“We’re gonna take ‘em down / We’re gonna take ‘em down / We’re gonna take ‘em down in numbers one by one”

So sing Vancouver’s You Say Party! We Say Die! on their EP’s title track, “The Gap (Between the Rich and the Poor).” Because while it’s nice to acknowledge the gap, singing about it isn’t enough, and so by god, these Canadians are going to do something about it.

Of course, they aren’t the only ones talking about the gap. In education circles, we like to talk about it until we’re blue in the face, which we hasten by putting “achievement” in front of it. And a lot of people are concerned, which is great; it just isn’t quite so sexy without the keyboards behind us. Or, you know, concrete action.

That’s where the Saint Paul Public Schools come in, as they are doing something that is both awesome and, to my knowledge, unprecedented. From the Star Tribune:

“Saying the time for excuses is over, St. Paul Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen on Thursday insisted that St. Paul can eliminate the achievement gap between minority students and white students, if the community, parents, foundations and city leaders join together in the effort.

When asked how St. Paul can solve a problem that is dogging schools across the country, Carstarphen pointed to a recent push to get about 500 at-risk eighth-graders ready for high school in just a few months.

“This really is about having the will to change our practices with certain groups of kids,” she said. “We need to teach them all.”

“In the program called Transitions Initiative, school officials are using a six-month, $155,000 planning grant to bring together community leaders, the mayor’s office and foundation officials to map out a strategy to close the gap between white students and African and black students.

“Educators would then go after the additional funding that would be needed to launch the plan to close the gap over five years.”

The article goes continues (and you can, too, by clicking the Star Tribune link above), but I think I’ll stop there to point out that Carstarphen, my new hero, didn’t just say, “oh, yeah, we got this achievement gap, man, we’re working really hard on implementing new strategies…” or, “Achievement gap? Yeah, we’re going to close it,” but instead, “We are going to close the achievement gap between white and minority students in Saint Paul within five years.” (Not a direct quote, don’t go getting me in trouble, but essentially that’s what she’s saying, right?)

The world needs more Meria Carstarphens.

And lest anyone read the above and say, “Yes, but just black students? What about X, Y, or Z minority students,” let me include the next paragraph:

“Carstarphen said the first phase focuses on the achievement gap of black students because it is the widest in the district, but the strategy will eventually be applied to other groups of students.”

And, perhaps my favorite quote from the article:

“”It’s called doing our job,” Carstarphen said.”

Do you see why I love this woman? She must have missed the training where teachers are told that they should blame the students for being so difficult to work with. Having become so impressed with her commitment to urban education, I sleuthed around on the internet trying to find some salient criticisms of her. I couldn’t. Pretty awesome.

Thanks to my sister for forwarding the Star Tribune article my way, and thanks to James Walsh and Myron P. Medcalf for bothering to write it.

Also, check out an interview with Carstarphen on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midmorning from November, 2006. Kudos to Kerri Miller and the MPR crew for that one.