WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?

Leslye Arsht, StandardsWork, Moderator
John Murphy, ARVIDA
Paul Clopton, Mathematically Correct!
John Danielson, Community Education Partners

Content is intrinsic to academic success. Three panelists under the guidance of Leslye Arsht provided insights into why our schools fail, and how it is possible to succeed.

Developing Local Standards

        When John Murphy was superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, NC, everyone wanted "world class standards," but nobody knew what that meant. The schools believed they were already excellent, but the business community was just fed up with unprepared students, and nobody proffered answers. "Somebody better tell me what these look like," said Murphy recalling his frustration with the empty notions of quality. So to begin, Murphy gathered ten leading national education thinkers and developed an action plan that would engage the schools and community to develop rigorous, content based, academic standards.

        "We held everyone’s feet to the fire," said Murphy. If the school met its benchmarks then teachers were fiscally rewarded. If they did not, the deficiencies appeared on their evaluations. Student learning progress was tied to these evaluations. If they did not demonstrate adequate progress then teachers and administrators went off to reform school where they received a detailed Individual Education Plan and had one year to improve. Indeed, Murphy stated it clearly, "There must be zero tolerance for mediocrity; there will be no mis-serving our students or we will find other folks."

 MathmaticallyCorrect (www.mathematicallycorrect.com)

        The efforts of Paul and Jamie Clopton and his MathmaticallyCorrect partner Mike McKeown provide a model for concerned parents across the country.

        Paul, his wife Jamie and Mike have swayed educators in California to recently adopt truly rigorous math standards. In less than three months, Paul and Jamie went from "just parents" to the co-founders of Mathmaticallycorrect. "We talked our way up the ladder, from the district that did not listen to state legislators, and, eventually, we captured the attention of the school district. When our efforts became big media events, then they began to take us seriously." Their activism changed the course of CA math education. Within a short period Paul and Mike were appointed to the state mathematics framework committee to design the state’s curriculum, standards, and assessments; but it was not easy. The fight for rigorous content-based curriculum, standards and a comprehensive assessment system has been an uphill fight. "We expected to lose."

        The problem, says Clopton, is that we (public schools) test at a very base level. We expect very little from our students, and our students give us little in return. "Our students are smart, they know how to get-by by doing the minimum. Teachers avoided A & A (or arithmetic and algebra). They said that we are not going to test it because 1) kids should know arithmetic and 2) we do not want to test algebra because too many students can’t do it!" On top of that many math curriculums do not focus on mastery and progress, but creative and innovative thinking. The fundamental skills needed to be innovative are overlooked.

        The Mathmaticallycorrect folks "expected to lose," but instead, their efforts changed the course of debate to tackle some major problems. "We have serious curriculum and assessment problems, and so we better start paying attention."

What We Teach our Children, and How They Act, Matters

A few years back, Texas legislators created the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP) to meet the union demand that schools remove disturbing youth from the classrooms. Community Education Partners (CEP) did just that. "When you see in the news that kids in the Sam Houston High School, in Houston, had a bloody Crips and Bloods [gang] fight, well they all get on a bus and show up at our front door the next day – both of them."

        CEP presently operates in Houston and Dallas. The Houston program is the largest of its kind, educating about 1,000 students. The Dallas program educates about 300. Such a concentration of juvenile delinquents seems like a fight waiting to happen, but the programs have not had any serious incidents. The disciplined, academic environment is a clear indicator of CEP’s success.

        The program has also brought out advocacy from traditional opponents of public-private partnerships such as the Houston teachers union and the NAACP. "We are focused on working with the school system, to complete their program," Danielson emphasized.

        CEP has also succeeded in preventing future crime and dropouts. Plagued by a near 52% drop out rate, superintendent Rod Paige openly confronted the trouble. He asked CEP to create a pilot program to deal with potential at-risk students before they were lost, and they did. "The program we established has been a success," reports Danielson. The district experienced a 38% decrease in district-wide crime and, more important, the program proves that these kids can enjoy learning and be steered away from a life of crime and violence. Appropriately, HISD recently voted to triple the program.

        "What CEP does is not rocket science," says Danielson. "We teach to what the children need, to meet their deficiencies. Our core operating principles are the three Bs: Be here, Behave, and Be learning." And it works.

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