Innovative Approaches Are Getting Educational Results

While we have made great strides in education, we cannot remain complacent. By seeking fresh ideas from outside parties, we can gain ground. The Washington Post and Education Week have reported on various new methods that are working to educate children. For example, the Morrison Academic Advancement Center, in a corner of Mississippi’s state capital, saw considerable gains in just one year. The progress for 7th and 8th graders, all of whom were considered at risk of dropping out, stems from adoption of the America’s Choice model of whole-school reform, which was developed as a way to help dozens of schools that had failed to make adequate progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

On a different front, Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission decided to turn over 45 of the city’s 265 public schools to such groups as Edison Schools Inc., a for-profit company, in the hope that outside managers with new ideas would succeed where a succession of school boards and superintendents had failed. At Kenderton School in North Philadelphia, where Edison’s program has been implemented, the portion of students scoring at proficient or above levels on a state test has increased 15 percentage points in reading and 25 percentage points in mathematics in the past year. Overall, Edison’s 20 schools in Philadelphia averaged a gain of 10 percentage points in the portion of proficient students last year, compared with an average annual gain of less than half a percentage point in the previous seven years before Edison took over.

Joining a national trend among urban school districts, the Los Angeles board of education approved a plan to scale down all of the nation’s second largest school district’s secondary schools into smaller units of 350 to 500 students each. The policy is being billed as a milestone. And an increasing number of school districts are adding programs in the evening and on weekends to accommodate immigrant students who hold jobs. Two districts in Colorado opened schools for immigrants ages 16 to 20 who have limited proficiency in English. The schools provide classes during evenings and on Saturdays. The Houston school board also voted to start a charter school for immigrants aged 17 or older that will provide classes at nontraditional hours.

Possible Implications for Kentucky:  Educational progress is vital to the economic growth of the Commonwealth, and successful teaching and learning methods are key to stimulating young minds. The landmark KERA legislation of 1990 must not be the final improvement Kentucky makes in adapting to the needs of an increasingly diverse, and growing, student population. Additional resources or reduced class size alone, though both have been valuable contributions to the Commonwealth’s educational gains, will not improve academic performance if students are not motivated, encouraged, and interested in what they are taught. Creative and fresh ideas may provide the impetus Kentucky education needs to improve its ranking and produce a vital advanced future workforce.(4)

Contributing Writer Billie S. Dunavent