GEN:Take-over failing schools ("Ready,

[Mary Ellen Fleury <mefleury@GNOFN.ORG>]

Anton Ninno is right. (His 10/27 LM_NET post is at the end of my message).
This article is worth reading. It's now on the web. And, it's focus is way
beyond the topic of  reading or the 3 whole-school reform programs Ninno
mentions. The author, Nicholas Lemann, makes a case for doing away with
local control by school boards and principals. Instead he suggests that
outside authorities, such as the city, state or even feds, dictate the
curriculum using Title 1 funds for these proven programs.

As a stakeholder in the struggling New Orleans public schools, I read this
with a very open mind.

Mary Ellen Fleury
Parent, volunteer tutor & company librarian
New Orleans, LA
mefleury@gnofn.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Ready, Read!" by Nicholas Lemann
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98nov/read.htm

Publisher blurb: A new solution to the problem of failing public schools is
emerging: takeover by outside authorities, who prescribe a standardized
field-tested curriculum. This runs counter to our long-standing tradition of
autonomy for local schools and teachers, but it works.

Forget concepts like local autonomy, charter schools, and choice. The way to
resurrect schools that have failed is to take power from the principals or
superintendents, and to impose a simple and rigid curriculum. This approach
is being tried in hundreds of places, and it's working.

Author's concluding paragraph: Changes of this kind (i.e., states and cities
that have taken over and put Title I funds towards programs such as "Success
for All") are punitive to local school boards, principals, and teachers --
but they had it coming. Students in taken-over schools aren't being
punished; they're getting a genuine education, and hence a chance in life,
that they would otherwise be denied. No reform that lets students abandon
the public school system, or lets individual public schools redesign
themselves in the absence of guidance, can possibly ensure a minimum
standard of education for every American child. Only central control of the
curriculum can. A decent education should be a guarantee, not an option.

Nicholas Lemann, the national correspondent of The Atlantic, is the author
of "The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America"
(1991).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Atlantic Monthly article: "Ready, Read!"

Anton Ninno (anton@ERICIR.SYR.EDU)
Tue, 27 Oct 1998 12:51:01 -0500

Get to thee to a newsstand, if you haven't already seen this...

Check out the new November issue of Atlantic Monthly magazine. There's a
lengthy article in it titled, "Ready, Read!" by Nicholas Lemann.

The author discusses some of the issues surrounding three programs and
their use as strategies in rescuing failing, most often inner-city,
elementary schools. These reading and school reform programs are now
beginning to be used in any school that wants to improve test scores.

The programs the author investigates are: Success for All (Slavin),
Accelerated Schools (Levin) and The School Development Program (Comer),
Got a favorite on that list? If not, you might want to get more familiar
with them, in case your school district decides to try one out.

After you read the article, let's hear what you think. - Anton

===================================================================
Anton Ninno, Educ. Resource Evaluator anton@ericir.syr.edu
4-194 Center for Science & Technology 315.443.3640
Information Institute of Syracuse 315.443.4100 fax
Syracuse Univ., Syracuse, NY 13244-4100 800.464.9107 toll-free
IIS-SU http://iis.syr.edu/ AskERIC http://askeric.org/

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