We Should Not “Slow Down” School Reform

by Michelle Rhee and George Parker

We hear it often. ‘Slow down. You’re moving too fast. It’s too much too soon.’ Those of us involved in this grassroots movement to improve our nation’s education system so it works for all kids couldn’t disagree more.

We understand change can make people uncomfortable, and we would never support change for change’s sake. But the facts are quite clear. Our schools are not providing every child with an equally good education, and we have to take immediate and significant steps to right this wrong.

Sadly, in America today, the color of your skin, and the neighborhood in which you live, are very strong predictors of how you’ll do academically. That was unacceptable in the 1950s and ‘60s, and it’s unacceptable today. Sure, we’ve made strides. But the statistics show there is still so much more that must be done to ensure no child is denied a shot at the American dream.

There are those who say there is no crisis.  But that’s hard to argue when you consider only 14 percent of black fourth-graders are proficient readers, according to a 2011 national assessment, and more than half of black fourth-graders actually scored below the basic level in reading. In math, just 16 percent of black fourth graders hit the proficient mark, compared to 43 percent of their white peers. How can we expect children to even think about one day becoming engineers, computer scientists or doctors when we are failing to help so many of them learn the fundamentals of elementary math?

Disparities in education between minorities and white children and low-income and wealthy students aren’t only seen on test scores. Just a little more than half of black students graduate from high school with their peers, compared to about three-fourths of white students. Failing kids this way has huge consequences for those who drop out and for society in general. High school dropouts are more likely to be out of work or earn less than graduates and are more likely to be in poor health or in prison.

The evidence is clear. Reform must be sweeping, and reform must happen now.

So how do we go about changing our education system so it works better for every child? Of course, we need to ensure schools have adequate funding and that those resources are used wisely. We also need to make sure wraparound and social services are readily available to all those who need them.

But when it comes to the academic instruction kids receive, it’s very clear we have to focus on the teaching that takes place in our classrooms. Laptops are nice, as are whiteboards and renovated school buildings. But none of those things affect student learning as much as the critical work of our teachers.

Research out of Stanford University shows a highly effective teacher generates three times the learning gains of an ineffective educator. What’s more, several years in a row with an effective teacher can change a child’s entire life trajectory in a very positive way, while several years in a row in ineffective classrooms can have the same effect – only in a negative way. Knowing that, we have to ensure all children have great teachers year after year.

To tackle this challenge, we first have to consider how we assess the work of our teachers. Currently, teachers are evaluated infrequently and in a subjective way, and they rarely get the feedback or recognition they need and deserve. At StudentsFirst, over the past year, we have been working with states that are rethinking teacher evaluations to make them more rigorous and fair by relying on multiple classroom observations and evidence of student learning. This commonsense approach, if carried out nationally, will go a long way toward ensuring American children are taught by – and learn from – great teachers.

Another change states are considering involves retaining our best teachers rather than pushing them out the door. No one ever wants teacher layoffs to happen, but when they do, we have to minimize the impact on children. Right now, layoffs are typically based on seniority, not on a teacher’s actual work in helping kids learn.  That’s wrong because it can force great teachers out of our schools when we desperately need them to stay. Basing these critical decisions on time served, rather than the work performed, may be considered ‘fair’ to some adults in the system, but it’s not good for kids and it’s a policy we have to change.

Re-thinking outdated, harmful policies will go a long way to improving our schools, but no child should have to wait around for reforms to take hold if his or her school is failing them. While we work aggressively to improve our traditional district schools, we also must expand the educational choices available to kids, especially those who come from families with limited economic options.

That means expanding our high-performing public charter schools, so all children who want to attend them can. Charters are open to the public and often serve high percentages of poor and minority kids, but in many communities there isn’t enough space in them to accommodate everyone seeking to get in.

This tight supply of space in successful public charter schools, and the sometimes slow-going nature of turning around struggling district schools has shaped our thinking further on school choice. As parents ourselves, we simply can’t ask other moms and dads to accept a school for their kids that we would never accept for our own children. That’s why we support the expansion of programs that allow poor children stuck in failing schools to use publicly funded scholarships to attend high-performing private schools.

We certainly don’t think vouchers, as these scholarships are called, should be offered to every child and we don’t think they offer a silver-bullet solution to today’s problems in education. Unfortunately, there is no one single solution.

Rather, we have to work together to aggressively advocate for a host of commonsense changes that ultimately put the needs of children, all children, ahead of the needs of any other interests. If we stick to this basic principal, we can give kids what should have been their basic right all along – a great education that prepares them for bright and successful futures.

Michelle Rhee is the CEO and founder of StudentsFirst, a bipartisan, grassroots organization launched in December 2010 to help transform U.S. schools so they work well for all children. Michelle previously served as the chancellor of Washington, D.C. public schools. George Parker, a former math teacher, is a senior fellow at StudentsFirst and the former president of the Washington Teachers Union. 

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