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Inside Our Schools: Which Schools Work?
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Inside Our Schools: Which Schools Work?
In a recent interview I had with a fifth grade teacher, I asked him the inevitable question: Were the frequent tests mandated by the NYC Board of Ed. making it difficult for him to teach? He said he wasn’t bothered by the tests since they didn’t occupy much of his class time, only going over them a week before they were scheduled. “But I teach in Queens in a predominantly Asian community,” he added. “I feel sorry for the kids and teachers in other minority districts; they get drilled to death.”
It may be argued that in school districts with high test scores, extensive drilling isn’t necessary. But how much more class time is being spent for drilling students in one neighborhood while students in another are being taught other things, things that they might remember after the standardized tests are over?
As I’ve previously noted in this column, there are “schools that work.” The El Puente Academy which is 83% Latino, is an example of such a school in which students are exempt from taking most state-mandated Regents exams and present portfolios of their work for assessment instead of taking tests. Although they do not as yet have a high graduation rate, it is still 16% higher than that of Latino students City-wide.
The most notable success story when it comes to NYC public schools is the Harlem Children’s Zone project and its Promise Academies founded by Geoffrey Canada. Here, children’s education is covered practically from birth through high school and is remarkably successful, even if many students are drilled to get them up to the standardized test scores. But I believe, the success of the HCZ is the richly supportive atmosphere of the schools that achieve good teaching despite rather than because of the tests.
Unfortunately, both schools have a limited number of students—El Puente only 180—and the HCZ needs private funding to afford all the services they provide. The fortunate combination of good teaching methods, excellent staffing, community and family involvement, and financial support of these successful schools are not commonly found in many other inner-city and rural schools throughout the country. The charter school movement is an attempt to address the problem, but, as I will discuss in another column, is not necessarily a solution.
It can only be hoped that the Obama Administration’s “Race to the Top” program will encourage best teaching practices, not just schools that produce high standardized test scores.
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