This Independence Day, we face a historic opportunity to change the future of our nation. If President Obama and Secretary Duncan remain tenacious in conditioning Race to the Top funds on support for charter schools, insistence on high quality teachers, and closing failing schools, and if our politicians, especially our Democrats, continue to summon the courage to vote for these reforms, we can recast the educational landscape, especially for the poorest among us, who have disproportionately been harmed by the policies of the past.
I applaud DFER for honoring those Democrats who have the courage to advocate educational change. These brave politicians are real patriots, courageously taking the political risks required in order to provide children with the equality of opportunity that is the engine of this great democracy. New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein often talks about our obligation to “give every kid a shot at the American Dream.” Like Joel, I believe that preserving the American Dream – the right to an equal chance in life – is our generation’s sacred trust, and that the country that we love cannot survive without it.
The Dream is plainly in jeopardy. In our historic cities, far too many children, often the majority, have no realistic shot at success. The schools that have given generations of Americans a chance in life that would be inconceivable in most other countries are no longer up to the task, crippled by outmoded laws, contracts and practices that favor the interests of adults over the interests of our children. We cannot lose another generation of urban children. It is time now to take a stand, and in many states the forces are aligning to make it possible.
I recently resigned from a leadership position in the Cleveland School District, where students are among the poorest in America, almost 70% of schools are in Academic Emergency or Academic Watch under Ohio’s accountability system, the high school graduation rate fell 8% last year to 54%, district enrollment has declined by about 40% since 2000 even as per pupil spending has increased by almost the same amount, and citizens and students continue to leave the city. Over the past several decades, millions of dollars in government grants and charitable contributions have been poured into the conventional solutions favored by the education establishment, funding thousands of hours of professional development, numerous organizational changes, and dozens of instructional programs, without appreciably different results.
I believe that the survival of Cleveland and cities like it depends on dramatic action to improve education, including closing schools that have not educated children for many years and opening the kinds of new schools that have been proven to succeed; radically restructuring workforce management policies to expect accountability for student achievement from everyone in the district; opening the doors to new teachers and administrators, including those from non-traditional backgrounds; and creating alliances with high performing charter and independent schools so as to build the educator talent pool and create as many high quality educational opportunities as possible. Experience in districts that have embraced reform shows us that these bold actions create new futures for our children.
Education reform is difficult and nuanced work. Finding the right approach is more art than science. Many believe that incremental improvement is possible and is the best approach. Change is disruptive, the forces that benefit from the status quo are powerful and will always choose incremental over dramatic change, and there will always be those who say that dramatic action risks making outcomes even worse than they are. From my standpoint, however, the evidence is in and it is squarely on the side of dramatic change. The children of our cities do not have any more time to spare.
Over the next few days I’ll offer a view from the trenches about the challenges that face us, the difficulty of the work, and the nuances that I believe we must appreciate, even as we move forward boldly, creatively, and as fast as the limits of our leadership and energy will allow.