rebirth

I started reading “Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools” by David L. Kirp, 2013, today on the bus on my way to work. He spent time at a school in Union City, New Jersey because this district has many of the attributes of districts that consistently fails its students. Poor urban schools typically fail because they can not properly address, the economic and cultural stresses tearing apart children’s homes. These forces of instability combined with limited access to rich home learning environments typically means that the kids growing up poor in cities do not have schools that allow them to develop into outstanding students.

Kirp lists 8 things that Union City does that allows it to be much more successful in allowing its children to blossom.

1.    High-quality full-day preschool for all children starts at age three.

2.     Word-soaked classrooms give youngsters a rich feel for language.

3.     Immigrant kids become fluent first in their native language and then in English.

4.     The curriculum is challenging, consistent from school to school, and tied together from one grade to the next.

5.     Close-grained analyses of students’ test scores are used to diagnose and address problems.

6.     Teachers and students get hands-on help to improve their performance.

7.     The schools reach out to parents, enlisting them as partners in their children’s education.

8.     The school system sets high expectations for all and maintains a culture of abrazos-caring-which generates trust.

This is a good list, but from what I have read in the economic literature, it is the first one- early education- that is the most significant determinant of long-term success, if the rest of the pieces are in place.

I did not get too much further when the woman behind me took a call from some one she described as “a sperm donor not a man”. This guy apparently had done nothing in 16 years for his child and the court had determined that he should not be with his daughter. She had worked for 16 years to support her child and only recently had shared the responsibility with another person who was a ‘man’ and took care of her daughter by doing laundry, dishes, buying sneakers and food. This guy on the phone was not going to have contact with his daughter, because he had done nothing.

The presentation of research last night by Kotz and Felderman on the lack of school readiness, by 5-year-old kids in Schenectady touched upon this issue, household instability. This strong woman’s child had to live without, thankfully it seems, her father while her mother worked and worked and worked. Taking the bus 45 minutes to Albany every morning, 8 hours on the job and another hour commute home. What did her child do for 10 hours? Are there high quality school programs that can support this single mother in her struggle to raise her child? How did the reoccurring attempts by his/her father to get involved impact this child’s ability to develop fluidly and rationally? Distracted, depressed, angry, tired, stressed?

We can not accept a school system that can not step up to support this child. Ethically, morally and financially we are bankrupt if we fail this woman and her child. This child’s mother is doing the very best she can with no support from the sperm donor. We need to ensure that this child has the best possible early education available so that the child can enter school prepared and motivated. This child should not suffer because we prioritize systems that we know to be inefficient and ineffective at creating the most benefit for the cost.

Early education is essential if this child is going to have a good chance at blossoming into the brilliant person they truly are.