Stop Educational Genocide in NC

Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard E. Manning, Jr., writing in the Leandro case, said that NC was committing "educational genocide" by not educating its students in the public schools.

This ostrich would like to take her head out of the sand and describe a radical reform program that addresses underlying causes, aims to end the genocide, and elevate the quality of the education that we North Carolinians give our children. 

The debate about "Common Core or not" is a travesty for teachers, and by extension, students.  To remove this curriculum, just implemented two years ago, is embarrassing.  Will the curriculum be on again, off again based on who is in control of the state legislature?  Yikes, this is bush league.  Pick something and stick with it for five years, for pete's sake.  Give the teachers something to count on and build around.   

Irrespective of that debate, however, we have a more fundamental structural issue in our public schools.  This is my heart blast of desire that dreams of actually educating our children, rather than corralling them like cattle in a system that teaches them mainly how to hate school.  

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NoGeno Reform Model

Segregate schools based on parental involvement in the students’ education. 

For students with actively involved parents, keep the current curriculum and administrative structure.

For students without actively involved parents/guardians:

(a) put their school in their neighborhood;

(b) make maximum class size 15 students so that the teacher can instruct the students in the social skills necessary for them to constructively participate in group endeavors;

(c) compartmentalize the curriculum so that students repeat small units until they master the content, regardless of age or native language;

(d) manage the school so that it becomes the surrogate family for the children – teams, expectations, extracurriculars;

(e) have a menu of vocational skill classes in all grades that students would choose for themselves;

(f) give the school the ability to expel students, who would then attend a school with rigorous disciplinary structure and limits on personal freedom; and

(g) annually, conduct a dutch auction for teaching positions at these in-neighborhood schools, effectively guaranteeing a sufficient number of qualified teachers.  Whatever excess compensation over prevailing levels is spent in these schools will be subtracted from regular schools; the PTA at the regular schools will be encouraged to make up the difference. (see dutch auction explanation below.)

At teacher colleges, teach the skills that instructors need to succeed with high-poverty populations.

(a)    Just as a teacher can be certified for teaching “gifted” or “reading,” there should be teacher-preparation curricula that generate graduates specialized in teaching low SES students.  Fifty percent of public school students are from the low SES strata, and the charter school movement will increase that percentage.

(b)   Seventy percent of high school math teachers are white and a disproportionate number of low SES students are not white.  Clearly, for a teacher to be effective in the classroom, s/he needs cultural orientation to appreciate the students’ home setting, and the complex array of regulations and resources relevant to this population.

(c)    This college curriculum will attract students to enroll if the in-neighborhood schools:

a.       Pay teachers and staff via a dutch auction compensation system 

b.      Have an administrative structure  that is effective, efficient, and permits the teacher to impart learning to the students

c.       Are promoted by the State of NC giving scholarships to teachers who commit to teaching for five years.

Treat teachers like the vital resource that they are . . . the sine qua non.

(a)    Give them a system and classroom in which they can actually accomplish instruction, not just day care and entitlement compliance.

(b)   Ensure stability of goals.  Stop changing the goal line every year with the annual revision to objectives, methods, and priorities.  It makes teachers feel like it is impossible to be competent at what they do, given the already demanding exogenous environment of radical technological evolution. 

(c)    Endow them with transparent leadership and professional courtesy.  Eliminate all the administrative double-talk necessitated by rhetoric designed to rationalize the gaps in performance.  Eliminate the part of new-employee orientation that speaks to the new hires as if they were just paroled from prison.

 

(d)   Require that administrators have more management skills training than pedagogical training. 

Create active citizen oversight without the baggage attendant to the local school boards.

(a)    Elected school board members may support schools, but they may have other goals:  nexus to real estate developers, political springboard, interest group advocate, or job security.  NC local Boards of Education have not ended the genocide.

(b)   Require each major urban school district to have an elected Education Watchdog Council whose sole purpose is to monitor strategic performance and articulate the college and employers’ view point of what they want from public schools

a.       long term assessment of the college or employment suitability of NC high school graduates

b.      market share of students by category: public, charter, independent, home school, dropped out, judicial system

c.       performance statistics (graduation, GPA, employment/college, ACT scores)  of students by category

d.      assessment of data quality from the school district (accuracy, timeliness, relevance)

e.      assessment of

                                                               i.      “brain drain” risk (NC students moving out of state for full-time employment)

                                                             ii.      skills gap in the NC workforce vs employment opportunities

                                                            iii.      surplus in the workforce of particular skill sets

Benefits of this Proposal

Benefit	Rationale
Remediates the primary deficit plaguing low income students:  lack of adult support.	Learning is hard work.  Humans do not embrace hard work absent motivation.  The family surrogate aspect of in-neighborhood schools allows students to cultivate motivation.
Makes the teacher compensation battle easier to understand and solve.	Fundamentally different pay scales are necessary for groups that teach students with actively involved parents compared to groups that teach low SES students without parent involvement.
Increases the supply of willing teachers, in that it reduces some of the nightmares legendary in public schools.	Ends the curriculum volatility, phony administrator rhetoric, and enables classroom control.
Enables and motivates students to attend school even if they have no parental guidance.	School is near the student’s residence and the student wants to be with their friends and “family.”
Conquers the formidable problem of social promotion.	Compartmentalized learning units can be taught to students of any age, ending the problem of seating a 16-year-old next to a 10-year-old, both learning fractions.
Maximizes possibility of learning for low SES students by giving them small class size, well-trained competent teachers, and a standard of “learning to mastery.”	Small class size eliminates the chance to be invisible or anonymous, and promotes teacher’s ability to deal with needs of low SES population.
Pragmatically, acknowledges that not everyone will attend college, but that everyone needs job skills and guidance toward self-reliance.	Statistics bear out this reality.  No one has a capped academic path.  Occupational skills create a greater chance for self-confidence, competence, and buy-in to the community life and laws.
Adds a fundamental respect for the human dignity of kids channeled into alternative discipline schools by requiring mandatory occupational work and literacy.	Ends the abusive practice toward children that have not had anyone demonstrate an interest in their learning.
Places importance on LEARNING, not on the political aims of the several parties to this debate.	The several parties to this debate organize into political factions, each of which pushes its self-interested agenda.  This incrementalism prolongs the genocide and ignores the authentic human dignity of the NC children growing up likely to hate school.  Hatred of school promotes dropping out and antipathy toward social mores.
Acknowledges the inadequacy of the historical 25 student classroom setting for kids from low SES homes that have not been properly socialized to function within a group.	To function in a classroom, students need emotional and social maturity, including the ability to delay gratification.  Small class size allows the teacher to include this instruction and to elevate expectations.
Places a sophisticated yet democratic layer of surveillance on the job performance of the School Board and School District, with an eye toward strategic outcomes.	Parents and other taxpayers are broadly dissatisfied with the current regime, and have lost confidence in its leadership.  While this preserves the leadership in place, it adds organization and sophistication to the collective assessment of the job they are doing.
Addresses the cultural issue of black strivers being accused of trying to “act white.”	At a majority black school, strivers are not accused of trying to “act white.”
Represents a comprehensive solution to the persistent “achievement gap.”	Instead of trying out the latest consultant program marketed to administrators eager to close the achievement gap, this approach focuses the effort on treating the root causes of the problem.

Objections to this proposal

Objection	Counter argument
It is foolish to expend more resources teaching the lowest achieving students.	The NC Constitution demands that we educate our students.  We either abandon the low SES students to chance or we design a system that works.  Mass-producing uneducated North Carolinians cripples future workforce development, burdens entitlement spending, and crowds prisons.
African American community leaders will dislike the possible concentration and lack of diversity at the in-neighborhood schools.	Many African Americans community leaders support the KIPP schools where there is no diversity but there is much success.
African American community leaders may construe this as a Trojan horse intended to resegregate schools.	If this idea were screened with pastors from African American faith communities, they might see the intrinsic desire to do right by the low SES children who are being dramatically underserved in the present arrangement. Also, as evidenced at KIPP Charlotte, there are plenty of parents of black children who are actively involved in their child’s education, and thus, all such children would be integrated into the regular public schools.
We do not have the budgetary funds to build/create in-neighborhood schools.	Wealthy sponsors will advance funds for concepts that are radically committed to authentic learning.
Suburban school parents will howl in protest over unequal resources for their kids (“reverse discrimination.”)	Suburban school parents will be delighted with the resulting higher functioning public schools, and can be persuaded to take this resource reduction in exchange for a more effective, efficient school.
Public schools are required to accept all students regardless of emotional, physical, or cognitive impairment.	In-neighborhood schools will accept all such students, and will cope with the extra demands of this population by limiting class size to 15 students; by having the freedom to expel students who cannot participate constructively; and by hiring instructors certified in the unique needs of the low SES population.
Maybe this would work if you started from scratch, but there is no effective transition method to get there.	Where there is a will, there is a way.
You are never going to solve the problems of poverty.	If a child has an IQ of at least 75, he can graduate from high school if he has a surrogate family structure and someone committed to push him toward learning to mastery [Ron Clark Academy, KIPP.]
The Achilles heel of this idea is the alternative discipline school.  The ACLU will not accept the limits on personal freedom required to make this kind of school work.	We have alternative discipline schools already.  The only criticism of them is that they are disproportionately populated by minorities.  The in-neighborhood school goes a long way toward redressing that.
Teachers will be wildly opposed to different pay standards for employees with equal education and tenure.	As long as each person is paid what they think is adequate for their needs, they should be willing to accept that another employee has a subject area for which the market has a greater shortage, thus driving the price up.
Low SES homes may not have e-mail, phone service, or the language skills to connect with the teacher.	Students in these families will receive the benefit of learning in smaller class settings.

What is a Dutch Auction?

A dutch auction is a method to find a price level for a service.  The level must be low enough to appeal to buyers and high enough to motivate sellers to offer the service.  Buyers and sellers must be treated fairly.

How does it work?

(a)    In this case, the “sellers” would be the teachers, because they are the ones who would receive money for services.  The “buyer” would be the school district.

(b)   The school district publishes criteria for candidates to qualify for a job.  Interested candidates submit an application to be considered.  The school district then notifies all the candidates who have been deemed qualified to submit a bid for available positions. It is important for the school district to ensure that there are enough qualified applicants to fill all the openings.  It continues recruiting until this is true. 

(c)    The school district solicits sealed bids for all open positions.  The teachers submit confidential sealed bids indicating the lowest salary they are willing to accept to perform a job. 

(d)   Suppose the bidding for two open positions was as follows:

KG teacher Ten positions open			High school physics teacher Five positions open
Teacher	Bid		Teacher	Bid
A	45,000		M	65,000
B	43,000		N	63,000
C	41,000		O	60,000
D	40,000		P	60,000
E	35,000		Q	55,000
F	35,000		R	55,000
G	35,000		S	55,000
H	33,000		T	53,000
I	32,000		U	52,000
J	28,000		V	48,000
K	27,000		W	47,000
L	25,000		X	45,000

For the KG teachers, ten employees are needed.  Counting up from the bottom of the list, it takes a salary of $41,000 to obtain the services of ten teachers.  Thus, all ten teachers would be paid $41,000 for the coming year.  Teachers C through L would be hired, and teachers A and B would not.

For the physics teachers, five employees are needed.  Counting up from the bottom of the list, it takes a salary of $53,000 to obtain the services of five teachers.  Thus, all five teachers would be paid $53,000 for the coming year.  Teachers T through X would be hired, and teachers M through S would not.