No Excuses
Today in the WSJ, Miriam Jordan straightforwardly describes what makes a school successful. What works is not a really a secret– high standards, high expectations, no excuses.
Jordan looks at two similar kids who went to two different kinds of schools–schools with different philosophies– and the difference that made in their lives:
In middle school, Ivan Cantera ran with a Latino gang; Laura Corro was a spunky teen. At age 13, they shared their first kiss. Both made it a habit to skip class. In high school, they went their separate ways.
This fall, Ivan will enter the University of Oklahoma, armed with a prestigious scholarship. “I want to be the first Hispanic governor of Oklahoma,” declares the clean-cut 18-year-old, standing on the steps of Santa Fe South High School, the charter school in the heart of this city’s Hispanic enclave that he says put him on a new path.
Laura, who is 17, rose to senior class president at Capitol Hill High School, a large public school in the same neighborhood. But after scraping together enough credits to graduate, Laura isn’t sure where she’s headed. She never took college entrance exams.
Both high schools –Santa Fe South, the charter school, and Capitol Hill, the regular public school–serve kids from the same family backgrounds. At each school, 95% of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch (the usual school measure for the level of poverty). As Jordan reports, neither school can select students, but Santa Fe South can turn away students when it’s full.
Ivan’s teachers at Santa Fe South not only planted the idea of college, and maintained a more rigorous curriculum, they helped him get there:
“Their parents aren’t telling them to register for college-entrance exams,” says Lindsey McElvaney, who teaches the class [to guide students throught the college application process]. “I made every one of them apply to college.”
At Laura’s school, on the other hand, there were excuses:
Sitting in Capitol Hill’s counseling center recently, senior class counselor Ashlie Wagner says, “We have a hard time getting our parents involved.” She remembers that Laura won one scholarship. But she doesn’t know whether Laura has taken college-entrance exams or completed any college applications. (She has not.)
The Capitol Hill excuses don’t stand up, though, next to what Santa Fe South has achieved with the same kinds of students.
Capitol’s senior counselor figuratively throws up her hands about the low percentage of kids going on to college or vocational schools:
“It’s the culture,” she says.
Though Capitol’s latest principal (seventh in 10 years– that’s a red flag in itself) seems to be making improvements, he has an excuse, too:
“In a perfect world, education would be directed by educators,” he says. “When the law, budget and everything else is designed by legislators, this increases the challenges.”
