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MAKING SCHOOLS WORK – Hour One

“Educational Programs that Work”
Success for All, an instructional model that builds reading skills through rapid-fire drill, grouping students by performance rather than by age or grade-level, and by frequent testing and regrouping, is rated by educational experts as one of the most effective elementary school models, especially for troubled inner city schools. Since 1987, Success for All has been used by more than 1,300 schools in 47 states, involving 650,000 students. To insure teacher buy-in, the program requires 80% faculty vote in favor, and then implements rigorous follow-up and a full-time facilitator for each school to insure the program is being carrie dout according to script. Many teachers start out skeptical but most are won over by its clear impact on student achievement.  This program is examined at the Centennial Elementary School, just north of Seattle.

The Comer Process – Faced with wrenching poverty, drugs, and gang violence, Chicago public schools often focus more on survival than on academics. But one bright spot has been The Comer Process, created by Yale University child psychologist Dr. James Comer. Since 1968, The Comer Process. commonly referred to as the School Development Program, has been adopted in more than 1,150 elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide – now being used by 300 schools. Unlike models that take a formulaic approach, Comer emphasizes a holistic strategy, linking a child’s academic growth with his/her social and moral development. Its core strategy is to encourage power-sharing by principals and to get schools organized in cooperative teams to make joint decisions to create an effective learning community.

The KIPP model is distinctive for targeting middle schools – the tough “dumping ground” of public education, which often gets left with mediocre and inexperienced teachers as well as ill-defined curriculums and inadequate resources. But in 1994, two young “Teach for America” recruits, Michael Feinberg and David Levin, developed KIPP – the Knowledge Is Power Program – at a charter school in Houston. Their strategy: hold all students to high academic standards.  No exceptions, no excuses, no shortcuts. Feinberg estimates that KIPP students spend 67% more time in school than the normal school year. KIPP's 3D Academy, a middle school in Houston with roughly 80% Latino and 20% African-American students, mostly on free and reduced lunch, is demolishing stereotypes.

High Schools That Work – Education reformer Gene Bottoms, a former vocational education teacher asked by southern governors to develop a high school  reform program, set out to overcome tracking that segregated college-bound from work-bound students. He felt one group was left with a weak curriculum and the other lacking a rounded education. High Schools That Work aims to raise student achievement, reduce dropout and retention rates, and boost graduation rates by combining academic and hands-on learning - setting rigorous academic standards and linking academics to work-oriented career-technical learning. It is now used by 1,000 schools in 31 states, invloving 850,000 students. At Corbin High School in Kentucky's Appalachian region, students like Wanda Kinsey and Jordy Davis now dream of college instead planning to drop out. 

MAKING SCHOOLS WORK – Hour 2

“School Districts that Work”
Charlotte – After eight years of district-wide reform starting in 1996, Charlotte-Mecklenburg shot to the top of major urban school districts on NAEP tests in early 2004. With over 121,000 children in 148 schools, Charlotte is the story of a successful district-wide reform driven by Eric Smith, a determined and demanding superintendent who emphasized meeting state standards and equity among urban and suburban schools. What is especially significant is that Charlotte has maintained educational momentum after Eric Smith’s left the district three years ago. The new team, headed by his former deputy superintendent, James Pughsley, has pursued the original goals, maintaining continuity and momentum in the reform effort.

New York City District 2 – PS 126 epitomized what critics call a hopeless public school – abysmal academic performance, poor leadership, burned-out teachers. In 1988 , only 20% of its 500 pre-K–8 students could read at grade level. Discipline was a nightmare. A decade later, more than half the students could read at grade level and discipline problems were rare.  What powered this turn-around was the single-minded focus of former district superintendent Anthony Alvarado on radically improving the quality of instruction throughout District 2, one of 32 districts within New York City. Though half the district's 22,000 students live in poverty and 11% are immigrants, Alvarado boosted District 2’s student achievement up from 11th to 2nd among New York’s 32 school districts.  While his successors maintained his momentum, District 2 has since dissolved and become part of the massive citywide school system under Joel Klein with 1.2 million students in 1,356 schools. As Klein pushes reform throughout the city, he has borrowed heavily from Alvarado’s strategies and has promoted several of Alvarado’s former principals to serve as instructional superintendents for a number of the city’s ten new regions.

San Diego – The supreme test for district-wide reform is replication in a new setting. Anthony Alvarado faced that challenge in 1998 when invited to San Diego’s sprawling 200-school, 140,000-student district, near the Mexican border. School Superintendent Alan Bersin hired Alvarado as Academic Chancellor. The Bersin-Alvarado team moved boldly though it was only narrowly supported by a 3-2 majority in the local school board, and the board was an arena for constant argument over reform. By 2001, elementary and middle school student scores showed improvement on state tests, but Bersin and Alvarado had become embroiled in a running conflict with the teachers union, the San Diego Education Association, which vigorously resisted the reforms.  By 2002, Alvarado felt reform was being so watered down and he had become a lightning rod of union discontent that he quit. For three more years, Bersin worked to keep reform on track, but in 2005 the pro-reform majority on the board was overturned in a school board election and Bersin’s contract was cut short. In spite of the resistance, San Diego showed significant gains in elementary and middle school student performance, especially in reading. However, it showed no headway at the high school level.