Steve Peha
They say the third time’s the charm. For the last two months, I’ve been writing about a simple idea: Let’s send all Chapel Hill Carrboro City School kids to college. So far, this idea hasn’t found much traction (or opposition, for that matter). But I know this paper gets picked up by thousands of people each week, and I also know that education is a very important issue in our community. So a few of you out there must have read me.
Now I’m not one to beat a dead horse; but I don’t give up easy either, especially when giving up on sending kids to college means giving up on kids. So, if you care one way or the other about this issue, how about writing into The Citizen blog and posting a comment to this article. At least then we might turn this monolog into a dialog.
While y’all have been ignoring me, I’ve been doin’ my homework.
Lately, I’ve been talking with my friend Corey. He teaches at one of those schools that sends all of its kids to college. He says that about 85 percent of the kids in his school come from poor and minority families. Last year, he taught in a different school system in a different state. I know because I was one of his instructional coaches. So I asked him what the difference was between where he started out as a teacher and where he is now.
“Wow,†he said. “It’s like night and day. I’m not even sure where to begin.†Nonetheless, I prodded him to start somewhere.
“Well, first of all,†he said, “we have amazing school leaders. They’re just incredible people who know how to move everyone forward toward the same goal.â€
What about the teachers? I asked. “Yeah, the teachers are great,†Corey said. “Of course, they’re not all great. But if you don’t pull your weight around here, they drop you pretty fast and bring in somebody else.â€
So what’s the “secret sauce,†I asked, assuming they had some special approach, superior instructional method or newfangled curriculum. “Well, basically,†Corey said, “I think we just work our butt’s off to give every kid one heck of an experience every year.â€
Not exactly hard science, I know. But sometimes it’s the homespun ideas that really hit home. What was Corey telling me?
Regardless of the racial, ethnic or socio-economic mix, any school that tries hard enough can send all of its kids to college.
It starts with talented leaders who can move others toward the college-readiness goal.
It doesn’t take the best teachers in the world, but everybody has to pull their weight, and school leaders must be decisive about replacing those who don’t.
Make sure kids have a great experience every year.
I don’t want to minimize the achievement of Corey’s school in any way, but this doesn’t exactly sound like rocket science to me. Heck, it doesn’t even sound like rockets or science. More like simple common sense.
But maybe Corey just works for one of those “outlier†schools. Maybe nobody else in the country pulls this off. And yet, the more I research things, the more schools I find. Amid the Andover’s, Exeter’s and Sidwell’s, there are also Los Angeles’ Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools. Here’s their mission statement: “The mission of ICEF Public Schools is to prepare all students to attend and compete at the top 100 colleges and universities in the nation.â€
Doesn’t that sound like a great mission? Simple, straightforward, measurable! Now look at our mission statement: “To enable all students to acquire, through programs of excellence and fairness, the knowledge, skills and insights necessary to live rewarding, productive lives in an ever-changing society.†Complicated, contrived, not measurable.
And here’s what ICEF’s founder wrote recently about its students: “ICEF Public Schools are mostly Black (over 85%), incredibly free (as in $0.00), all are welcome (admission is by lottery if there is a waiting list) and yet very, very successful at getting every student into college (100%) and prepared to compete once they get there (91% are still in college three years after our first graduating class at ICEF).â€
Why can’t we do this, folks? Don’t we even want to try?
I find it hard to believe I’m the only person in this neck of the woods who knows that getting every kid to college is possible – or who thinks that it’s important. But there sure doesn’t seem to be much interest in talking about this.
Why? What have we got to lose by at least beginning the discussion? I went first. Now it’s your turn. You can read my original proposal at this link: http://bit.ly/2020_Vision. You can read my follow-up column at this link: http://bit.ly/2020_FollowUp.
As dozens of high schools reach the 100 percent college-readiness goal, it is no longer possible to pretend that it cannot be achieved. The college-readiness revolution is happening all across our country. Why can’t it happen here?