More on Educators' Panel

For those of you wishing to follow our discussion on the video in the post below, we were proud to welcome the following local educators:

Dr. John Wright
Superintendent Sharonica Hardin-Bartley
Superintendent Karen Hall
Rhonda Stovall

And here are the questions we posed:

1.     The thesis of Born Bright is that poverty itself is the ultimate barrier to escaping poverty.  What is your reaction to that statement as an educator?

    

2.     For the superintendents, what measures do your districts take to combat inequality through poverty? What can the community do to support these measures?

3.     Dr. Mason, and many others, point to the gap in language exposure between preschoolers born into poverty and those from middle- and upper-class households.  She suggests integration of early literacy programs into the healthcare delivery system, so that pediatricians and obstetricians would direct new parents to appropriate resources.  How do you respond to that suggestion? 

4.     What role does school discipline play in the arc of a child’s development?  What are the best practices for effective discipline that maximize student learning outcomes?

5.     The importance of holding all students to high expectations is discussed in Born Bright, and elsewhere.  Explain how students are impacted by expectations, both from teachers and schools, but also from their families and peers.