Kids Left Behind, The - William H. Parrett

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confidence over the last two decades.

      But these schools are important for far more than inspiration. The educators in these schools have unlocked some of the mysteries that still plague schools more generally. How, indeed, do we enable all of our students—including those who seem disaffected and disengaged—to master the high-level skills and knowledge they need to secure a foothold in our increasingly complex economy and society?

      There have, of course, been some studies of these high-performing, high-poverty schools. But these are often small and idiosyncratic. And until now, nobody has tried to look across these studies and distill some of the key lessons that can provide a foundation for improvement efforts in other communities.

      With this book, Bob Barr and Bill Parrett have done an enormous service to educators who want to jump-start improvement efforts in their own schools or communities. In one volume, they’ve looked across all of the many studies and distilled the major findings in a highly readable fashion.

      There’s a lot here. But then again, real improvement never follows from just one new program. Indeed, in our own studies of high-performing schools, what’s immediately obvious is that the educators in those schools think differently about almost everything.

      The Kids Left Behind will give you plenty of food for thought.

      —Kati Haycock, Director of the Education Trust Washington, DC

      Chapter 1

      A New American Revolution

      “What does it mean to be an American? Well, to me, it means that no matter who you are or how many problems you have, in America, everybody has a chance.”

       —Fourth-Grade African-American Student

      A revolution is occurring in public education, and it has generated dramatic changes in our nation’s schools and classrooms. This revolution is shattering attitudes and beliefs that have existed for decades and focusing national attention on the need to educate all students effectively. With a high-quality education, almost anyone, regardless of race, gender, social class, or national origin, can gain access to economic prosperity and security. Without an adequate education, the promise of prosperity and security that is the foundation of a democratic society is out of reach. Without a high-quality education, a person can live in the richest nation on earth yet lack adequate job opportunities, housing, and health benefits, and he or she can too easily fall victim to crime, addiction, abuse, and other dangerous behavior. A high-quality education has become so vital that it is now viewed as an essential and guaranteed civil right.

      The culture of K–12 public education established long ago is changing in remarkable ways. Local control of schools is being transformed through federal and state policies and sanctions. The old process of sorting students into general education, college preparatory, and vocational tracks—the standard in most of the world’s developed nations—has been supplemented by policy-driven mandates for minimal student achievement proficiencies and is giving way to a system designed to provide a single rigorous curriculum for all students. “Slow-learning” tracks and “acceptable dropout rates” are being replaced with the goal of all students meeting proficiency standards and graduating. Bell-curve evaluations are being replaced with mastery learning. Freelance teaching based on textbooks, teacher interest, and personal prerogative is being set aside by a system of carefully planned, aligned, and prescribed instruction. However, as the traditional philosophies that have governed public education for so long have begun to change, remnants of their failed policies will likely linger for some time. While more blatant school sorting practices are being challenged and increasingly eliminated, others, like assigning each student a “class rank,” still reflect the bell-curve mentality and are not likely to vanish anytime soon. We are rapidly leaving the old world of education behind and being swept into a new world driven by an emerging science of teaching and learning, dramatic changes in the economic marketplace and technology, and new state and federal legislation and policies. This educational revolution is unprecedented in the history of our civilization. Has any nation, anywhere and at any time, truly been determined to leave no child behind?

      Education’s transformation into an essential and guaranteed civil right has not happened by chance. It has emerged through a long and turbulent history of social protests and educational policy, from the denial of education to a variety of under-represented and disadvantaged groups, to segregated and “separate but equal” education, to equal opportunity and education for all, and finally to the goal of academic proficiency for all children and youth. The American Association of School Administrators has illustrated this journey to academic proficiency for every student by identifying key milestones of the past two centuries (figure 1.1).

      The recognition of education as a civil right essential for economic opportunity did not happen overnight. For close to 200 years, policymakers and educators have slowly taken significant steps in the often tortuous struggle toward educational freedom for all citizens. This journey has progressed from access to education for only the advantaged, where many groups were denied educational opportunities, to the expectation of proficiency for all. Those denied the right to an education included African Americans, Latinos, and other minorities; the poor; women; the handicapped; people living in isolated, rural areas; and many others. These transformations in public education have been accomplished through a long history of social strife.

      Beginning in the mid-1800s, states began to enact legislation and policies designed to provide access to “universal” public education. Access to elementary education for all was slowly enacted in the United States, first in Massachusetts, and then in scattered locations along the East Coast. But even in states where policies were established for educational access, the vast majority of children were too often unable to participate. Even into the early 1900s, few students attended school beyond the elementary level. At that time, more than 9 out of 10 children failed to graduate from high school. By the late 1950s, the dropout rate was still at least 50% (Education Commission of the States, 1998).

      Although the end of the Civil War marked the freeing of slaves in the United States, southern states continued to deny civil rights to African Americans—including the right to effective education—though the creation of Jim Crow laws. Among other things, these laws established a poll tax and literacy tests for voting. In addition, they denied African Americans the right to participate in a fully integrated society by denying them open housing, by segregating them in poor neighborhoods, and by restricting their access to public transportation, city parks, swimming pools, restaurants, many forms of entertainment, and other services.

      In 1954, the court case of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education seemed to finally make the dream of equal education for all a reality; however, 2 years later, federal troops were required to protect nine African-American students in Little Rock, Arkansas, as they enrolled in all-white Central High School. In the early 1960s, James Meredith became the first African American to enroll at the University of Mississippi, and civil rights demonstrations continued to sweep across the South. By the early 1970s, federal courts increasingly ordered school desegregation in the major cities of America.

      Soon after Lyndon Johnson became president in 1963, he launched his War on Poverty. A significant portion of this legislation was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This landmark legislation established the goal of equal access and treatment for poor and minority students and supported these students with a variety of compensatory

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