Education Reform Blueprint: Simply slay these six dragons, without spending an extra penny!

We accept no excuses. Excuses do children no favors. We refuse to accept that a child is too poor to learn. We refuse to accept that a parent is too detached to participate. We refuse to accept that a school system is too poor to demand high standards from its students.

-Paul G. Vallas

We agree with Mr. Vallas.

We feel that Education Reform has been portrayed as rocket science by an army of self-serving consultants, publishers, and "experts," when instead there are a few very, very simple culprits to our educational woes.

Lack of Choice: Why is it that in any other area of our lives we don't tolerate the government telling us what to do or what to choose, yet when people propose giving parents real choice (for example in the form of vouchers, or even permitting parents to homeschool), the response is, "Nooooo, that will destroy public education!" In fact, the only thing that would be destroyed is the government monopoly over education. Please see the Milton Friedman Foundation for more.

Low Standards: In far too many schools, especially in our cities, there are crushingly low standards for our children. A common refrain is "they can't!" when describing what poor or minority students can or can't do. This mindset helps the staff of ineffective schools get to work each day, but it does nothing to prepare our kids.

Lack of Discipline: In far too many schools, behavior standards are rare or nonexistent. We've taught in schools where the routine nature of uncivilized conduct made teaching and learning all but impossible. Should the students be blamed for this? Of course not, they are just acting within the boundaries--or lack thereof--established by the adults of the school. The flip side of this is also a problem. "Zero Tolerance" policies are also due to the adults' lack of discipline!

Fuzzy Curriculum: One of the biggest reasons our students are performing poorly relates to our poor choice of curricula. Math appreciation is taught under the NCTM's New New Math, reading appreciation is taught under Balanced Literacy and Whole Language, and culture appreciation is taught in soft-core social studies. And don't get us started on the political correctness which has usurped science.

In more than a few cities, the specific curriculum was tossed in favor of a bare-bones "curriculum frameworks"--frameworks which were famous for their vagueness. This was done in the hopes that a "constructivist pedagogy will inform teachers' choices in the classroom" or other drivel.

Teacher Indoctrination: One sound bite the general public hears is "we need more certified teachers!" Yet no one asks what teachers learn in their certification courses. And people don't ask if certified teachers have been proven to be more effective than non-certified ones. What may shock people is that the best private schools in the U.S. refuse to hire certified teachers! That should tell you something. Which leads us to...

Theory over Practice: This is the primary message teachers receive in their 2-years of brainwashing teacher certification classes. If someone wanted to learn how to grow corn in Iowa, or build a bridge over a windy channel, or navigate a corporation through the waters of Chapter 11, or design a really absorbent diaper ... the first step would be to speak to the people who've been successful at those very things!

But in education? Noooo, if we actually talked to the folks successfully running KIPP Academies, or to the principals in charge of high performing, high poverty No Excuses schools, or to folks like Lorraine Monroe or Marva Collins, we'd discover that 90% of the theory taught at the College of Education is the exact opposite of what our schools need!

And in a true fit of irony, what is taught in the College of Education is this: What the aformentioned success stories are doing in their schools is the real cause for our educational woes in the U.S.! You know, things like high expectations for academic work and behavior, explicit phonics in the early grades, paper-and-pencil math, a true study of history, and no excuses. This sounds like something out of a Bertolt Brecht play, but it is the truth. We know because we were brainwashed, too.

So what's the solution?

It's really easy:

1. Free up all avenues of parental choice, including vouchers for poor parents, and deregulate home schooling.

2. Call low standards what they are: a recipe for failure. (see #6)

3. Establish clear guidelines for behavior, with firm but reasonable consequences for each. Eliminate all zero tolerance policies and instead use due process to deal with misbehavior effectively.

4. Get real, specific curricula. Just talk to the folks from Mathematically Correct, the National Right to Read Foundation, and Core Knowledge, and they'll point you in the right direction.

5. Free public schools to hire who they think will best do the job. This includes people who actually know something, including retirees from industry and business, former college professors, and cracker-jack new college grads who majored in something besides 'Education!'

6. For a wake-up call, study what successful schools (especially high performing, high poverty schools) are doing and learn from them.

We don't need innovation. We need to pay attention to the successes around us!

Except where noted, website content is by Charles E. Breiling, who teaches and lives in Philadelphia. Caveat Lector. Email: chett at mac dot com