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UD 030 778

Making City Schools Work. What We Know, What ItTakes.North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook,IL.

Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),Washington, DC.95

RP9100200741p.; Photographs, some color pages, and color printmay not copy well.North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1900Spring Road, Suite 300, Oak Brook, IL 60521-1480.Collected Works Serials (022)Cityschools; vl n3 Fall 1995

MFOI/PCO2 Plus Postage.Academic Achievement; Ancillary School Services;Community Characteristics; *Educational Change;Elementary Secondary Education; *High Risk Students;Mathematics Education; Minority Groups; SchoolEffectiveness; *School Restructuring; ScienceEducation; *Standards; Superintendents; Urban Areas;*Urban SchoolsReform Efforts

This issue features the opinions of some highlyrespected, but often controvctrsial, educators who stand outside themainstream of education reform. They often advocate more structuredand top-down approaches to the problems of urban students as theyconsider the standards that must be created to promote achievementfor all students. "No Magic Tricks: It's a Systems 'Thane" by AnneC. Lewis irgues that urban districts can provide the systemic contextneeded to make city schools places of high achievement for studentsand teachers. "What Works with City Kids: An Effective School Model"by Lenaya Raack presents the visions of educators Asa Hilliard andBarbara Sizemore for creating successful urban schools. "First in theWorld: Federal Math and Science Initiative Targets City Schools" byDan Weissmann recounts efforts of the National Science Foundation toimprove urban schools. "Full-Service Schools and High-Risk Youth:Collaborating To Make a Difference" by Joy Dryfoos describes thecombined efforts of human services providers and school personnel.Four former urban superintendents offer suggestions and challengesfor today's urban schools in "Unsung Heroes: Ex-Superintendents SpeakOut." Finally, this issue's CITYSCHOOLS Profile by Donna M. Williamslooks at the work of Lisa Delpit, a crusader for urban and minoritychildren. (SLD)

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* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made* from the original locument.***********************************************************************

CC); I 11 k 4c-N

444142 A ReSearch Ma azine About Urban Schools and Communities

U I DEPARTMENTOF EDUCATIONOnic 04 Educaliono

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"Kespect for diversity is the hallmark of democracy."

Asa G. Hilliard 111

Through today's schoolhouse doors walks a highly diverse generation ofchildren. These children challenge our schools

to provide culturally responsive education and prepare them for active participation in a global community.

The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory's-Urban Education Program has developed the Multicultural

Education Series, a collection of research-based resources to inform,

inspire, and guide educators to create culturally responsive learning environ-

ments and prepare young people for an increasingly diverse world.

We encourage you to use these resources for professional develop-

ment activities and as tools in school improvement planning.

The Multicultural Education Series includes the following:

9ostcr of 'eSte3r&-ase,',1 es :,-;:ir.:no character:st'o,:.'

of multicultural education

Checklist for assessing your school's multicultural practices

Annotated bibliography of research in multicuitural education

Se MCA ilstirlci of profr.s g ,r,rttiraris and practi.;es

in multicultural education

1

Videotape featuring schools across theilation

that build upon students' culture, language,

and prior experiences 35 a foundation for learning

To order products from the Multicultural Education

Series, contact:

Multicultural Education Series

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory

1900 Spring Road, Suite 300

Oak brook, IL 60521-1480

(800) 356-2735

131enaing cultural diversity into the fabric of our

program is a primary east. These resources have helped us integrate

mutticut:ral education imto our schoo± curriculum ard oraotioes and the poster is a visible

. reminder of our goals."

Mary Kay Scharf, Principal, Early Childhood Center, Bloomington, IL

"Thank you for the 12eautC and inicnra r.'re resource ki on multicutural education. Thecc,',:r'Ll poster vvith its delighrkt graph

iC5 encourages discuson among facufty, and the Annotated eiliodrap provides researcn tips for both sttide,..*.-, and staff'

betty Cittadine, Assistant Principal, Lane Tech High School, Chicago, IL

"We will use these materials as a guide for discussion with the staff, parents, and upper grade students."

Claire.Powells, Principal, Almira Elemetiary School, Cleveland, OH

"The materials are a ,.eTinder to cc.rsoer tr,e ec;al neeas our a:.erse pcp,;,,17

Dolly Helsel, Assistant Superintendent, Chicago Heights School District 170, Chicago Heights, IL

iii 1116j-.lk

A Research Magazine About Urban Schools and Communities

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)

Editor-in-Chief B. J. Walker

Managing Editor Aurelio Huertas Jr.Editorial Director Lynn J. StinnettcExecutive Editor Marianne KroegerAssociate Editor Susan KlonskyCopy Editor Lenaya RaackDesigrnProduction KaTaPa Art & DesignCover Photocaphs VanderSchuit

R. Craig Sautter. Melissa Chapko. Stephanie Blaser. Robin Fleming,

Robin LaSota. Donna M. Williams. Judy Taylor, and John Biaser

Aurora Aguilar, Hammond Hispanic Community Committee. IN

John J. Attinasi, California State University, Long Beach. CA

Rosalinda Barrera, New Mexico State University, Las Cnices, !NU

Jomills Braddock II, University of Miami, FL

Rosa Maria Briones, Hillside Elementary School, El Paso, TX

Erwin Flaxman, ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, New York, NY

Howard Fuller, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI

Kati Haycock. Americab Association for Higher Education, Washington, DC

Anne C. Lewis, Consultant.Writer. Urban School Reform Efforts, Glen Echo. MD

Meredith Liben, The Family Academy, New York, NY

Carlos M. Mediu. Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. New York. NY

Charles Mingo, DuSable High School. Chicago, IL

Wendy Puriefoy, Public Education Fund Network, Washington. DC

Cleeta Ryals, Chicago Algebra Project, IL

Robert Schwartz, Juvenile Law Center, Philadelphia, PA

Valerie Archibald Torres. The Latino Institute, Chicago, IL

Margaret C. Wang, Temple University Center for Research in Human Developmentand Education. Philadelphia. PA

Laura Washington, The Chicago Reporter, IL

Belinda Williams. Research for Better Schools, Philadelphia PA

BEST COPY AVAILABLENorth Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)

Jeri Now akowski, Executive Director

1900 Spring Road. Suite 300

Oak Brook, Illinois 60521-1480Phone: (708) 571-4700

Fax: (708) 571-4716

This publication was produced in whole ot in part with funds from the Office ofEducational Research and Improvement (OERI ). U.S. Department of Education, undercontract PRP91002007. The content does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of

OERI or the Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial

products, or organizations imply endorsement by Op or the Department. A

FROM THE EDITORS

Welcome to CJ1'Y5CHOOLS, a new research maga-

zine for educators, parents, community mem-

bers, and policymakers at all levelspeople who

work with urban children and make decisionsabzt their education.

Urban educators know that increasing poverty is

leaving city kids without many of the supports

they require. Schools and educators are asked to

provide these supports, often withoutadequate access to recent research abouturban chilaren and their families, neighborhoods,

and communities.

The importance of recent educational research

cannot be overlooked. It warns us that conven-

tional school models are inadequate for coping

with the developmental needs of today's urban

youth. It also offers new models that tap theabilities of city learners.

CITYSCHOOLS' mission, therefore, is to help

educators, parents, and other concerned members

of the community gain greater access tothis emerging knowledge base. We want to help

schools turn theory into practice.

CITYSCHOOLS is a research magazine, not an

academic journal. We seek to report on research

regarding the transformation of urban schools

and make it more accessible to practitioners in

urban classrooms. We plan to show the research

at work in real settingsto tell the stories ofreal educators who are finding solutions toenduring educational problems.

CITYSCHOOLS is also a forum for all members of

the urban school community who are struggling

toward educational change. We seek to stimu-late discussion and debate among the personnel

of large and small city school districts, whichshare many demographic, social, economic, and

political characteristics.

CITYSCHOOLS is a magazine for those whobciFave that urban school transformation is an

urgent issue of both policy and practice. It Is a

magazine for those who believe, with us, that

schools and communities must have access to

knowledge before they car create 6:feetive designs

for reform and change.

We welcome you as a reader and invite your feed-

back and participation in the dialogues stimu-

lated by CITYSCHOOL5.

What etandardo mu5t we create if we plan for all children to achieve?

Every time I'm in the room with Barbara Sizemore or Asa Hilliard, I leave ready, not only to

slay dragons, but to go looking for them, too! These two veterans of educational reform

radiate unlimited energy and undying commitment to kids others have too easily written

off. They are champions for poor, minority children who they believe can and must be educated by this

country's public schools. Many of these kids are in city schools. Sizemore and Hilliard's work with

these kids and their schools is a major focds of this issue of CITYSCHOOLS.

Lisa Delpit, standing solidly in the advocacy tradition of these two education giants and the subject

of this issue's CITYSCHOOLS Profile, also takes up the battle for children of color and she unapolo-

getically takes progressive school reformers to task for making unilateral decisions about what works

for *other people's children?' She demands a voice for the children's community, their parents, their

teachers, and those with the biggest stake in the children's lives.

In this issue of CITYSCHOOLS, we feature the combined voices of these highly respected but often

controversial educators. They do not stand in today's mainstream of school reform. Some say their

approaches are too structured, too top-down, too authoritarian, that we must solve the problems of

families and homes or, even mor3 ambitiously, the problems of urban school systems before we can

educate all zhildren at high levels.

In this issue, CITYSCH001.6 asks a fundamental question: What standards must we create ifwe plan

for all children to achieve? Out of all that we know about educating children from poor, urban commu-

nities, one thing is certain: Getting different outcomes is highly dependent on the capacity of the

individual school to support and sustain innovative, effective academic programs for all kids.

Research evidence doesn't falter on this point. But what we do and how, when it is "other people's

children,* does.

Creating an urban systemic environment that doesn't falter when it comes to kids and their learning

has to be the ultimate goal of school reform. Thls issue presents some divervent opinions on that

subject. We ask Barbara Sizemore, Ma Hilliard. and Lisa Delpit, What does it take to niz:ke city

schools work? But we also ask ex-superintendents from some of the largest city school districts in

the country; we ask Anne C. Lewis, a nationally recognized observer and writer about education

reform; and we ask one of the most visible federal reform efforts, the Urban Systemic Initiative from

the National Science Foundation.

B. J. Walker, Editor-In-Chief

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

6Photo David Grossman

_

THIS ISSUEVolume 1, Number 3 ?all 1995

CONTENTS

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OOOO . . ! 111tazaktdiiii;;;.

6 No Magic Tricks: It's a Syi)tems "Thang"

by Anne C. Lewis

Urban districts can provide the systemic context needed to turn cityschools into high-achieving places for teachers and students.

5 With City Kids: An Effective()del

naya Raack

ran educators Asa Hilliard and Barbara Sizemore talk about theirvision for creating successful schools. Teachers and principals backthem up.

22 3nc Thr

by Dan Weissmann

National Science Foundation pours S240 million into 16 cities toimprove math and science education.

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26 Full-Servicc SH-ools an? High-Risk Youth! Collaborating toMake a DIfference

by Joy Diyfoos

Human service providers and school personnel come together to shapetheir own contract with America.

eroes: Ex-Superintendents Speak Out

former superintendents offer suggestions and challenges forreinverifing today's urban schools.

Ng, 41 4, 4 434

by Donna M. Williams

Crusader for "other people's children

31t,We want to hear from our readers. If you would like to submit anarticle for publication in our upcomir g issue, express your opinionon one of our articles, or share your thought.,_ and ideas on issuescritical to city schools, please address your correspondence toCITYSCHOOLS Editorial. Letters may be edited for clarityor length.

RESEARCH BRIEFS are

provided by the Center

for Reswch on the-

Education f Students

RI'N ced At 4isk (CRESPAR),

a center devoted to the

identificatjon and evalua-

tion of effective, practices

and, programs.

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; rhile state policymakers at the annual meetingthis summer of the Education Commission ofthe States (ECS) mulled over p!oposals to

radically dismember urban school districts, a fewteachers were listening, and some spoke theirminds. "I'd rather be teaching in an urban school:'they generally said. "It's more of a challenge," or,"I feel this is where I am needed most."

It is heartening to hear such positive affirmationsof teachers in urban schools. If the picture givendiffers from that offered by policymakers, it isbecause it was snapped in classrooms. Theessential point of the many and diverserestructuring and reform efforts under way inurban education is or should be the improve-ment of achievement by all students. So the lenseventually must capture what happens betweenteachers and students in classrooms.

WHAT IT TAKES TO LEARN AT HIGHER LEVELS

Several sets of contexts determine if students willlearn at much higher levels. The first isprofessional development. Most important forteachers is the opportunity to develop knowledgeabout higher standards and expectations and theskills to foster them in their students. This issue ofCITYSCHOOLS rightfully stresses goodprofessional development. (Note that the emphasisshould not be "training" or even "staff"development, but professional dev.lopment.) Italso points to special skills needed by teachers toensure that poor and minority students achievewhat they are capable of doing. This requires athorough understanding of the developmentalneeds of children from diverse backgrounds and anability to discern among many fads and programs.Teachers in urban schools need to be confident,well-informed professionals.

Another context is that set by the school environ-ment. The vision, the use of time, the instructionalfocus, and the supports given teachers, students,and parents all affect student learning. Principalsset this context, as the researchers in this issuepoint out. There may be a few exceptions whereteaclpm.s are able to work around poorprincipal leadership. but such efforts rarely last.More important, they fail to change the district-level conditions that allow unprepared or unfitprincipals to serve.

Broader contexts also matter. There are two. First,there are federal initiatives 1nd programs tlOt spur

better teaching andlearning. And, sec-ond, there are com-munity supports,E uch as collaborativeservices, that help stu-dents and familiescope with interlockingproblems.

The context almost for-gotten in these articles,however, is the one thatultimately makes goodteaching and learning pos-sible in urban schools. That is the systemic supportteachers and schools receive. Exemplary "turn-around" efforts in individual schools will remainisolated and eventually wither away unless schooldistricts have the vision, structure, and leadershipto envelop them in an overall effort to dramaticallyimprove student achievement.

This issue of CITYSCHOOLS expresses optimismabout what can be accomplished in classrooms andschools to enhance student learning. Policymakers,on the other hand, are pessimistic about the abilityof urban systems to focus on student learning or,what is most disturbing, to even care about it. Atthe ECS meeting, there were few defenders ofurban systems as they now operate and many sug-gestions for "deep-sixing" them and startingall over.

FC/t- r3F:

Calling it a "framework for hope," ECS hasproposed "new American Urban School Districts"that do away with current governance structuresand reorganize along different lines. They could begeographical, with learning taking place in manysettings, or tied together electronically, or be merg-ers of school and city governance systems.Speaking at the ECS meeting, Ernest Boyer,president of the Carnegie Foundation for theAdvancement of Teaching, proposed dismantlingcentral offices and turning them into renewal cen-ters serving the schools. It is at the school level, hesaid, where all decisions should be made andaccountability required.

Looking at the changes in policies across thestates, it is obvious that policymakers and politi-cians are groping for solutions to what they per-ceive as the urban system problem. Nineteen states

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now have charter school legislation. New stateassessment systems, such as the one in Maryland,pinpoint schools in trouble and mark them for"reconstitution" or eventual closure if they do notimprove. The New Jersey State Department ofEducation has become a takeover specialist. TheIllinois legislature turned control of the Chicagosystem over to the mayor, and the receivershipsituation in the District of Columbia has unleashednumerous recommendations to completely revampthe school system.

The political reason for all this attention to urbanschool systems is that they have become the newequity agenda. It is safer to blame and reorganizeurban systems than it is to continue a more encom-passing fight for equity. The second reason is thefocus of this issue: the need for much higherexpectations and student achievement, or, con-versely, the failure of urban systems to improvestudent achievement significantly.

A TALE OF 12 SCHOOLS

Policymakers may tinker with more creative struc-tures and policies for a long time, but meanwhilethe generation of children now in urban school sys-tems needs fundamental changes in what they learnand how now. This writer has been fortunate tofollow 12 middle schools in five cities that werepart of a reform network fanded by the EdnaMcConnell Clark Foundation. The five-year pro-ject ended in 1994. By that time, the contexts forchange outside of the individual schools weremuch more obvious than they were at the begin-ning. They show that it is possible to support andproduce much higher student achievement in urbanschool systems despite instability inleadership/finances and the worsening socialproblems of their students. Not all districtscould do it, but those that did shared thesecommon characteristics:

Improved student learning andachievement guided the vision, mission, objectives,and practices of the districts, from the centraloffice to the classroom. These were "data-driven"districts that used results to push their agendas.

Professional development focused on goals for stu-dent achievement and was teacher-driven. Not onlydid teachers design and implement professional

3EST COPY AVAILABLE-

development, but they also depended heavily onthe analysis of student work as the iienter of discus-sion and collaboration among themselves. The "sil-ver-bullet" teacher workshop and the individualproject/program either disappeared or were inte-grated with resources that deepened teachers'knowledge of contnt and pedagogy. Professionaldevelopment was and still is ongoing andfocused. Principals received professional develop-ment, too, geared toward skills that set the environ-ment for changes in classroomlearning.

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Both bottom-upand top-down pressures were used. All of thedistricts used some form of decentralized decisionmaking at the school site. States or districtsprovided standards. Schools had great latitude inhow they chose to meet them. Where achievementdid improve, there also was strong accountabilityfrom the top. In these instances, either states hadassessments that evaluated school progress ordistricts had policies with clear goals and account-ability measures. (This insistence on accountabilityis built into the Urban Systemic Initiative of theNational Science Foundation, as noted in one ofthe articles in this issue.)

The relationshipsbetween the central office ail individual schoolswere respectful and mutually supportive. Somegriping in both quarters is to be expected no rela-tionships arc perfect but districts and schools

11

agreed on the goals ar.d kept communication linesopen about reforms. When a district that was suc-cessful in organizing middle schools for higherachievement pushed for certain reforms, it alsuprovided support and welcomed feedback.

The districtsrecognized the inappropriateness of standardizedassessments and sought other ways of finding outwhat students knew and could do. Some changedbecause state assessments changed; othersbegan to develop their own plans, such as forportfolio assessments.

" Truz Enough trust existed amongteachers, principals, and the district administrationto allay traditional fears about reforms interferingwith union contract language.

None of these characteristics popped up overnightas the solution to higher student achievement. Theyevolved, often arduously, over several years andrequired extraordinary leadership by teachers, prin-cipals, and central administrations. Nor were theydependent on stability of leadership; all sitesexperienced turnovers at every level. The goals.

however, remained steady

Nonetheless, they wellillustrate the componentsdistricts can put together tocreate systemic supportfor highv student learn-ing. There were no magictricks or enormous addi-tional resources avail-able to help the dis-tricts/schools improvestudent leat;ing. Noneadopted the kind ofradical restructuringproposed by ECS.

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5:":110M-UP APPROACH

What they were able to do was internalize the ideasexpressed by Asa Hilliard or Barbara Stzemore orLisa Delpit, as described in the following pages,and move them out of individual classrooms into adistrict ethos.

Urban districts across the country face formidableproblems. The list of social ills wi;hin theirboundaries grows. Also, according to revised esti-mates by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the pro-jected school-age population between 1995 and2005 only one decade will increase by 19 per-cent, not the 4 percent predicted a few years ago.Most of the increases will be among children ofcolor; most will be living in cities.

In addition, the long partnership with the federallevel to support the education of poor children maybe undermined by actions in Congress; some statesare pursuing single solutions, such as charterschools, that avoid systemic efforts.

If the teachers who spoke up at Denver are right,urban districts can be vital, exciting places inwhich to teach. And if the lessons learnedfrom the Clark project are legitimate. urbandistricts can provide the systemic context needed toturn them into high-achieving places for teachersand students.

Anne C. Lewis is a freelance writer based inMatyland. She writes nationally on urban schoolreform efforts.

12

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Don't talk to Asa Hilliard about the educ.itionallimitations of at-rkk eity kids. Iiilliard. FullerI:. i'allm\ av Professor of Urban Education at

Georgia State liniversity. doesn't even like theterm w risk. "It really doesn't say anything. Kidsdon't need any labels other than their names- liehas his own definition of at risk, and it has noth-ing to do with children. It does, however. hmeeverything to do with education, especially in

today's highly charged atmosphere of urbanreform and school restructuring.

Hilliard believes that if kids are at risk ofanything, they are at risk of "not havinghigh-quality schools." According toHilliard, "The children come intact andwhole and capable, and if they find theright environment, they thrive." He bris-tles at the common belief that "a poorchild is somehow an intellectuallyimpaired child who needs something tohelp him to adapt at a minimal level toa normal system." "Not so," saysHilliard emphatically. "Virtually all thechildren that we get from any of theneighborhoods are fully capable ofmeeting the highest standards thatschools require."

"Unfortunately," says Hilliard, "our cur-rent ceiling for students is really much

closer to where the floor ought to be." Heexplains that "people have been so com-

fortable criticzing the low-performingstudents that they've accepted less than what

all students are capable of achieving." Hilliardbelieves that books such as The Bell Curve

encourage educators and policymakers to believethat the children entering urban schools are some-how "broken." These books, he asserts, "tell peoplethat a quarter of the population can't make it." Healso blames "a segment of the respected academiccommunity that have literally sold that idea to largenumbers of the public."

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BEST COPY AVAILABLE

PROBLEIVIS IN URBAN SCHOOLS ARE

NOT INSURMOUNTABLE

Hilliard doesn't deny that there are problems.Violence, drugs, and dysfunctional families are toowell documented to be discounted. Unlike some ofhis colleagues, however, Hilliard doesn't believethat these problems must have negative effects on achild's learning. His experience has shown him thatwe don't have to fix something before children canlearn. "Whatever the child's experience outside theschool, the school has an opportunity to create itsown environment and if that environment is a nur-turing, orderly environment, then it's the rare childwho doesn't flourish." Hilliard points toschools such as Vann School (see p.16) and theMadison School in Pittsburgh schools that areturning out well-educated children in the midst oftroubled urban neighborhoods.

Hilliard believes that "good schools come first and,in fact, poor schools can create environments thatare susceptible to violence." He sees the creation ofgood schools as "an antidote to violence."

How do these schools do it? There's nothing magi-cal about i, Hilliard maintains. The schoolsthemselves are no different from others in theircommunity. They have the same poverty base, thesame school population, the same social ills. Theteachers are neither extraordinary nor especiallycharismatic; they're just ordinary people. "Usuallywe explain success away by suggesting that thepeople who achieve it are somehow so unusual thatyou can't expect anyone else to meet their stan-dards and that's absolutely false," explains Hilliard.What sets these schools and teachers apart is anunshakable belief that all children can learn and anunwavering commitment to making it happen.

THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF

SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS

Hilliard notes that while successful schools mayhave different philosophies of education and edu-

"The children come

intact and whole

and capal7le, and

if they find the

right environment,

they thrive."

24'.."7"

12

Photo © Ellen Senisi

cational practices, they share nineprinciples or essential elements:

staff development, instructionalleadership, school leadership.

high expectations, parentinvolvement, productive

climate and culture,monitoring studentprogress, effectiveinstructional strate-gies, and learningessential skills (seesidebar, Why EveryChild Can Succeed).

Schools don't haveto do anything extra-ordinary, contends

Hilliard. "We have todo the basics very well

and consistently and theymust become, as Barbara

says, a routine." Barbara isBarbara Stzemore, dean of DePaul

University's School of Education and,like Hilliard, a zealous advocate for the belief

that all children can learn. According to Sizemore.schools are failing students because they're not tai-loring instruction to the students' needs. "Peoplearc bringing their college education to the schooland trying to jam it down the throats of the kidsand make it fit whether it fits or not." she contends."And if it doesn't fit, they blame the kids."Sizemore ticks off a list of common educator com-plaints: The students aren't interested in learning,their parents don't care, they live in bad rrighbor-hoods, there arc gangs.

What schools need to do, says Sizemore, is teachchildren to learn, and that means teaching them totake tests all kinds of tests. The trend towardrelying only on portfolio and performance-basedtests does not sit well with Sizemore. It's not thatshe doesn't like them. It's just that children "stillhave to take the SATs, the ACTs, and the LSATs toget into college.- As Sizemore points out, "DePaul,where I work, is not accepting by portfolio." An

exasperated Sizemore complains, "The only placeyou get in by portfolio is prison."

The answer, says Sizemore, is to teach childrenreading. writing, and mathematics so that theycan pass both standardized and performance-basedtests and to teach it with an eye toward the stu-dents' different cultures. Sizemore advocates 10routines for schools to follow that shehas developed from practice andresearch on high-achieving,predominantly minorityschools: assessment,placement, pacing andacceleration, measur-ing. monitoring,discipline, instruc-tion. evaluation,staff development,and decision mak-ing. These rou-tines form thebasis for theSchool Achieve-ment Structure, aninstructional modelfrom DePaul Uni-versity's EducationalLeadership ProgramThey're not new,

- ,admits

Sizemore. Indeed, the most corn-mon reaction is, "Oh yeah, welleverybody does that." But they work, sheand Hilliard agree.

The successful schools that both Hilliard andSizemore see and work with move quickly tocreate an atmosphere of discipline. "You can dothat within a few months because you establishyour expectations with children and begin to haveroutines that are reliable so that everyone comes toknow exactly what is to he expected,- explainsHilliard. adding that the children willingly acceptthis order in thcir lives. "The children don't like thedisorder any more than the teacher-s do,- hecontends. "Once teachers understand that, then yourealize that the children's own wishes arc yourgreatest ally."

_BEELOPIAVAILAIRE

15

WHAT DOES AN EFFECTWE SCHOOL

COE LIKE?

Both Sizemore and Hilliard contend that an effec-tive school must Lave high expectations and anunshakable belie f that all children can learn.Sizemore rates instruction as the number one pri-

ority of effective schools. She explains that theinstruction routine in a school that

serves low-income, minority chil-dren is far different from one

for middle-c;ass children. Itdoesn't work to try coop-

erative learning withchildren who don'tknow how to study."You have to firstteach them howto study andhow to be stu-dents," Sizemoreexplains. Un-fortunately, she

sees many teacherswho have been

taught to frown on"anything that looks

like structure. No rote.No drills." Kids who come

from a disorganized commu-nity and a disruptive family need

a very structured school life to geteverything done," she explains, adding, "If

hr Sloanethey can't get this from their teacher, then they

won't get it at all."

Sizemore is adamant that instruction also musttake into account a child's background. She is dis-turbed by the prevailing belief in teaching collegesthat a good teacher can teach anybody. "My ques-tion is. How can a teacher teach Mexican immi-grant children if he or she doesn't know the cultureor the language? How can a teacher teach AfricanAmerican children who live in a low-income cen-sus zone if that teacher doesn't know anythingabout these children their language, their lives,their history and what the teacher does know is50 percent wrong?"

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Sizemore's routines, like Hilliard's essential ele-ments, require looking at familiar ideas in newways. The most important, she asserts, is assess-ment. Unlike teachers in high-achieving schools,teachers in low-achieving schools don't use assess-ment to inform their teaching and practice, she

says. They prepare their curriculum based on theirtextbooks and experience, not on what their stu-dents know. This approach can lead to "terribleassumptions that are sometimes wrong," warnsSizemore. Assessment can give a teacher a starting?oint and a focus. Teachers can then prepare' achart for each student that tells the student what heor she knows and doesn't how. This chart includeseverything that the student needs to know to be agood student at the next ievel. "It's very motiva-tional;' contends Sizemore, "because [the student]is in a race with himself, maybe with the otherkids, too, to see how much he can do and how fasthe can do it." It also helps the teacher with placement.

She tries to teach teachers to place students accord-ing to skills, not the traditional low-achievingschool system of high, low, and middle. Kids candeal with being told that their group is going towork on multiplication, while the other groupworks on division. "There's no stigma to it," saysSizemore. "We try to encourage teachers to useplacement to facilitate instruction, not to label thekids." She offers another example: "All ninthgraders take algebra, but those who have the needare also given an algebra support. This is for kidswho haven't quite mastered the skills in mathemat-ics, but it's not called basic mathematics ordummy's mathematics. It's called algebra supportso that kids understand that what you are learning

here is to support you in your work with algebra."

Schools also need to take a new approach to staffdevelopment. Staff development means more than"buying a workshop from the cafeteria of staffdevelopment activities that you might find at aconference somewhere," explains Hilliard. Itmeans giving professionals time to do problemsolving. It means that faculties and their principalsget together; define their instructional aims, goals,and objectives; collect information to find out ifthey're achieving them; and brainstorm and usetrial and error to fmd ways to meet their goals.

Both Sizemore and Hilliard agree that a fair, clear,and firm discipline policy is critical to ensuring a

n".." . r tr-

school's positive learningenvironment. Everybody,from the parents on up, needto understand the consequencesof students' actions. According toSizemore, schools need disciplineroutines to deal with behavior problems.The teacher's role is to enforce these routines andteach kids to solve problems so that their motiva-tion to behave is internal rather than external.Schools with severe discipline problems need tostart with an in-house suspension room. "This has

to be a mechanism for removing children fromclassrooms immediately so that the teacher's timeis not consumed entirely in discipline and teachingnever occurs," explains Sizemore. "Otherwise,there will never be any growth and achievement."

At the helm of this urban school reform andrestructuring effort is a strong, independent princi-pal who takes charge and doesn't look for leader-ship from outside the school. His or her main job,contends Hilliard, is to cut through the chaos and"get everybody on the same page." "You have asmany different agendas as you have individualsworking in the school," explains Hilliard, "and soyou've got to have some collective focus and col-lective responsibility on the part of the faculty, andthat can be orchestrated and generated by the kindof leadership that the principal brirrgs." Sizemoresees the principal as "the inspirational, instruction-

al leader" who carries the banner that says, "Allchildren can learn; I expect these children to learn,and it will happen here."

To those who say, "We can't possibly duplictesuch a person," Hilliard replies, "Yes, you can." Allyou need is th, will to want change. He has a ready

list of schools across the country to prove that itcan be done.

THE WILL TC CHANGE

Where does this will come from? Anywhere,according to Hilliard. From the professional com-munity or from within a school. "I've S-een facul-ties just decide that they wanted to do things differ-ently," he explains. Citing one California school,Hilliard recalls, "The faculty just got together oneyear and decided they didn't like being on the bot-

tom. They went to their principal and asked for thefreedom to try to problem solve and change their

17

Photo Jim Pickerell

school and they did a." Hilliardwas equally impressed wIth the

Benton Harbor Public SchoolDistrict, which two years ago was. the

lowest achieving school district inAmerica. One year later the district

received an award as the most improved schooldistrict in Michigan. Hilliard points out that thedistrict made this improvement without changingthe faculty. "I think most teachers have the capabil-ity to make the changes to make themselves power-ful teachers," he affirms. Sizemore admits that it isnot easy to change behavior, "But once you get acritical mass of teachers who have changed theirbehavior, first your growth doubles and triples andthen your achievement rises." Echoing Hilliard,Sizemore argues that schools must have the will tochange and "believe in kids."

"We tend to blame the child for what we havefailed to provide;' Hilliard explains. But "if youexamine the cases where children succeed, thechanges that were made were in the system not inthe children. The schools reorganized themselves,changed their goals, established monitoring sys-tems, went through staff development. No onewent out and made the parents get married again,took the drugs out of the community, took peopleoff welfare, or got them all free and reduced lunchor medical care."

"c1.13vraKERS' !IKE

Hilliard believes that the primary job of policy-makers is to ensure accountability in the system:"The one thing about the policymakers is that theycannot micromanage schools." He cites the lack ofaccountability among policymakers who allow aschool to continue without any change in leader-ship when the kids fail year after year. He is con-cerned about policymakers who feel the need tomandate changes from open classrooms to closedclassrooms or from one textbook or reading pro-gram to another. They're causing more harm to thesystem than good, he laments. Hilliard feels strong-ly that policymakers "should be making decisionsabout the operintendent, the principal, and thesupervisors; and those people who are not able toraise the prodlictivity of ch;ldren should bereplaced by those who can."

"I think the school could make a difference if it is

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committed to the kids," asserts Sizemore. A con-cerned Hilliard wonders whether schools are head-ed in the right direction: "I want my kids to havecomputers and I want them to have on-line accessto the Internet and all of that. I think they're enti-tled to that. And I want them to have recreationalfacilities after school, all the things kids need, butthose things as important as they are have littleto do with whether kids are successful in mathe-matics. What determines whether they are success-ful in mathematics is the quality of math teaching:'

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'Parent and Teacher Involvemen

Create a Climate for Learning

'ou have to be a risk-taker and you certainlycan't be interested in a promotion," saysDoris Brevard, listing the requirements for

her job. Brevard is the principal of VannElementary School in Pittsburgh, an all-black K-5school with an enviable record of high test scoresand highly motivated children.

Success requires creating the right educational cli-mate, according to Brevard, and that means enforc-ing discipline, having children come in with theright attitude, and setting the tone for parentinvolvement. "I don't permit irate parents to meetwith the teachers," she offers as an example of herapproach. "They must come through the officefirst and I'm always there:' It's the principal's jobto develop this climate, says Brevard.

Her main role as principal, she says, is to meet theneeds of the children. "You have to find out wherethey are coming from, how much preparationthey've had as far as school is concerned, and youbuild on that."

Brevard believes that _discipline is important forevery child and particularly for those at Vannmost of whom come from low-income families introubled neighborhoods. Her students appreciatethe structure they find in the school, which stressesself-esteem and pride in oneself. They like know-ing exactly what is expected of them in certainplaces and at certain times. School is a welcomerelief from "the complete chaos of so many ofthese homes where you have very young parents orthe single parent involved in their own lives, andthey're not too concerned about the children."

Vann has teacher-centered classrooms. "I set therules and regulations for the building," explainsBrevard. "The teachers set the rules and regula-tions and procedures for their classrooms, and Iback them to the hilt." As long as the children arelearning, Brevard believes in letting the teachersdecide how best to instruct their classes. The teach-erG know she has an open-door policy for any prob-lem whether school-related or personal. "I wantthem to feel free to bring it to me and we'll talkabout it," Brevard says.

A visitor to Vann School would immediately notice

Photo C Kathy Sloane

t, Discipline, and Structureat Vann Ektnentary Schooi

its highly structured environment. Students walkthrough the halls in lines. They are required to havehall passes. And they're wearing uniforms for thesecond year in a-row (a necessity, Brevard reports,to counteract the gang influence).

Structure is also apparent in the classrooms. Vannteachers practice traditional methods of instruction.Teachers stand in front of students and teach, andstudents sit in their desks and listen. For reading,students are grouped homogeneously in theirclassrooms in one of two levels according to theirability. All of the students are tested for readingand math when they enter the school to determinetheir placement.

Unlike too many urban schools that pass kids fromgrade to grade regardless of their abilities, Brevardinsists upon 85 percent to 90 percent mastery ofskills. Children in grades K-3 are retained if theyhave not mastered the required reading and mathskills. Fourth and fifth graders are seldom heldback, though, because of social implications.

Brevard points with pride to the school's consis-tently high test results: "As far as the AfricanAmerican test results, our test results have alwaysbeen at the national norm. On many occasions wehave even surpassed the Caucasian and Asiannorm." She cautions that the results fluctuatedepending on the group of children in the school.However, she explains, "we've never gone below64 percent in reading, and we've gone as high as74 percent."

Brevard reports that after a rocky start, many of theparents have come around to see things Vann'sway: "They're very upset when they first comein because they feel we're a little bit too demand-ing, but usually at the end of the school yearthey're very pleased with the achievements oftheir children."

While Vann's accomplishments have been praisedthroughout the country, Brevard has yet to receiverecognition from her own school district. Brevardexplains philosophically, "African American chil-dren are not supposed to be able to learn. I've dis-pelled that." .

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17

Kelso Elementary: Home Sweet Home

p00 ?P\\( C311ut for sixth-grade teacher Anne Garrell, the

18

choice was easy. She resigned from the LosAngeles Unified School District and

-Zreturned to Kelso Elementary School in Inglewood,California, for lower pay but much higher rewards.

ghe kids would just be passed from grade tograde and no one really seemed to care that halfdr class couldn't read," recalls a disillusionedGarrell of her experience in Los Angeles. "I had tocome back here where I knew that I could doeverything that I could to educate the children."

First-grade teacher Shelly Chaplin also returned toKelso from Los Angeles. "I left and I went to L.A.Unified to make more money, and I did not feelcomfortable there."

Kelso is a crowded K-6, year-round school withapproximately 900 students. Students come from alow-income area that is about 65 percent Latino, 1percent Filipino, and the rest African American.Like many urban schools, Kelso is surrounded byviolence and gang activity. But unlike most of itscounterparts, Kelso is able to shut out inner-cityproblems, and its students are flourishing.

What sets Kelso apart is a staff dedicated to theschool's philosophy that every child will learn.According to Garrell, "The principal, the adminis-tration, and the teachers consider the students first.We find out what the kids need to know and weteach them."

"We push the children to their ability," explainsChaplin. "We don't make excuses because they area minority or don't know the language or comefrom a broken home."

The staff at Kelso work well together, accordingto Chaplin. They help each other and share theiractivities. An amazed Garrell relates, "I hear aboutother schools where the primary grades are onething and the upper grades are another andthey don't talk. We don't have that kind of a sepa-ration here."

These teachers say that Kelso works because of itsinsistence on structure. Garrell reports that every-thing is structured at Kelso, from the curriculum toplayground activity. "These kids thrive on thestructure we give them." Chaplin explains, "When

the kids walk in the room, there is some type ofwork waiting for them." Then, everyone reads allmorning long. "I know the primary grades readuntil at least 11," says Chaplin. "We do reading,too," adds Garrell, "from 8:30 to 10:15. We alsotry to make sure the child is at a level he canperform at."

Chaplin remembers with dismay teaching fifthgrade in Los Angeles: "I was forced to teach [somechildren] fifth-grade reading when they were read-ing on a second-grade level. I might as well havebeen teaching them Latin." In the primary gradesat Kelso, she says, "We get the children to wo:kwith phonics and then we buqd on more of thewhole language."

Kelso also stresses writing, according to Garrell:"We do writing across the curriculum." Theprincipal, Marjorie Thompson, looks at writingsamples throughout the year. "She makes sure thatwe are doirg what we are supposed to do," saysGarrell. Botn 1:_iarrell and Chaplin are quick topraise Thompson, who provides the support theyneed to teach. If she has a child who's not learning,Chaplin heads straight to Thompson and asks whatcan be dcne.

Discipline is a necessary component in a schoolwhere many children have none. According toChaplin, many of the children "roam the streetsand they do whatever they want." "We let themknow how they are expected to act," explainsGarrett. "We have a set of expectations not only foracademic performance but for behavior and westick to it." "Children want rules; they thrive on it,"Chaplin adds. And if there is a behavior problem,she knows she can count on Thompson to removethe child from the classroom. This is a far cry fromher principal in Los Angeles, who, according toChaplin, "told me to count to 10 because 1 wasmaking the child mad."

Chaplin brags that Kelo's kids "stand out aboveand beyond." A majority go on to higher education."They have such good self-esteem," she explains,"because they get into the high schools, the juniorhighs, or the middle schools and they are the cream

of the crop there."

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Essential Elements of H1. Staff Development

At highly effective schools. staff development:

Is practical and concerned k% ith instruction and

conditions in participants' classrooms.

May involve the principal working with teachers.teachers working with each other. and outsideexperts working with staff.

Is continuous and ongoing, as all staff areencouraged to grow and learn professionally andare given support for dealing with new andchronic problems.

Is a priority of the principal who offers supportand opportunities for growth.

Encourages teachers to recognize colleagues'skills and provide mutual support andinvolvement.

2. instruct lnat LeadershipIn highly efkctive schools. principals arc usuallythe instructional leaders. They:

Lead t',e staff in developing a clear mission andgoals for their schools, empower staff membersto achieve the goals in ways most consistentwith their teaching styles, and act to promotequality instruction.

Create a culture in their schools that encourageslearning and inspires teachers.

Are highly visible in the classrooms, cafeteria.playground. street crossings, and hallways. andare always motivating staff and students.

Support a positive work environment for theirteachers. taking responsibility for handling allnecessary management and logistical problems.

Are team players. working to build cooperationand cohesion among the teachers and involvingstudent families in the school's mission.

_

3. School LeadershipPrincipals at effective schools are responsible forall school activities. They are:

Closely involved in choosing teachers andreplacing them if they do not share theschool's philosophy or cannot carry out theschools mission.

Risk-takers and oppose the district on policiesthat. in their iew. are detrimental to the students

and teachers.

Constantly monitoring what is going on in the

school not only in classrooms, but on fieldtrips, in staff development meetings. and inreviewing test scores.

Committed to supporting their teachers' profes-sional growth and bringing in all possibleresources to reinforce teaching.

4. High ExpectationsEffective schools are characterized by a:

Shared belief that all students can learn, andthis belief translates into a willingness to findnew instructional strategies if traditional ones do

not work.

Demand for high achievement: expectations arecommunicated to students and parents.including mastery of basic skills and higher-level

thinking skills.

Staff that adapts the curriculum and instructionto students' learning styles and constantlyencourages children to have high aspirations for

the future.

5. Parent InvolvementEffective schools reflect the findings of research

that:

A high le\ el of parental imolvement inchildren's education enhances their chances

23for success.

ighly Effective SchoolsParents ean be a driving force in bringing aboutchange in schools.

Involvement alone is not as important as thenature of the involvement. It must be focusedon the goals of the school and the students'achievement.

6. Productive Climate and CultureHighly effective schools:

Have a shared mission or goal focusing onimproved student performance. The missionstatement remains a goal continually sought butnever quite achieved.

Are determined to create and maintain an envi-ronment conducive to order, discipline, andlearning; a readiness to change and adapt strate-gies to improve student outcomes; and constantmonitoring to find what works.

Reflect a consensus if not actual shared deci-sion making on goals and means, and fostergood communication among staff and with stu-dents. parents. and community members.

Reflect the productive climate in frequent. pub-lic, and systematic recognition of studems forpositive behavior and performance.

7. Monitoring Student ProgressEffective schools are characterized by:

Policies involving frequent and regular assess-ment of studcnt progress to drive schoolimprovement efforts toward excellenceand equity.

Use of data to evaluate and implement instruc-tional practices and strategies, to communicatehigh expectations, and to invoke parents and thecommunity in the school's efforts.

Development and usc of a variety of monitoringtechniques.

8. Effective Instructional StrategiesAt highly successful schools:

Grouping procedures are used to help all stu-dents, especially those who are low-achieving,succeed academically.

Staff and teachers have developed appropriatepacing of instruction, with the emphasis onaccelerating instruction for low achievers so thatthey catch up with their peers.

Staff and teachers use techniques usuallyreserved for gifted and talented students with allstudents. These techniques ideally include activeand enriched learning opportunities with interac-tion with peers and teachers.

9:1:earning Essential SkillsAt highly effective schools:

Faculty and staff work together to emphasizemastery for all students.

Ample and efficient time for learning is givenhigh priority, and teachers make sure that littletime is wasted in giving assignments. startingclasses, or making transitions between activities.While this "no nonsense" approach does notguarantee high achievement, it is a prerequisiteto effective teaching and learning.

Teachers avoid "social" promotions and developcurricula that require students to master eachski) before proceeding.

Strategies are in place to identify those studentswho are having difficulty and to provide themwith extra help.

Source: Every Chihl Can Succeed: . n ActionGuide c 1992:Igen( or lnstructiomil Technology.

4.4

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Photo Das td Gi ossman

FIRST IN THE WORLDFederal Math and

Science Initiative Targets

City Schoolsby Dan Weissmann

he National Education Goals, adoptedby the nation's 50 governors and cham-pioned by the Bush Administration in1990, call for the United States tobecome "first in the world in math andscience achievement" by the year 2000.

Whatever rankings existed, the United States had alot of catching up to do, especially in its cities. Insome big cities, kids could graduate fromhigh school without ever learning algebra. And inmany cities, only half of all students even graduat-ed high school.

For students of color, many of them city residents,the news was worse. In 1990, the NationalAssessment of Educational Progress, a federallysponsored snapshot of student achievement,showed that eighth-grade minority students hadlearned, on average, only half as much math astheir white peers.

16 (.11 11.:240 N1ll.l.10\To bring city kids up to speed, the federally fundedNational Science Foundation (NSF) is pouring aprojected $240 million into a plan to overhaul mathand science education in 16 major cities. Theprogram, called the Urban Systemic Initiative(USI), will pump as much as $15 million into eachcity over five years. Nine cities started theirefforts last year, and seven more are starting inSeptember 1995.

The results so far are encouraging. Miami highschools now require that students at least take alge-bra before they graduate. Kids in Chicago have totake algebra by the eighth grade and will soon haveto take three years of lab science and three years ofmath to graduate. Phoenix, Arizona, is training allmath teachers in a cutting-edge curriculum calledthe Interactive Math Program. The DallasIndependent School District is creating brand-newK-12 curricula for science and math.

Federal funding for science and math educationisn't a new idea; it's been part of the NSF's missionsince the Foundation's inception in 1950. In fact,the USI still represents less than one-third of theNSF's spending on K-12 education.

But until 1990, NSF funded only piecemeal efforts:

a ninth-grade math curriculum in one city, a set oftrainings fol biology teachers in another, someafter-school science dull!, in yet another. However

good those programs were, they reached only asmall fraction of the nation's students. NSF had 'never required programs to address more ambi-tious, systemwide goals, such as bringing theUnited States closer to its National EducationGoals or closing the achievement gap betweenwhite students and students of color.

Enter Luther Williams, who took over the NSF'seducation department in 1990. "Luther came inand said, 'You guys have been getting a free ride.You don't have guidelines for accountability,recalls Eric Hamilton, who directs Chicago's UrbanSystemic Initiative. "He said, 'This is an economi-cally, socially, morally unacceptable course for thisFoundation to be pursuing. We will no longer toler-ate your not serving all students."

Williams founded the Office of Systemic Reformto replace little programs with long-term, sys-temwide efforts. The Office started with a set offive-year, state-level efforts, and in 1993, Williamsintroduced the USIs.

NSF MOVES FROM FUNDINGPROGRAMS TO FUNDING SYSTEMS

"Systemic reform" didn't just mean doing businesson a larger scale; it meant changing with whom theFoundation did business. Before systemic reform,NSF would typically give a grant to a university,which would create a program and then "offer" it

Photo © Michael Siluk

PhotoC Kathy

Mcat g

Systemic reform

meant doing

business with a

broader scope.

24

to school districts"Systemic" grants had to go to school

districts instead, Williams reasoned, if NSF wantedto hold grantees accountable for results, especiallysystemwide results. After all, school districts weremore directly responsible for student achievementthan universities.

Systemic reform also meant changing the kinds ofbusiness arrangements that the NSF made. Insteadof giving grants, systemic programs renuired thatcities propose "cooperative agreements" con-tracts which included what Williams calls "deliv-erables." For instance, most USI cities havepledged to require three years of high school mathand three years of high school science for gradua-tion. (Courses such as general math or consumermath don't count; Williams calls such courses"nonsense.") If cities don't follow through on theirpromises, their funding isn't renewed. As of thecurrent year, all of the cities that started USI pro-grams in 1994 have had their funding renewed.

Finally, and most important, systemic reformmeant doing business with a broader scope. "Wesaid to ourselves, 'Remember, we've got this goal

first in the world, recalls Pierce Hammond, nowacting administrator for the Office of SystemicReform. "So we decided to try to include every-thing in the world we could think of that mattered."Their list of goals included imprnving policy;strengthening connections between elementaryschools and high schools, which in some citiesoperated from different school distncts; generatingpublic understanding and support; making the mostof outside resources such as museums and researchlabs; considering the question, What skills do busi-nesses want employees to have?; and developingnew methods of assessment.

4e.

URBAN SYSTEMIC IN ITI,V1A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH

Perhaps the most important reason for thatcomprehensive approach was to ensure thatUSI didn't simply become another bureau-cratic program layered on top of all theothers that already existed. For that reason.US1 -treements require that cities incor-porate all other math and science pro-grams including mandated programssuch as federal Title I and bilingual edu-cation into USI initiatives. NSF offi-cials wanted assurance "that, in a givenday, a kid doesn't go from a `USI math'class to a 'regular math class,"

explains Hammond. Comprehensive and effi-cient plans are important because the amount ofmoney NSF provides is tiny, given the problems it'ssuppo .1 to help solve. For example, in Chicago's$3 billion annual education budget, a $2 millionNSF grant is small change; that change needs to becarefully spent if it's going to improve educationfor all students.

So far, bringing resources together people,money, organizations has been a major accom-plishment for USI programs. Consider:

Phoenix's US1 program is a collaboration among9 of the 13 different school districts that serve thegreater Phoenix area 8 elementary districts andthe high school district they all feed into. It's thefirst time these districts have worked together.

High school teachers in Detroit had never gottena chance actually to talk with elementary schoolteachers before they started attending USI-spon-sored meetings. says Detroit USI director JuanitaClay Chambers.

In Dallas, "in the past, we had people who wrotecurriculum and we had people who wrote assess-ments, and the two groups had never met eachother," says Linda Johnson, the city's USI direc-tor. "Now they write in the same room."

BREAKING THROUGH THEBOTTLENECK

But progress hasn't always been easy or assured.The Chicago USI program "got off to a very shakystart" last September, says director Eric Hamilton.There was almost no one around to start the pro-gram, in part because Chicago's central administra-tive staff had been decimated by years of cuts. ByFebruary things seemed more on track, asHamilton and his staff organized a citywide

27

conference und successfully lobbied the city'sBoard of Education to increase science andmath requirements.

The first few months were harrowing. butHamilton reports that the very difficulty ofthe process only convinces him of USI's impor-tance. "If this had gone like clockwork," he says,"I would have to be asking myself What the pointwas of doing it. The fact is, there are systemicbottlenecks, and things don't move." Which onlyproves how necessary a program like USI is,he says.

One of the biggest bottlenecks. says the NSF'sHammond, is a national mind-set. Americans,educators included, don't expect everyone tobecome literate in scienk _ and math. "In our soci-ety, we tend to believe that there's a 'pipeline' formath and science," he says, "and that kids dropout at every step: high school graduation, a col-lege degree, graduate school. The numbers dimin-

ish drastically with each step, and somehow, thatmakes sense."

In other words, the education system's failure togive many students adequate science and matheducation doesn't seem like a crisis because itseems normal so people feel less motivated tochange it. Cincinnati's USI director, KathleenWare, says that getting teachers, parents, andadministrators to "buy in" to the idea that. all stu-dents can and should take more challenging mathand science courses and succeed has been thebiggest obstacle in implementing that city's sys-temic reforms.

A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH

Luther Williams contends that such a change ofpublic attitude is a matter of life and death formany students. When minority students scoreonly half as well as white students on nationalmath tests, he says, "they arc not simply youngAmericans who don't know mathematics. Theyhave undergone a process that is akin to economic

death. If you assume that one has to have a rea-sonable acquaintance with math and science inorder to get a decent job, then these young peoplearc out of it. Whether they know it or not. Andthat's a permanent condition."

Dun fq,issmann is a contributing editor of CA7A-LYST: Voices of Chicago School Reform, anindependent publication that repons on Chicago'sschool unprovement eflOrts.

4,44/

CONTACT:

Office of Systemic ReformNational Science Foundation4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 875

Arlington, VA 22230(703) 306-1690

USI CITIES:Year 1 (started September 1994):

Bahimore, MDChicago, IL

Cincinnati, OHDallas, TXDetroit, MIEl Paso, TXMiami, FL

New York, NYPhoenix, AZ

Year 2 (started September 1995):

Cleveland, OHColumbus, OH

Fresno, CALos Angeles, CA

Memphis, TNNew Orleans, LAPhiladelphia, PA

...

' I*III

"III' 04I "1, II

"I'I 0 0

28

^,./ I I

FULL-SERVICE

SCHOOLS

AND

HIGH-RISK

YOUTH:

COLIMORATING

TO MAKE A

DIFFERENCE

Lack of

nurturing

by an adult is

a significant

marker of

trouHe.

by Joy Dryfoos

Excerpted front a speech to the annualstaff rneeting of Ounce of Prevention

The

problems of American youth are welldocumented. Hundreds of researchers producethousands of charts and graphs, and misery

numbers appear in USA Today and on TV as wellas in endless academic journals and annual reports.

Most of what we learn from research comes in cat-egorical packag; s, subsets of what adults call"risky behaviors." About five years ago, 1 took allthat categorical stuff and tried to make some senseout of it. I concluded that a certain group of youngpeople were involved in most of the categories.You all know a kid like this: failing in school, tru-ant, using substances, engaging in unprotectedintercourse, not much hope for the future. I cameto the conclusion that about one in four young peo-ple aged 10 to 17 growing up in the United Stateswere like that kid doing it all and thereforeat very high risk of never growing up intoresponsible adults, never making it in school, neverentering the labor force, and never becomingeffective parents.

Recently, I reviewed current research and youknow what I concluded? About one in four kids isstill doing it all and will fail to thrive unless theyreceive immediate attention. I also concluded thatabout one-fourth of our youth are on the brink oftrouble and can go either way depending onwhether they receive assistance.

Children in trouble have many common character-istics: early involvement in high-risk behaviors,absence of nurturing parents, poor school perfor-mancc, lack of resistance to peer influences, resi-dence in disadvantaged communities, depressedand stressed out.

These characteristics should frame our discussionof prevention. Every child who grows up withthese factors does not turn into a failure.Researchers have recently discovered that someyoung people make it despite all odds. In almostevery case, the young person has formed an attach-ment to a responsible adult. This is the flip side ofhigh-risk behavior, where lack of nurturing by anadult is a significant marker of trouble. With thisfact strongly in mind, we can proceed to a discus-sion of how to make a difference.

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Our knowledge of the characteristics of high-riskyouth gives us a good starting point for thinkingabout programs. What would a program look likethat included early intervention, strengthened fam-ilies and tried to compensate for missing support-ive adults, addressed issues relating to school per-formance, focused on peer influences, and workedon mental health problems? In my view, the needsof contemporary young people call for multicom-ponent, long-term efforts involving many agenciesworking together. In designing prograr ,s, you haveto incorporate a more holistic approach that paysattention to family, school, and community factorsin the context of the broader social environment.

In my own work trying to design a model thatincorporates a broader approach, I have come upwith a concept I call the "full-service school:' join-ing together the thrust toward quality educationwith the need for health and social services, all inone location. Although I am obsessed with the ideaof using schools as the physical location for com-prehensive programs for youth, I know that similarmodels can be very successful in community-based structures.

All over the country, people like you are comingtogether to create new kinds of institutionalarrangements: school-based clinics, youth servicecenters in schools, settlement houses, schools,family resource centers, community schools. Whatthey all have in common is the desire to movetoward one-stop integrated services, located inschools, but not run by schools. The job for theschools is to produce a learning environment. Thejob for community agencies is to bring into theschools everything else that is needed to enrichthat learning environment to make sure that it iseffective. Some of the remarkable programs thatpeople are inventing include health and mentalhealth services, social services, group counseling,family advocacy, parent education, communitypolicing, after-school child care, recreation andcultural events even a laundry in the school.

These programs require the coming together oftwo or more administrative entities into variousforms of collaborative relationships. Collaborationin the '90s is defined as a relationship betweenorganizations with jointly developed structures,high trust, consensual decision making, sharedresponsibility, shared sense of ownership,mutual accountability, and sharing of resourcesand rewards.

Photo David Grossman 30

Most of what we

learn from

research comes

in categorical

packages,

subsets of what

adults call

"risky behaviors."

27

Researchers

have recently

discovered that

some young

people make it

despite all odds.

28

We can learn quite a lot about this process of work-ing together from early returns from California,Kentucky, and Florida, where there are huge stateefforts to create school-community collaborations.The starting point for building comprehensive inte-grated programs is the plan. I love the phrase com-mon vision. A whole array of interested partiesfrom the school and the community, representativeparents and students, have to come together to fig-ure out what their institutions should look like.What are the pieces that have to be put together torespond to the needs of the families and the chil-dren in that community? What will make thatschool better able to address youth developmentissues? What can each community agency bring tothe table?

The actors in this drama must organize themselvesinto some form of working group with rules andprocedures. The first few meetings may be ragged;school and community people have to learn eachother's style of communication. As projects movefrom the planning stage to the implementationstage, coordination becomes even more complicat-ed. Over time, people come and go, and often theinnovators leave before the plan is made.

Community agencies generally take the lead, evenin school-based initiatives. Proposals are morelikely to be written by community-based practi-tioners. Obviously, school administrators have toapprove of the proposal, but sometimes schoolpeople feel left out of the process. It is very impor-tant that principals, teachers, guidance counselors.and school nurses be involved from the beginning.

Once a collaborative project is launched by one ormore community agencies in a school, the actionshifts to the school building. Turf issues areendemic. Bringing outside health or social servicesinto a school building under the auspices of an out-side agency is an invitation to turf wars. Two ormore different staffs operate under separate juris-dictions in terms of union policies, pay schedules,hours of work, and direction. Without careful plan-ning and negotiation, the school staff can be verythreatened by the appearance of a new group ofworkers in the school.

A significant area for potential conflict is disci-pline. The school has its own practices, such assuspension and other forms of punishment, thatmay be antithetic to thc practices of the newcom-ers. Confidentiality is another area of potential

conflict. Procedures and policies regarding record-keeping must be well established before any pro-gram is implemented.

One key to successfully overcoming these situa-tions in schools appears to be a sensitive principalwho, right from the planning stage, involves his orher school personnel along with the outsidepersonnel to create a team approach. Serious andongoing inservice training must take place withboth the existing staff and the outside agency staffto negotiate areas of tension anc: to learn to under-stand where each side is "coming from."

Questions have also been raised about placing thelocus of full-service programs in schools in com-munities that are distrustful of the educationalestablishment. Some school systems are so resis-tant to change that community leaders have littleconfidence that the quality education part of thefull-service vision will ever materialize. Humanresource planners have proposed an alternativemodel that places services in buildings run bycommunity-based organizations in which familiesfeel comfortable and are assured larger roles indecision making. The service integration theorystill holds, but the locus of services is placed firm-ly in the neighborhood, directly operated underlocal control. The school board has no place in thismodel, obviating the difficult negotiations that canbe stressful and time-consuming.

In sum, all around the country, school personneland community practitioners are finally findingeach other, discovering "natural comrades" in thestruggle to assist young people to grow up to befunctioning adults. Although the methodologies forevaluation are difficult and unrefined, early returnssuggest that comprehensive programming has thepotential for producing better outcomes both interms of school achievement and reduction inhigh-risk behaviors.

The visioning process is producing new ways oflooking at our vital institutions: family, school, andcommunity. Human service providers and schoolpersonnel are finally coming together to shapetheir own contract with America. Collaboration isnot a panacea: Systems are difficult to change. Youhave to start where you arc, moving the piecesaround, creating arks to ride out the flood. We areall in this together, and I am convinced that togeth-er we can make a difference.

314,4

UNSUNG

HEROES:

EX-SUFEKIN1ENDENT5

SPEAK OUT

ne of the unsungI heroes of change

in urban schoolsis the superintendent.Often the target of polit-

ical mai:euvering, media

attention, and communi-ty pressure, today'ssuperintendent mustbring a variety of skillsto bear on an oftenvolatile educational andsocial reality. He or shemust Hen(' businessacumen, managementskills, political savvy,and a thorough under-standing of classroombusiness, and, at thesame time , be grounded

in urban culture. Thebest leaders are practi-cal visionaries whoseroll-up-the-sleevesapproach embraces thedaily details. And, usmany of them havelearned, looking good onTV doesn't hurt.

LT

1

II

In this issue of CITYSCHOOLS, we'vebrought together four progressive formersuperintendents with longstanding expe-rience in urban school settings. Theyoffer testimony to and a rare, balancedglimpse of the trials and joys of urbansuperintendency.

Tom Giugni has worked in school dis-tricts throughout the state of Californiasince 1956 as a teacher, principal, andsuperintendent. His most recent appoint-ments were as superintendent of theSacramento City Unified School District(1979-1986) and the Long BeachUnified School District (1986-1992).Currently he is the executive directorof the Association of CaliforniaSchool Administrators.

Shirl Gilbert is assistant professor ofeducation at Purdue University. He beganhis educational career as a teacher in theSt. Louis Public School System in 1967.He was named superintendent of theIndianapolis Public Schools in 1991.Gilbert has published widely and is amuch-sought-after speaker on issuesaround educating urban students.

Ruth Love is currently a distin-guished professor at San Francisco StateUniversity and president of Ruth LoveEnterprises, Ltd. During her career in theeducational arena, Love has served as theSuperintendent of Schools for theOakland Unified School District and theChicago Public Schools. She has lecturedthroughout the United States and over-seas, and has authored an extensiverepertoire of books and articles on thesubject of education.

Donald Ingwerson was appointed LosAngeles County Superintendent ofSchools in 1994 by the Los AngelesCounty Board of Supervisors. During his12-year tenure with the Jefferson CountyPublic Schools, the Louisville SchoolDistrict became a role model for theimplementation of the touted KentuckyEducation Reform Act of 1990. In educa-tion circles, Ingwerson's name hasbecome synonymous with innovation andschool reform.

3229

RFAT re)P-r- AVAILARI

What was the vision of your sunerintenaency?

GILBERT: We wanted to build a world-class schoolsystem, so we went through about a year of strate-gic planning. Then we began immediately to makesure that the planning document didn't become abook on a shelf collecting dust. Our plan allowedfor assessment and evaluation along the way, whichhelped people to see that we were making a differ-ence. Six of the seven years I was in Indianapolis,the youngsters improved academically on their testscores. We had a higher percentage of studentgraduates in the last four years I was there.

Parents were substantively involved. We got thefederal courts to change the desegregation order.The first year, 95 percent of students inIndianapolis were able to go to the school that theyselected, and that number improved in the secondand third years. In the first year, we got 1,500kids to come back to IPS from private andparochial schools.

GIUGNI: I have a firm belief in site-based decisionmaking, which I implemented in Sacramento andLong Beach. In both major districts, I changed howwe were organized. Everyone who was in a cityposition had to reapply or be put in a differentposition. When you have a staff that has beenthere for a long time, change makes them feeluncomfortable. When you make it clear to themthat they still have.a job, just a different one, thatstill makes them feel uncomfortable. But now theyare more responsive to your leadership. They can'thide behind what they've been doing forever.What I also learned is that they all blossom. Itwas beautiful.

INGWERSON: My vision for reform in JeffersonCounty was to get the educational practices of pro-fessionals in tune with the trends of the nation. Weprovided a great deal of training so that all eche-lons of the educational establishment were singingoff the same song sheet. I wanted to make sure thatteachers were no longer talking in their own jargonand principals weren't talking in their own man-agement jargon, with parents wondering what bothmeant. We implemented professional developmentprograms that brought teachers, administrators, andparents togeth .1r around one concern, and that con-cern was tY.e needs of students. As we began tofocus on ne child, we began to see what aspectsof the system were both inhibiting andhelping progress.

LOVE: The role of the superintendent and the cen-tral office is to facilitate education at the schoollevel. The superintendent's job is to make sure thatschools have what they need to do the job.Sometimes we lose sight of that role. Sometimeswe think our role is to lead the politicians, to dopublic relations. The purpose of the central officeis to help people. It's not just holding the job incurriculum or staff development or research oraccounting or whatever. It is to facilitate educationat the local level.

the orcatef:: hngeyour superint&naency?

LOVE: Learning to take problems in workable unitsand solve them. We have a tendency to want tochange everything at once. In a system likeChicago with a half million students, that's notpossible. Change is a process, not an event. It's notgoing to happen because you issue a policy or edictor because you give one great speech.

INGWERSON: Probably the biggest challenge wasto help people understand the needs of children.Everybody had a different assessment. Someblamed the children and some blamed the parents.Some blamed desegregation. Some blamed society.Some blamed teachers. We didn't have our acttogether; we didn't have a clear picture.

MUNI: Probably the biggest problem I faced inimplementing site-based decision making wasinbreeding. Many of the administrators in bothSacramento and Long Beach had begun as teachersand then moved up through the system. Also, inLong Beach, we had to overcome the fact thatalthough we were good, we could be better. We hadto get people to buy into the site-based decision-making -oncept, and we had to move slowly.

GILBERT: While we were trying to enrich the entireschool district environment, the reality was thatsome situations were better than others. Everybodyought to have access to all of those environments.Unfortunately, insensitivity, institutional racism,economics, and elitism all come into play and asmall majority of folks end up making decisionsfor the vast majority. As the chairman of all thekids, I had to make hard decisions around thoseissues. For the most part, the community was withme. There was a small minority of parents who hadvested interests in maintaining their little area ofthe world that was, in fact, a series of privateschools in the public school system.

34. 31

As long as people

feel that schoo.:,

are failing, othe:

forms or

education ar .

going to abound.

Talk about the political realities of managingan urban school district.

GILBERT: The urban environment is a tough onepolitically. I prided myself on being able to ridethat bronco successfully. I fmally ran into an issuethat I was una,l)le to deal with as far as my contin-ued tenure. I was naive in that I trusted a staff per-son who was undermining my efforts to make stu-

dent assignments an equitable process. If I learnednothing else I learned that you can't assume thatpeople are going to try and do the right thing.People are motivated for many reasons, and some-times those motivations are not in the best interestof the majority of the students.

LOVE: The legislature wants to be on the winningteam. They don't want to do anything that is con-troversial. Their primary goal is to get reelected itwould seem. If they see that you're makingprogress, they will go with you. In Chicago, when

we established the teacher incentive program toreally motivate teachers to work with kids, itwas the legislature that thought it was a marvelous

idea. That's because I laid the groundwork beforewe announced it to the public. We also have towork with the unions. It's not necessary to alwayslook at labor relations as labor versus management.Sometimes it could be labor and managementworking together. I believe there will be more"win-win" situations related to labor relationsin the future. If not, you'll lose sight of theyoungsters, and the public sees that as not educat-ing children.

INGWERSON: One of the biggest inhibitors toreform was politics how one group competeswith another rather than building consensus andworking together for a better quality of life. Butonce we got that in order, we generated a lot ofenergy and responsiveness and ideas and creativity.

But first, we had to get rid of the "show me" atti-tude and replace it with "what can we do?" and"how can we help?" I had to model that. I had to beinclusive rather than exclusive. I had to make surethat everyone felt that I felt they were important. Ihad to spend a great deal of time with people. Thenwe institutionalized the process so that peoplecould see it was ongoing and broader than just oneperson. Reform was about the entire community,

and we had to get leadership to buy into that con-cept to win trust and confidence.

GIUGNI: I really believe that superintendents must32 be grounded in urban politics. You do that, I thinlc,

by living it. I would hope that school districtswould hire individuals who have had high-levelpositions in other urban districts. One of the mis-takes superintendents make is bouncing from oneurban district to another, one state to another. Ithink it is critical to try to stay in the same statebecause every state has its own quirks. I made achoice to stay in California because I had estab-lished a network. I had the support of other super-intendents and legislators I had known for years.

Talk about trends in education (charterschools, privatization, vouchers, etc.).

INGWERSON: The fact of life is that privatization,vouchers, charter schools, etc., are going to bearound. Those ideas are going to be encouraged bysome segments of our society, and they will contin-

ue to be available probably in increasing numbersdepending upon the quality of programs that weoffer in public schools. As long as people feel thatschbols are failing, other forms of education aregoing to abound. My feeling is we should not cutthem off, but we should make them earn their rightto exist.

LOVE: Decentralization is a good concept becauseyou put the responsibilities closest to the locus of

control. Privatization is something else.Privatization is a flawed way of thinking aboutbringing business practices to schools. Those pri-vatization measures that I am aware of are simplyvehicles for making money off the backs of chil-dren, contracting out services that educators cannotimplement. Food service, transportation, and a fewother services now contract out, but I have not real-ly seen privatization add anything to public educa-

tion yet.

GIUGNI: I agree with privatizing food service andtransportation operations, but, frankly, I look atsome of these major companies and I know someof those individuals personally. There are a fewexamples of success, but on the whole, it is notworking. Now, I actually support the concept ofcharter schools. Some have been very successful inthe inner cities, but I think some of the chartermovements are not operating on an evbn playingfield. It is unfair to allow one school to operatewithout the same requirements that the stateimposes upon another school. Why can't wechange the law so that all schools operate withfewer restrictions?

GILBERT: The financial realities of urban publicschool education require that we go into partner-ship with private business. It is absolutely ludi-crous for board members and communities to fightthe outsourcing of some indirect educationalexpenditures that can cost less in the private sector.I had a situation in Indianapolis where I had 500bus routes to and from school. Two hundred fiftyof them were run by IPS and cost me $14.2 mil-lion. I had another 250 that were contracted out toa transportation company and that cost me $7.8million. Paying twice as much money for the sameservice is ludicrous.

Vat do you believe are the most pressingissues in the ciassrOOM today?

LOVE: I would be pleased if superintendents couldgo out and teach a class. That is not what you'rehired to do, but it is important to know what youare asking other people to do. What does researchtell us about education now? What should we beimplementing? What should we be doing? That isimportant. Superintendents need to be more futur-istic. They have got to see that as we go into the21st century, technology will play a significantrole. With more and more families working in thehome, there will be home classrooms in the future.

INGWERSON: Probably the nastiest problem thatthe nation is trying to deal with right now is howshould we approach teaching for the test score orfor content? Teachers seldom get the opportunity tohone their skills or to teach information rather thanthe test. Teachers need to know that they have thefreedom to teach children, not just some programthat is outlined by a bureaucrat.

What parting advice would you give tourban superintendents?

GILBERT: I think we have got to look at govern-ments in schools and in America. Lay board mem-bers are elected or appointed for specific terms,but they don't receive training, which is why someof the programs aren't working. We ought to havesome minimal eligibility requirements. Right nowall you have to be is 21 years old. There ought tobe some requirements of experience, education,and training. People come on board in major urbandistricts that are multimillion-, sometimes multibil-lion-dollar operations. Many are good people, butthey don't understand.

\-;

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1NGWERSON: The most effective educational sys-tems are those that are ftnally able to get to theschool level and have teachers, students, and par-ents working together to really grow. Sometimesgrowth is painful, but it shouldn't be so painful thatyou don't want to go to school. That takes constantmonitoring, feedback, and reinforcement.

LOVE: Be prepared to make sacrifices. You can'texpect superintendency to be just a job. It's yourwhole life. It's important also to know that whilethere will be a lot of rewards, there also will be alot of criticism. You'll survive it all.

GIUGNI: Never look back. Make a decision, thenmove on. Don't try to rethink your decisionbecause, with all the other things you have to dealwith, it will just drain all your energy. Focus on thefuture, not the past.

BEST COpyJL.A1LABLE

:at

Photo 0 David Grossman

futuristic. They

have got to see

that 35 we go into

the 21st century,

technology will play

a significant role.

Chi/SCHOOLS F'rofile:

Lisa Delpitby Donna M. Williams

,,Z

Lisa Delpit currently serves as theBenjamin E. Mays Chairholder atGeorgia State University. In 1990.Delpit's work on school-communityrelations aml parent involvementearned her a MacArthur Award.She also received the HarvardUniversity Graduate School ofEducation / 993 Alumni Award jOrOutstanding ContribUtionsEducation and the 1994 AmericanEducational Research AssociationCattell Award for OutstandingEarly Career Achievement. She isa nationally and internationallyknown speaker and writer, andshe hus used her training inethnographic research to sparkdialogues among educators onissues that have an impact onminority students.

34 3EST COPY AVAit.ABLit t

Those with good intentions say they want to create

an educational system that wpuld be best for "my"children, because what's best for "my" childrenwill be best for everybody's children. The difj7cultyis that all children don't have exactly thesame needs.

Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children: CulturalConflict in the Classroom.

Lisa Delpit has touched a painful nerve in thebody politic of the American educationalcommunity. This nerve has historical and

geographical length, and social, economic, andpolitical breadth and depth. It informs urbanschool reform efforts, university research, andeducator-peer, parent-teacher, and student-teacherrelationships. It is the live wire that both separatesand binds the country's many races and cultures.

It all began in 1986 with a frustrated letter to a col-league. Delpit was involved in teacher training atthe University of Alaska-Fairbanks where sheobserved the methodologies used to teach NativeAlaskan children. Delpit was "perturbed by what[she] saw happening to children of color andteachers of color in the Fairbanks schools. . . .

White conservatives and liberals were battlingeach other over what was good for these 'otherpeople's children,' while excluding from theconversation those with the most to gain or lose byits outcome."1 Delpit was so offended by academe'sdeaf ear that she decided to submit her originalletter to the Harvard Educational Review as anarticle ("Skills and Other Dil mmas of aProgressive Black Educator"). In it, she expressedher concerns with The Writing Project movementand the frustrations many teachers of color felt atbeing left out of the discussion on literacy instruction.

Delpit was unprepared for the st,)rm of debateunleashed by the article. Writing Project membersacross the country were incensed. "Despite myattempt to say that we must not abandon the verygood ideas of the process approach, but must beopen to modifications based on the voices of par-ents and educators of color, they perceived me asunequivocally attacking their work. Many AfricanAmericans, on the other hand, told me I had madepublic beliefs they thought no one else shared. Ireceived letters from all over the country. AfricanAmerican teachers thanked me for writing abouttheir experience, and some white telicheri*rote ''.that the article helped them identifilprobibniOUtheir own classrooms; yet many"iinek4i

motivation in attacking awell-meaning program thathad the best interests of allchildren at heart."2

The debate still rageson. "Skills and OtherDilemmas" and a secondarticle, "The SilencedDialogue: Power andPedagogy in EducatingOther People's Children,"are 2 of the top 20 articlesmost requested for reprintsin the history of theHarvard Educational Review.

This was not the first timethe soft-spoken crusaderfor children found herselfin the eye of a storm.Delpit was raised in a poorcontrrity in BatonRouge78t isiana, duringthe Jim Crow era. "Racismwas the fabric of our livesback then," she says. Heruncle was lynched. Whitepolicemen beat up herfather. Some time later, herfather died from kidneyfailure because patients inthe "colored ward" weren'tallowed access to thedialysis machine.

Delpit was among the firstwave of black students tointegrate a local highschool. There, she and theother blacks met withmuch resistance and openhostility. She remembers awhite nun telling an ani-mated class to "stop acting like a bunch of nig-gers." That school closed after her first year; theparents refused to support it because "too manyblack kids were coming." Racism at her secondhigh school was present. but not as overt.

From her family, Delpit learned how to fight injus-tice. "1 learned that there is no peace without jus-tice," she says. Hcr father, the owner of a restau-rant, gave poor children in the community freelunches. Her brother participated in the protest

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marches of the 1960s,and later became thefirst elected black offi-cial in Baton Rouge.Delpit herself advocatedfor change in her highschool. In fact, she per-suaded the faculty tobring to the school theclassic blue-eye/brown-eye workshop thatheightens awareness ofracial issues.

First and foremost,Delpit considers herselfan educator. "Teachingis in my genes. Mymother was a teacher;my sister was a teacher."When she was five,Delpit organized a

school in the neighbor-hood, and she, not sur-prisingly, was theteacher. "That contin-ued all the way throughelementary," says Delpit."I even organized adance class at recess. Inelementary school. fromthird grade on. when ateacher was absent, theprincipal would ask meto take over the class."

Her love for teachingand children sent her toAntioch College. whereshe received her B.A. ineducation and psycholo-gy in 1974. She did hergraduate studies at

Harvard and received her doctorate in 1984. Delpitwas first introduced to the progressive teachingmethodologies of "process" and the open class-room in graduate school. Ironically, her fiist practi-cal experience in thc classroom foreshadowed herwork in multicultural education as a researcher,educator, and advocate. A virtual educational labo-ratory, Delpit's first classroom in Philadelphiacomprised a racially and economically mixed pop-ulation: 60 percent poor black children and 40 per-cent well-to-do white children. The white children

^

38 35

Teople get ir

political camps

and assume

that a political

camp can drive

instructior."

36

thrived academically in Delpit's open classroom;black children, however, "threw the books around

the learning stations. They practiced karate moves

on the new carpets."3 She was praised by otherwhite teachers for her work, but deep down, she

knew something was wrong.

Later. Delpit's work in Alaska, Papua New Guinea,

Fiji, and various urban and rural areas in theUnited States would help clarify for her the under-

lying issues of Dower and control that dominateeducational reform, textbook publishing, research,instruction, and classroom management. She was

more convinced than ever that the education ofchildren should not be a political hot potato tossed

between progressives and conservatives.

"People get in political camps and assume that apolitical camp can drive instruction," says Delpit."But, as Herb Kohl said, 'There are no progressivemethodologies, only progressive values.' The point

is, you have to educate the children in front of you

by whatever methodologies are appropriate forthose children and not be blinded by your ownneed to belong to a particular political camp." Truecultural diversity, says De lpit, inspires educationalmethodologies appropriate for the children being

taught. Political ideologies are irrelevant.

The "very strict" black nuns who taught Delpit inelementary school used rote instructional methods,

but they knew that poor black children neededskills "within meaningful contexts" in order tomaneuver in the mainstream. It wasn't until she got

to tenth grade that she actually wrote text longerthan a couple of sentences. By then she had "dia-grammed thousands of sentences, filled in tens of

thousands of blanks." Children today need thesame type of balanced instruction. They needprocess and skill-based instruction. Experienced.creative teachers will know how, when, and with

whom to apply any given method.

"People keep looking at improving instructionalmodels," says Delpit. "What's important forAfrican American children and others is the need

to look at the nature of the relationships betweenthe teachers and thc children and families, particu-

larly between the school and the children."

From Delpit's ongoing research and interviewswith African American, Native American, andNative Alaskan teachers, she has learned that thefollowing are essential elements to the making of a

good teacher:

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1. Good teacherscare whether students learn. They challenge all stu-dents, even those who are less capable, and then

help them to meet the challenge.

2. Good teacher..;arc not time-bound to a curriculum and do notmove on to new subject matter until all students

grasp the current concept.

5 . Good teachersarc not bound to hooks and instructional materials,

but rather connect all learning to "real life."

. Good teacherspush students to think, to make their own decisions.

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5. Good teacherscommunicate with, observe, and get to kneW4hr

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LIST OF DELPIT'SPUBLICATIONS

I . Delpit, L. D., & Nelson-Batter S. (in process).

What's Missing in Tests for Teachers?: TheDilemma of Interpretation, prepared forAnthmpologv in Education Quartedy

2. Delpit, L. D. (in process).I Just Want to Be Myself (a book on teach-ing in multicultural settings), William vers(Ed.).

3. Delpit, L. D. (in press).The Village Tok Ples School Scheme ofPapua New Guinea. In I. McPhail & M. R.Hoover (Eds.), Cmss-Cultuml Perspectives onLiteracy in the Black Community. Newark, DE:

International Reading Association.

4. Delpit, L.D., & Kemelfiela G. (in process).

Language Policy in Education: A Case Studyof the Village Tok Ples Schools in theNorth Solomons, Papua New Guinea. In

Cobarrubias & J. Fishman (Eds.),International Education and Language Planning.

The Netherlands: Mouton.

5. Delpit, . D. (in press).The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse.In J. Fraser & T. Perry (Eds.), Freedom Plow:Teaching in the Multicultural Classroom.

New York: Routledge.

6. Delpit, L. D. (1992).Acquisition of Literate Discourse: Bowingbefore the Master? Theory Into Practice.XXXI(4).

7 . Delpit, L. D. (1992, Nov./Dec.).

Culture Offers Clues to Literacy: AnInterview with Lisa Delpit,Harvard Education Lettet; VIII(6).

8. Delpit, L. D. (1992).Education in a Multicultural Society:Our Future's Greatest Challenge,Journal of Negro Education, 61(3).

9. Delpit, L. D. (1992).A.n Interview with African-American

Educator Lisa Delpit: Teachers7Culture and Rim-.

Rethinking Schools, 6(3).

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