Show A billion question How best to o fix the schools Jay Mathews The Thc Washington Post WASHINGTON If you had billion to fix our schools what would you do A surprisingly smart list of suggestions for forthe forthe forthe the education portion of the federal stimulus money is circulating in the education policy world A group of experts claims authorship I dont don't believe committees are capable of good ideas so soI soI I doubt the alleged origins of the list But lets let's put that aside for a moment and see what they've got You can po Google ogle the report Smart Options Investing the Rec Recovery very Funds for Student Success sponsored by the Eli Ell and Edythe Broad and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations and judge for yourself whether 37 people wrote it The group included Ted Mitchell and Jonathan Schorr of the Venture Fund and John Deasy and Lynn Olson of the Gates Foundation I have graded each proposal Their goal is to get the biggest change by January 2012 I think they are dreaming The federal stimulus is designed to save jobs not raise student achievement But some not all of the ideas are so good some states might repeat might be tempted to try them 1 Develop common American standards my grade minus C-minus A bad ad start I II L am amnot not ag against academic content standards We taxpayers pay teacher salaries and need to know our kids are learning useful stuff By 2012 the committee wants fewer clearer higher evidence evidence- based college- college and career career- ready standards adopted by at least 40 states representing the majority of the nations nation's students They argue that foreign countries with good standards make us look like we need to repeat a grade But getting 40 states to buy into this will require many many meetings That 2012 deadline is a joke And I have yet to hear a great teacher tell me her class really rocked because of clearer evidence-based evidence state standards 2 Provide data and information that educators policymakers and parents can use minus A-minus Parents often tell me we have too much testing and too much data My reply to th them m Move to Bali This is the world we live in The young teachers I know their laptops flipped open at every meeting dont don't want to fly blind They want to see who is progressing where and trade ideas with other teachers Schools and states would be able track each childs child's progress Six states have all 10 elements of the gold standard the Data Quality Campaign The extra money would help put at least eight elements in 47 states by 2012 3 Conduct meaningful l teacher evaluations evaluation's C- C plus Maybe this was a committee project after all The sticky residue of group blob is all over this idea We need good goodteacher goodteacher goodteacher teacher evaluations but it itis itis itis is one of the most difficult reforms Unions have to be involved but the proposal barely mentions them The committee wants every state and school district by 2012 to have a system that provides differentiated supports and rewards to teachers based on their performance with at least 50 percent of teacher ratings based on how much teachers contribute to s students students' dents dents' academic p progress ogress over time After that they will figure Out but how to restore newspaper profits and keep my cubicle neat and clean 4 Turn around low- low performing schools A- A plus They suggest closing the poorest poorest performing 5 percent of schools in every state and replacing them with schools that have higher expectations for students and the operational and staffing flexibility to effectively meet students' students needs Some public schools regular and charter are already doing that With the financial boost a 5 percent target is feasible and meaningful Under the theNo theNo No Child Left Behind law the bottom 5 percent usually rearrange curriculum get geta a new principal or call in more experts in other words practically nothing 5 Help struggling g students plus A-plus This is the most practical and direct of the five suggestions and it doesn't eat up billion in one gulp Students at least two o years behind hind in reading writing and math would be given a longer school day and year and would be assigned ed to teachers of f proven effectiveness That Thatis is how the best schools have raised achievement If we cant can't do it for everyone we can at least start with those who need it most |