Initiative Aims To Counter "Soft Bigotry Of Low Expectations”

Education Week (10/12, Sparks) reported though "the 'soft bigotry of low expectations' has become an education catchphrase, scholars and advocates are just beginning to explore whether it is possible to prevent such expectations from taking root by making teachers and students aware of their beliefs about students." This year, the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education "launched a program in Bridgeport, Conn.; Greene County, Ga.; San Francisco" and Newark, N.J. "to bring students and teachers together for lessons on cognitive development, instructional strategies, and lesson planning, with the students then modeling the instruction in a classroom for the teachers. The joint professional development course is intended to teach students to think critically about how they learn and are taught, while at the same time countering what the alliance's chief executive officer, Yvette Jackson, called a 'focus on weakness.'"