‘The White Noise, or Administrative Silencing’ (pg19-20)

Fear induces silence. This passage brought to the forefront an Achilles’ Heel of the public school system – the fear of naming. Schools are afraid of being labeled failing, administrations are afraid of being labeled racist, and teachers are afraid of being labeled inefficient, thus as Michelle Fine has pointed out, things such as retention, and achievement statistics by race and ethnicity are not monitored. Schools and administration will boost the positive – e.g.: the “80% college-bound rate” of the school, and would simply ignore the 20% who are not “college-bound” (19). Those who see a problem and dissents are silenced. This is harmful to not only the students but also to the adults in the system. Yet, the cycle is difficult to break. During the previous administration, schools are given a grade from A-F. Schools that are continuously low performing (e.g.: low graduation rates, low test scores, etc) are often in danger of closing. Thus, there was a large amount of pressure to perform well and present an appealing package to the auditors. It would take time to encourage the students and others who are silenced to speak up and for the mentality to change.