap"—a choice revealed that the organizers understood the complexity of the issue. This was certain to be substantive."

What troubled Merrow about the Washington Post article about the event was that it "made the afternoon sound like a polite disagreement between Rhee and Ravitch, who are well-known for their antagonism. Not a word about Comer, Harris, or Hunter-Gault or about the substance of the session."

Merrow called Comer Schools "beacons of hope" and said that Dr. Comer "brought the crowd to life with his eloquent explanation of why and how so many schools for poor children fail. It is, he asserted, largely because teachers and administrators do not understand child development and the needs of children. Time was, Comer told the audience, when most families were able to meet their children's developmental needs, but today, with about 35% of children living in poverty, the schools and teachers are overwhelmed. And, to make matters worse, schools of education do not prepare teachers to understand, let alone meet, developmental needs, Comer said."