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Group aims to fashion cure for ailing education system

By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 14, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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So the Rev. Al Sharpton and Newt Gingrich sit down to talk about education . . .

No, this isn't the beginning of a joke.

In fact, the fiery New York civil rights leader and 2004 presidential candidate and the conservative, but equally verbose, former House speaker are in fact on the same page when it comes to education.

It's going to take such "odd couples" to fix the nation's ailing educational system. That's what a group of educators, politicians and community activists said at a news conference Sunday at the Denver School of Science and Technology as they touted the recently unveiled Education Equality Project.

The sweeping national initiative strives to dismantle the status quo in public education and re-orient schools around students rather than political factions or the adults in charge.

The effort was launched by Sharpton and Joel Klein, chancellor of New York City schools.

"Here we are, 54 years after Brown vs. Board of Education . . . after we promised every kid access to an equal educational opportunity and we're not delivering on it," Klein said. "That crisis is going to get much worse because of what's going on globally - the competitive threats to this nation."

Klein said a national discourse on school reform is needed, followed by hard action.

Movement backers are big on statistics.

For starters, the achievement gap between African-American/Hispanic students and white/Asian students has hardly narrowed since 1992, remaining at 20 points, they note.

White 12th-graders are, on average, four years ahead of their black peers. More than 23 percent of Hispanics between the ages of 16 and 24 have dropped out of high school, compared with about 12 percent of African- Americans and 7 percent of whites.

In Colorado, only 75 percent of students graduate from high school, and of those only 40 percent go to college.

"The United States has a history of incremental reforms," said Bill Kurtz, principal of the Denver School of Science and Technology, a charter school. "We don't need incremental. We need dramatic change."

Kurtz pointed out the successes he's had with students labeled at-risk. One hundred percent of the school's first graduating class was accepted into four-year colleges, he said.

Mayor John Hickenlooper said he couldn't imagine any other endeavor in which so many people invest so much time and money with "so little success."

"How do we change that and ramp up the way we go about it and the expectations to which we hold ourselves?" Hickenlooper asked.

Project's goals

* Get effective teachers in every classroom and effective principals in every school by giving them the training they need and paying them what they're worth - and making tough decisions about the teachers who aren't performing.

* Empower parents by giving them a meaningful voice in where their children are educated, including public charter schools.

* Create accountability for teachers, principals and central office administrators.

* Commit to making every decision about who is hired, how money is spent, and where resources are deployed with a single focus - what best serves students.

* Call on parents and students to demand more from their schools and themselves.

* Stand up to political forces and interests who seek to preserve a failed system.

Comments

  • July 14, 2008

    2:31 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    fastnloose writes:

    What a shock,all of the "Project's goals" have been stated in almost every school district across the nation.It took how many experts to come up with this brilliant list?
    Study groups are great at coming up with list,it is the GIT-R-Done part, that usually comes up way short of the cute little "List".
    Side note,has Sharpton ever solved any problem?

  • July 14, 2008

    2:07 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rickus writes:

    All this is just window dressing. Until our intrepid leaders come out and discuss all aspects of education, including student and parent accountability, little progress will be made. Education is a triangular affair. Students, parent and teachers are equally vital to success. Unfortunately, none of the talking heads have enough guts to address the hard issues. Namely, failing schools is a direct result of failed parenting.

  • July 14, 2008

    2:07 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    BetterEducated writes:

    I wonder: do DPS officials ever read these website entries?
    On the rare chance that they might, here is a word of advice for DPS Superintendent Bennett:
    Hold a meeting tomorrow afternoon to tell all DPS administrators (with the instruction the new rule is to flow down to those below) that all DPS workers' children will as of the Fall 2008 starting date, attend DPS schools.
    You WILL keep your job if you enforce this, Denver will back you up.
    You have the very best argument there is: if DPS schools are not good enough for you to send your kids there, why should anybody else? And if YOU are not PERSONALLY the committed parents that schools say they need in order to be successful .... who is?

  • July 21, 2008

    10:19 a.m.

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    cpd writes:

    The meaningful statistic here is not how far 12th grade white kids are ahead of minorities, but how far behind other nations' kids are our 12th grade white or any other color kids. Nothing positive will happen until the teacher's unions get out of the way (as in "lead, follow, or get the h*** out of the way")and all parents get a lot more concerned about their children's education than wringing their hands, and people of strong positive character take children without adequate parents under their wing to assure their education.