Article of the Week

Week of 10/31-11/04
Directions: Complete all steps below, which includes annotating, answering questions, and margin
notes. You should read this article multiple times before Friday. Be prepared to share your thoughts,
ideas, and opinions on Friday!
Step 1 : Read the article. Use the coding we practiced in class to annotate the article. You can use
the following options:
* important idea

+ you agree

X you disagree

! surprising idea

__ Underline a specific line that you

found interesting

Circle a word you dont know-try to

guess the meaning using context
clues

? you are wondering about that idea

Step 2: Read the article a second time. Number the paragraphs. Read the article carefully and
make notes in the margin. Notes should include:
The 5Ws:
Who is involved in the text?
What is the main subject of the text?
When is the event of the text happening?
Where is the event of the text taking place?
Why is this text written? What is the point?
Comments that show that you understand the article. (A summary or statement of the main
idea of important sections may serve this purpose. You could also [bracket] the paragraph and
write the GIST.)
Questions you have that show what you are wondering about as you read.
Notes that differentiate between fact and opinion.
Make a connection (another event, another historical movement) with something you read (no
personal connections!)
Observations about how the writers strategies (organization, word choice, perspective,
evidence) and choices affect the article.
Step 3: Read the article again noting anything you might have missed during the other reads of the
text.
Step 4: Answer the questions that follow the article. Be sure to use evidence from the article when
necessary.

Are Detroits Most Terrible Schools Unconstitutional?

By Geoffrey R. Stone 10/21/16

The New York Times

At one Detroit school, just 4 percent of third graders scored proficient on

Michigans English assessment test. At another, 9.5 percent did. Those
students are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last month that asserts that
children have a federal constitutional right to the opportunity to learn to read
and write.
Illiteracy is the norm at those slumlike schools and others in Michigans
biggest city, according to the plaintiffs. The facilities are decrepit and unsafe.
The first thing some teachers do each morning is clean up rodent feces
before their students arrive. In some cases, teachers buy the books and
school supplies, even the toilet paper.
Lawyers for the students are arguing, in effect, that Michigan is denying their
clients the right to a minimally adequate education, an issue that has been
raised over the years in courts in other states under their state constitutions.
In Connecticut, a state judge last month ordered sweeping changes to
reshape the states public schools after concluding that Connecticut is
defaulting on its constitutional duty to provide all students with an adequate
education. The judge concluded that the states funding system had left rich
school districts to flourish and poor school districts to flounder.
Now the litigation in Detroit is raising this issue under the United States
Constitution. The Supreme Court has never addressed whether disparities
among schools would be constitutionally permissible if, as the court put it in
1973, a state failed to provide each child with an opportunity to acquire the
basic minimal skills necessary for success in life.
In that bitterly divided 5-4 decision, San Antonio Independent School District
v. Rodriguez, the court upheld a Texas law that produced unequal levels of
education to students living in different school districts based on the property
tax revenues of each district.
The majority maintained that the law was constitutional because it served a
policy of permitting each school district to decide for itself how much money
to spend on education. Whether the level of education was at least minimally
adequate in the states poorest schools was not at issue in the case.
In what is likely to be the opening chapter in a long legal saga, a federal
district judge in Michigan must determine if a state can constitutionally
provide a vast majority of its students with an excellent or at least adequate
education while a minority of students receive an education that denies them
the chance to acquire the minimum skills the court spoke of 43 years ago in
Rodriguez.
Even if a state is not constitutionally obligated to provide all of its children
with an equal education, it should surely be constitutionally required to

Notes on my
thoughts,
reactions and
questions as I
read:

provide them with at least an education that gives them the chance to learn
the most basic skills to succeed.
The obvious reason, as the court itself pointed out in 1982 in Plyler v. Doe, is
that illiteracy is an enduring disability that will handicap children each and
every day of their lives and take an inestimable toll on their social,
economic, intellectual and psychological well-being for the rest of their lives.
In Plyler v. Doe, the court voted 5-4 to hold unconstitutional a Texas statute
that excluded undocumented children from free public education.
But in the case of children who are attending a public school, how do we
know whether a state has denied some of its children even the minimal level
of education required by the 14th Amendment? That is the burden that the
plaintiffs in the Detroit case must meet. After reviewing their evidence, the
case seems to be open-and-shut.
As the plaintiffs demonstrate, decades of state disinvestment in and
deliberate indifference to the Detroit schools have denied these children
access to the most basic building block of education: literacy. At the
schools involved in this litigation, which serve almost exclusively low-income
minority children, the student proficiency rates hover near zero in nearly all
core subject areas. At one school, for example, 100 percent of the sixth
graders scored below proficiency in reading.
Why is this so? As the plaintiffs demonstrate, many classes lack even
minimally usable textbooks; classrooms are overcrowded and have
inadequate temperature controls so the students often suffer from extreme
heat and cold; classrooms are infested with vermin; the drinking water in
some of these schools is often contaminated; the bathrooms are filthy and
unkempt; and many of the teachers assigned to these schools are asked to
teach subjects for which they lack training or experience.
The simple fact is that these schools are a disgrace and they bear no
resemblance to schools elsewhere in the state schools that serve white
and middle-class children. As the plaintiffs note, these schools deprive their
students of even a fighting chance to succeed in society. Their existence
cannot rationally be justified by any legitimate state interest. They are a
disgrace to the state of Michigan and to our nation. One can only wonder
what Gov. Rick Snyder would do if his children were assigned to such a
school.
Geoffrey R. Stone is a professor of law at the University of Chicago.

Notes on my
thoughts,
reactions and
questions as I
read:

Directions: Use the article to answer the questions below.

1. What is the article mostly about?

2. What does the term constitutional mean?

3. Why does the author consider Detroit school slumlike?

4. The author writes, At one school, for example, 100 percent of the sixth graders scored below
proficiency in reading. Why do you think that happened?

5. What changes need to happen in the Detroit school system? How could that get done?

6. What type of evidence does the author use to get his claim across?

7. How do the schools and policies in this article compare to NYC schools? Explain your answer.

8. EVALUATE: Do you think the author makes an effective argument? Do you spot any
weaknesseslike a bias or missing informationin his argument?

Adapted from Valle Middle School & the NY Times

Rubric
Plan
Outcome Target

Not Yet

Meets Standards

Exceeds Standards

Creates appropriate plans

and follows them in a
timely manner with
attention to deadlines.

See below
on ways to
improve

Student uses a planning tool (e.g. planner) to

document assignments and project deadlines,
set smaller goals and, if necessary, modify
plans to meet these deadlines. During work
sessions, student organizes class time to
carry out responsibilities and requires no
teacher redirection.

Student uses a planning tool (e.g. planner) to

document assignments and project deadlines,
set smaller goals and, if necessary, modify
plans to meet these deadlines. During work
sessions, student organizes class time to
carry out responsibilities.

Ways to improve this outcome:____ Complete all parts(steps) of the task, _____ next time hand in your assignment on time, _______
spend more time revising before handing in assignment , ____ other: