Here is his response:
- Low standards and expectations in low-income schools.
- Very inadequate teacher training in our education schools.
- Failure to challenge average students in nearly all high schools with AP and IB courses.
- Corrupt and change-adverse bureaucracies in big city districts.
- A tendency to judge schools by how many low income kids they have, the more there are the worse the school in the public mind.
- A widespread feeling on the part of teachers, because of their inherent humanity, that it is wrong to put a child in a challenging situation where they may fail, when that risk of failure is just what they need to learn and grow.
- The widespread belief among middle class parents that their child must get into a well known college or they won't be as successful in life.
- A failure to realize that inner city and rural schools need to give students more time to learn, and should have longer school days and school years.
- A failure to realize that the best schools--like the KIPP charter schools in the inner cities---are small and run by well-recruited and trained principals who have the power to hire all their teachers, and quickly fire the ones that do not work out.
- The resistance to the expansion of charter schools in most school district offices.
Interesting list, isn't it?
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3 comments:
I couldn't have said it better. Thanks for the information, Babbie.
I've been following Leonard Pitts' columns on the success of KIPP schools. It seems CCSD could learn from this organization. Is there any chance they will?
What make the KIPP program for charter schools so interesting is that it was started by a group that included many leading African-American professionals (not just educators) who saw a need for schools to take charge and responsibility for their futures and eventual success. They target high minority schools with a pattern of failure often in minority dominated communities where all but their own hope for good schools appears to have been abandoned by the central administration. It's the hope in the community that they count on and build upon. These are not alternative schools. They are very traditional, highly focused, university and technical college bound programs. They are often excellent rated. After five years KIPP aims to have managed their schools to the first cycle of rechartering with excellent ratings. At that point they also have trained the community to take over and run the school on their own. KIPP builds up the school to its maximum performance, points the students in the right direction and teaches the parents & community to take over. Their goal is for the parents & the school to learn how to run an excellent school and then to fly it themselves.
Leonard Pitts has been a breath of fresh air for what "failing" schools can do on their own if they would just break their chains that tie them to broken systems like CCSD. How long has it been since Burke High was actually run by the community it serves? How long has it been since Burke High was considered to be a highly successful comprehensive high school that included top performing college prep, general and vocational programs? I think the answer is the same.
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