What Can Union City Teach America?

/* The specialist after teaching his weekly class to elementary students in a government school in Tianjin, China. The 'plane' was put up by their regular English teacher, who made as much money in a month as I did in 10 hours as a foreign expert. */


I finished distilling Improbable Scholars, by D. Kirp. Its a fine book, and I would suggest it to someone who has not taught in an urban American school. Otherwise, educators, and others familiar with the literature, can read the first and last chapters to understand his thesis. In the last chapter 'What Union City Can Teach America' the author transmits what common principles that are found in the urban school districts that have transformed themselves by increasing student achievement above  average.

I will quote an excerpt:

What do these effective school systems have in common? Core principles.

They put the needs of the students, not the preferences of the staff, at the center of decision making.

They start early by investing in quality preschool.

They rely on a rigorous, consistent, and integrated curriculum.

They make extensive use of data to diagnose problems and pinpoint what's required to solve them.

They build a culture that combines high expectations with respect and a "we can do it" emphasis on the positive.

They value stability and avoid political drama.

They are continuously improving - planning, doing, reviewing -turning a system comprised of schools into a school system. 

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These are the core principles not because of random experiment, but because the research literature has proven that these are the strategies that are necessary to improve urban schools.


The author discusses one example of a districts commitment to early education that is reflective of how I would prioritize programs in times with economic restraints . Aldine, Texas "even when its budget was being cut it preserved full-day prekindergarten for four-year-olds because of its proven long-term benefits". This is exactly where Schenectady has been failing for the past few years. We have been cutting early education and preserving programs for older students that can already read. We can learn from the districts Kirp describes in this book, but the thing that they emphasized was early education.

Jerry Weast, Superintendent of the Montgomery County School District north of Washington DC followed a clear course to turn around that district. The first thing he did was expand prekindergarten "it's at the top of my list of priorities".

When I am on the Schenectady School Board I will also prioritize early education.