Wherever we go, the challenge is the same: How to develop the collective will, know-how, capacity, support and flexibility to implement what is known to work, in all the schools that so desperately need it.
The formula is not overly-complicated. Much of the work we need to do for low-income and minority children is the same work we need to do for all children. We must provide clear goals with high expectations and ongoing assessments. We must make sure there is a strong teacher who knows the subject and knows how to teach it. We must insist on a rigorous curriculum and on giving extra help and time to students who are behind. And kids who struggle the most need the best instructors. The bottom line is that we need schools with dedicated, energetic, skilled professionals who focus on the needs of children and who care deeply about whether all their students have access to the kinds of knowledge and opportunities that most affluent and middle-class white children take for granted.
All of these things are needed in large, sustained and coordinated measures. Yet, this rarely occurs because schools and districts have lacked the energy, synergy, know-how, leadership and resources to do all that is needed. Instead, they focus on 1 or 2 areas of needed reform, and then become disappointed and frustrated when the results are not sufficient.
Let us all be reminded, however, that there is not a single magic bullet, there is no panacea. Multiple strategies work better than simple fixes. Only simultaneous interventions by families, schools, and the larger society will lead to sustained academic improvement for low-income and minority children.
