Last week I wrote about early-college high school and KIPP—both programs buck the trend exemplified by the Dallas Independent School District in lowering standards.

Another move towards greater challenge is program that allows kids to graduate high school two years early.

Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early… The new system of high school coursework with the accompanying board examinations is modeled largely on systems in high-performing nations including Denmark, England, Finland, France and Singapore. … Students who pass but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years…

The program is organized by the nonprofit National Center on Education and the Economy.

“We’ve looked at schools all over the world, and if you walk into a high school in the countries that use these board exams, you’ll see kids working hard, whether they want to be a carpenter or a brain surgeon.” –Marc S. Tucker, NCEE President

Education reform has often been hung up by teachers unions; that seems to be changing, but the time and cost to fire an incompetent teacher is still disheartening.

Toughening standards, increasing challenge and meaningful rewards work in the adult space, so there is no reason they won’t work in schools.

There seems to be a lot of good stuff going on to provide us with hope for developing thinking, questioning innovative next generation, but, before you get too excited, please join me next Tuesday to see what is happening on the dark side.

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Ask any employee at any level what motivates them the most

or

and 9 out of 10 will choose the second list.

So why do school boards do the opposite?

Many school districts follow the lead of the Dallas Independent School District, which follows the first list with slavish devotion.

What happens when the second list is followed instead?

One program is called early-college high school and it mixes college level courses with the normal courses taught in junior and senior years and is offered to at-risk kids, not the over-achieving elite.

North Carolina is the leader and the results are impressive.

“Last year, half our early-college high schools had zero dropouts, and that’s just unprecedented for North Carolina, where only 62 percent of our high school students graduate after four years,” said Tony Habit, president of the North Carolina New Schools Project, the nonprofit group spearheading the state’s high school reform.

In addition, North Carolina’s early-college high school students are getting slightly better grades in their college courses than their older classmates.

Another proponent of the second list is KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program), which runs charter schools in several states.

Started in 1994 as an experiment with 50 fifth graders in Houston’s inner city, KIPP has blossomed into the biggest U.S. charter school operator, with 82 schools for poor and minority children in 19 states.

KIPP now has an 85% college matriculation rate, compared with 40% for low-income students nationwide, according to a 2008 report card KIPP prepared and posted on its Web site. About 90% of KIPP’s 20,000 students are black or Hispanic; 80% qualify for subsidized meals.

The difference between the two lists can be summed up in one work—expectations.

The foundation of expectations is a belief that whatever it is can be accomplished.

We humans tend to strive to meet the expectations of those around us, be they bosses, friends, parents, teachers or school administrators.

Actions more than words tell us what is expected.

List 1 = low expectations and kids live up to them.

List 2 = high expectations and the kids live up to them.

Which list do you want at your work?

Which list do you support for your kids?

Image credit: bjornmeansbear on flickr

I think if I read one more op-ed piece saying the path to improving US education is paved with better teachers I’ll scream.

I’m not saying that good teachers aren’t important, but I don’t believe that teachers are the root of the problems.

Before I start with examples, let me ask you this: how well would you perform if you were

• terminated for insisting that projects not only be done, but done on time;
• poorly compensated in comparison to most people with similar education and experience, but in other industries;
• subject to pressure, tirades, insults and having people constantly go over your head to change your decisions; and
• shown little respect by your direct reports, indirect reports and management.

Does that sound like an environment that would encourage you to do your utmost? I actually find it surprising that there are as many good, dedicated teachers as there are.

Staying with the current analogy, direct reports = students, indirect reports = parents and management = administrators.

Teaching is like any other form of work—it thrives in a good culture, sags, wilts and gives up in a bad one.

The Dallas Independent School System is a good example of what is happening. DISD is where the teacher was fired at the instigation of parents for being too tough and giving homework—the fact that the kids scored well on tests didn’t count.

It’s DISD that hired new teachers in 2007 with no way to pay them leading to a $64,000,000 budget shortfall that grew to about $84,000,000 in 2008. Their solution was to layoff the teachers—no damage to the administration idiots—maybe they all took math from teachers who passed them rather than lose their jobs.

Then there is the head of technology who was just fired over issues of leadership and nepotism.

Her rise in DISD in a span of three years has been frowned upon by some observers. She was making $87,000 as a division manager in 2006 and ended her career grossing around $140,000.

Some DISD trustees had questioned an organizational chart change that left her husband overseeing the department that she worked in. Her boss was reporting to her husband.

Ya think?

And then there is the saga of Taylor Pugh, AKA Tater Tot, who was growing his hair so he could donate it to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients—but his suburban Dallas school saw it as reason for in-school suspension for violating the district dress code.

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Back to our analogy. How engaged, productive and innovative would you be working for a company where management performed similarly?

Dallas isn’t alone; it has plenty of company across the country.

So before ranting and blaming the dismal state of US education on teachers, check out your district and state administrations—and then look in the mirror.

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