Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is the “Achievement Gap”? What do you know about its causes? Besides achievement scores, what other indicators are there that American education disenfranchises students from marginalized groups?

Teaching Suggestion: Many students will know the term “Achievement Gap,” but they may be hazy on its real causes. If you are having students discuss this question aloud, you may wish to be prepared with accurate information to correct any misunderstandings, especially those that evidence biased attitudes about marginalized groups. You may also wish to consider how the demographics of and typical interactions among your students may influence whose voices are heard, particularly during discussion of the final question in this prompt. This final question might be one that is best answered in writing or after exposure to the resources below or others like them.

• This article from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education discusses the origins of the Achievement Gap.
• This 4-minute video from the news program Matter of Fact offers information on discipline bias.