The Proper Response to an Achievement Gap?

The Ann Arbor, Michigan School Board has crafted a plan to close the achievement gap:

In Ann Arbor, the gap shows up in disparities in test scores, failure rates, graduation rates, suspension rates and participation in both remedial and advanced classes.

Trustees said they want to make sure "all students will graduate ready.''

To get there, they will focus on:

• Personalized relationships.
• Equitable practices.
• Aligned, standardized curriculum.
• Minimal suspensions and expulsions.
• Continuation of successful programs and initiatives.

I wonder what the school means by focusing on minimal suspensions and expulsions? I hope it means correcting the individual students' behaviors and not eliminating the punishments in order to ensure that every student has similar transcripts. Sure, it would make everyone more equal and I'm sure a mark like this on the student's record does not reflect well with college applications, but is equality worth the alteration of acceptable societal behaviors? If equality means levelling society down to its lowest common denominator, I say it is not worth the price.

Perhaps the board is not familiar enough with a great thinker from their own state: Russell Kirk. One of the six canons Kirk presented in "The Conservative Mind" is a "[c]onviction that civilized society requires class and orders." This requires "equality in the judgment of God, and equality before courts of law"--and nothing more. Attempting to creating equality among the other conditions of people's lives "means equality in servitude and boredom."