School-reform critics ignore power of accountability

In 1998, when Ronald Ross took over the schools in Mount Vernon, N.Y., only a third of the students were scoring at acceptable levels on state reading and math tests. Yet teachers claimed they were doing their best with the mostly poor, minority students.

The one cudgel Ross could wield was the state's tough new accountability system, which dramatically raised standards for students and required each school to publish its test results. Using them, Ross rooted out educators who accepted failure and realigned the curriculum. Within a year, half the students met state standards. Last year, 80% achieved them.

Now Ross is among 100 black and Latino school superintendents who signed a petition by the Education Trust, a school-reform group, embracing the accountability rules of the new federal school-performance law, the No Child Left Behind Act. The superintendents understand that without new mandates requiring schools to identify and help struggling children, the problems of school districts such as Mount Vernon again will become invisible.

Critics of the law, such as the National Education Association, the powerful teachers union, are trying to stir up opposition from educators and Democratic presidential candidates. But a victory for them would strip superintendents such as Ross of the outside pressure needed to find better-qualified teachers, adopt more effective curriculums and educate children who in the past were allowed to fail.

Critics' arguments against raising standards and holding educators accountable don't stand up. Among them:

• There's no money to support reform . The federal funding of poor schools has grown 33% during the past two years.

• The reform goals are unrealistic . The law demands that by 2014, all children must score as "proficient" learners on state tests. Most educators agree that the ambitious goal probably won't be met. But it is worth striving for. Extending the deadline now would slow down the pace of school reform.

• The law relies on one-size-fits-all testing . In fact, the tests that critics revile identify the children whom teachers are failing to reach. In Gainesville, Fla., for example, Abraham Lincoln Middle School received an "A" under the state's grading system. But federally required tests revealed a wide racial learning gap. While 90% of Lincoln's white students were proficient in math and reading, only 22% of the black students were proficient in reading and 15% in math.

In Mount Vernon, George Albano is the principal of Lincoln Elementary School, where half the students are black and half are poor. In 1999, Albano used the threat of higher state standards as leverage to launch intensive tutoring programs, adjust the curriculum to fit state standards and make sure all classes, including art and gym, pass along academic skills. It worked: In 2002, 99% of the nearly 800 students scored at or above state standards.

The new federal accountability law is neither perfect nor funded as well as it should be. Even so, it demands the same type of results that proved so successful in Mount Vernon schools. As the minority superintendents know, such accountability is their students' best hope

A cry in the black education wilderness*** The great disappointment of my ongoing crusade to foment a revolution in black education has been the lack of a response, and even hostility, from black leaders in this community. Naturally, I expected everyone to drop what they were doing and hop onto my education movement bandwagon.

To be sure, black readers in general have responded positively and in droves to the call for a black education movement along the lines of our historic civil rights movement. They have said they agree that this movement must demand rigorous academic standards and a high level of parental responsibility and community involvement to ensure black children's success.

In a comment typical of many I've received, a reader wrote, "We as black people must begin to create a culture of valuing education ... if we are to ever pull our children out of the river of underachievement in which they find themselves. I believe that this can be done, but it will require a new and different determination on the part of the black community, and every black parent in particular, before it will be achieved."

Another reader wrote, "I am just frustrated at our community's complacency towards education and the willingness of so many parents to allow their children to waste their young years on activities that do not help them become competitive in academia. ... I'm making the effort to convert as many [people] as I can. I think I successfully turned my husband around. He was wiling to buy his children-to-be their first car but would not fund their college education. Now THAT had to change."

But I've heard little from Houston's black leadership.***

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.