The education reform movement, which has become surprisingly pervasive and powerful in the past fifteen years, is founded on the
mistaken notion that American public schools are "in crisis" and American education is "failing." This faulty narrative has opened the door to countless education reform initiatives that are often developed and promoted by corporate business entities and wealthy "edu-philanthropists" who think their business success enables and entitles them to impose their ideas on communities in
the interest of "fixing schools."
This week in a piece for the Denver Post, I've taken on the naive approach of corporate and business education reformers and offered them advice on how they should
"Stop Trying to Fix Schools, and Just Fix a School." My basic argument is centered on a neighborhood - rather than systemic or national - approach where reformers can address the basic needs and gaps in student achievement at the source - where students live.
Here's the full text:
Stop Trying to “Fix
Schools” and just “Fix a School”
It’s been 32
years since an Education Department report declared America “A Nation at Risk.”
It’s been 15 years since Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates began his education
philanthropy, naïvely believing his wealth and business acumen could solve the
country’s supposed “education crisis.” It’s been 14 years since No Child Left
Behind promised all students would achieve at grade level by 2014. It’s been
seven years since the launch of the Common Core initiative to standardize
education. It’s been five years since Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg gave
$100 million to “fix schools” in Newark, NJ and turn that poverty-plagued
system into a national model of education.
In all that
time academic achievement has remained roughly the same, with national tests
like NAEP and ACT indicating a relatively stable, or stagnant, state of
education. Education laws and reformers like Gates and Zuckerberg have had
little success in changing neighborhood dynamics that inhibit school
achievement. Their shortcomings are reflected in the recent re-write of NCLB, Gates
backing away from ideas like his “small schools” initiative, and Zuckerberg’s
Newark experiment exposed as a colossal waste of money documented in Dale
Russakoff’s The Prize: Who’s in Charge of
America’s Schools? Clearly, none of the actions of edu-reformers have been
able to change the fundamental societal problems of poverty at the root of low
achievement. And, there’s one simple conclusion. The education reform movement
led by billionaire philanthropists would be far more effective and much less
controversial if it focused on fixing “a school” and not on “fixing schools.”
Despite new
standards, new tests, new laws, new accountability systems, and new ideas, academic
results in poor neighborhoods remain, well, poor. And these results are no
surprise to anyone. Recent news of continuing struggles in Aurora Public
Schools and the apparent re-segregation of many Denver-area schools indicate
specific socioeconomic and geographic challenges that require a “neighborhood
focus.” Such an approach requires directly supporting struggling students with
school supplies, tutoring, after-school programs, parenting classes, health
care, food, and more. That’s the focus of an intervention program in northwest
Denver called Blocks of Hope, where school and community leaders plan to attack
the issues of poverty and struggling schools “one neighborhood at a time.” Poverty
intervention and whole child/whole family support for education is modeled on
Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone. A similar approach has shown dramatic
results at Camden Street Elementary School in Newark, New Jersey where
principal Sam Garrison teamed with a wealthy business owner to improve the
school through community building programs. Clearly, Mark Zuckerberg could have
had more success in Newark if he followed the Garrison model and used his $100
million to directly support struggling schools.
Despite
claims by reformers like Bill Gates and College Board president David Coleman,
the establishment of common standards and yearly standardized tests have not
improved education. The root causes of education failure often
reside outside the school environment, and these are too often ignored by
reformers. Non-school factors are the primary drivers of low achievement, and
there is little doubt where these needs are greatest. There is no crisis in
public education, but there are many crises in individual communities. Thus, declaring
a crisis in "education" and instituting state and national programs
is not helpful because it aims at too big of a target. There is no reason to
declare a crisis in the thousands of successful schools. Education is not
"in crisis," but 30% of schools and neighborhoods are. We already
know which schools and students struggle. Thus, reformers and educators and
media and legislators must focus directly on them.
Now that
NCLB has been replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the federal
government has returned education reform to local control, perhaps it is time
for all those interested in “fixing schools” to act locally and simply fix a
school. That requires looking beyond the charter school model. While charter
schools are touted as a solution, they have not helped struggling communities,
and they do nothing to improve neighborhood schools. Often charters simply weaken
neighborhoods and increase segregation by leaving behind many children who
cannot access schools outside their neighborhood. The charter school movement
should only be considered successful if it succeeds at “motivating students”
and not just when it educates “motivated students.” Programs like Blocks of
Hope will address problems directly where they exist. Thus, true change will
come when education reformers, including the billionaire philanthropists who
have promoted a variety of wasteful and unnecessary initiatives, commit to
supporting those students who need it most where they need it most. And that’s
where they live.
Michael P. Mazenko
works at Cherry Creek High School and blogs at A Teacher’s View. Follow him
@mmazenko
