By Steve Peha
Dear Board Members,
On Election Day, I made an effort to speak with at least one supporter of each candidate running for the school board. Each time I met a supporter, I asked, “What will your candidate do to make our schools better?†Every person I spoke to assured me that his or her candidate was committed, not just to serving on the board, but to taking bold and decisive action to improve our schools. I believe this to be true as well of those board members who are currently serving their terms.
As many of you know, I have been an active participant in education reform for many years. Working in dozens of schools and districts across our country has afforded me a unique view of how education works – and all too often does not work – in our nation as a whole. What we need today more than ever is just what you seem willing to provide: a bold vision for our educational future and a commitment to action that creates meaningful results.
Education stirs the hearts of almost everyone everywhere, and every candidate, community member and consultant has his or her unique agenda. But I invite us all to put aside our personal passions and come together in furtherance of a higher goal: The 2020 Vision for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. The vision is this: “By the year 2020, every student in every high school graduating class will have the scores and skills necessary to apply to a two- or four-year college – and will submit at least one such application.â€
I believe that working together to realize this vision will have the following positive outcomes:
• It will raise the high school graduation rate to 100 percent;
• It will raise high school grade point averages;
• It will improve student academic participation;
• It will close the achievement gap;
• And it will make our district a model for our state, our nation and possibly even the world.
This is a bold vision. But it is one we can achieve.
We are fortunate to have what many people refer to as the best school district in the state. From my travels, I can attest that it is certainly one of the best in the country. It can also be better. And I see no reason why it cannot be the best, or why we should aspire to anything less.
We have extraordinary resources at our disposal: local experts in education policy, teaching practice, the principalship, the superintendency – virtually all aspects of school operations. We also have devoted parents; smart, hard-working kids; and a citizenry that voluntarily assesses itself extra taxes to improve school funding.
Nearby, the University of North Carolina has a nationally regarded school of education. The university as a whole also has other resources from which our students might benefit.
Finally, we have many great people working in our district, people who are deeply committed to the highest standards of personal performance and to the continuous improvement of academic achievement for all students.
The vision is simple: every high school senior college-ready by 2020. And so is the action. With this letter, I respectfully request that the members of the school board come together in unanimous support for and united leadership of The 2020 Vision and that they express their support and leadership by immediately writing this vision into district policy as our most important goal.
To those who would say this is impossible, I would say, let’s talk in 2020 after we’ve given it our best shot. To those who would say we don’t know how to do it, I would say, what is the risk in learning how? To those who would say that the goal of 100 percent high school graduation and 100 percent college readiness is a statistical pipedream, I would say, what is more absurd: doing everything we can to help every kid get to college or admitting that we will knowingly withhold high school graduation and higher education from a certain percentage of students each year?
In 1962, President Kennedy told our nation and the world that we would land a man on the moon by decade’s end. He didn’t know how to do it at that time, and neither did anyone else. But the audacity of his vision did not deter him from announcing with confidence and conviction that, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.â€
If there is one thing I know about our school board members it is that they are not afraid of hard work, nor do they shrink from goals that measure the best of their energies and skills. Ladies and Gentlemen of the board, The 2020 Vision is our moon shot. On behalf of our kids, our community and our unwillingness to postpone the most important challenge before us, I ask you to begin the countdown now.
Steve Peha is founder and president of Carrboro-based Teaching That Makes Sense Inc.
I could not agree more and applaud the writer for emphasizing this optimistic yet achievable goal. I believe in high expectations for school children AND for school boards. When worked towards diligently and comprehensibly, challenging goals can not only be accomplished–if mindfully done and creatively evaluated, we can learn more about what we *should* be striving for in the process.