Emma Brown in The Washington Post offers an important window into school reform occurring (ad infinitum) in Washington DC:
D.C. Council member David A. Catania plans to announce wide-ranging legislation Tuesday that could substantially reshape the city’s public education system, as he seeks to increase funding to educate poor children, give more power to principals, change the city’s school lottery system and end social promotion of children who are performing below grade level.
I suppose Brown,
The Washington Post, and Catania are unaware that DC schools were reformed to perfection when Michelle Rhee ruled the land. But nonetheless, Catania appears to have all the appropriate slogans in place:
“So long as our school system fails, and it disproportionately fails poor people and people of color, it permits a culture of division,” said Catania, who in January became chair of the council’s newly reconstituted education committee. “If we don’t tackle this issue of the achievement gap, if we continue to relegate this city to a city of haves and have-nots that fall very hard across race lines, we’re never going to be the city we need to be.”
Innovation Schools Nothing New
Catania certainly sees a lot of failing and seems determined to do some tackling, although it causes me some concern just how one tackles a division or a gap since both words suggest something isn't there. However, Brown also reports that Catania has seven proposals aimed at this newest round of reform, and it is the second plan that really makes me think Catania is on to something important:
2. Accountability : Allows the chancellor to open charter-like “innovation schools” free from certain city regulations and, if teachers agree, union contracts.
That's right, Catania is on the
Rick Hess train of innovative innovation! And it comes with a heaping pile of (wait for it)
accountability! But this isn't your typical charter school reform idea; it is "charter-like" and it is innovative!
Staggering to think that after all these years of public education, that no one has been innovative enough to call for innovation schools as a mechanism for accountability. I am literally stunned. (Although I am concerned that Catania appears unaware that innovation requires technology! as well.)
As Brown reports, Catania's innovative ideas include focusing primarily on impoverished children of color and the incredibly innovative idea of increasing the role of standardized testing (since standardized testing has a long history of being biased against both children in poverty and children of color):
The legislation also would allow city officials to link standardized test scores and student grades — creating an incentive for students to care about the tests — and would create a new accountability system under which schools could be closed or turned over to an outside operator if they fail to meet improvement targets.
Can't you just
feel the innovation? "Incentive" starts with an "I" like "innovation"!
And for those looking to get in on the education innovation game, Catania appears to have found a key:
Catania produced the legislation during the past three months with the help of outside law firm Hogan Lovells, whose work has been funded with private donations. The lead lawyer working with Catania has been Maree Sneed, a former Montgomery County principal who has taught education courses at Harvard University and served on the board of Teach for America.
Who knows more about education that
privately funded law firms? (
Maybe economists?)
Part of Catania's innovative ideas, however, appear to lack innovation as they include some of the ever-popular Florida formula for punishing elementary and middle school children by imposing the also ever-popular grade retention:
In those meetings, Catania demonstrated a desire to hold students and adults accountable for their work. He is seeking to repeal a regulation that prohibits most students from being held back. Instead, he would allow principals to decide who should be promoted, a proposal likely to be controversial in a city with low proficiency rates.
Unless a principal recommends otherwise, third- through eighth-grade students would be held back if they fail to pass certain classes. The legislation calls on principals to notify parents mid-year when their child is at risk of being held back and to prepare a plan for helping that child catch up. Children who are retained would be required to attend summer school unless their parents seek a waiver.
Ultimately, what makes Catania's ideas so innovative? It appears to be using legislation, bureaucracy, and policy in order to get away from those pesky unions and get on with some good ol' fashion innovation!:
Catania proposes an alternative to Gray’s plan to give Henderson the authority to approve new charter schools, instead pushing “innovation schools” that could request freedom from the teachers union contract and burdensome regulations. Such schools would continue to be part of the traditional system.
Catania also proposes that the Office of the State Superintendent of Education create a performance metric for traditional schools, which could include a number of measures, including test scores and attendance rates. Should a school fail to meet performance targets for two years, the chancellor would be able to turn it into an innovation school or ask the principal to develop a turnaround plan in consultation with teachers, parents and community members.
If, after three more years, the turnaround school was failing to meet its improvement targets, the chancellor would be required to either close it, turn it over to an outside operator or turn it into an innovation school.
For those in the education profession or concerned about the U.S. public school system, I hasten to urge you not to be discouraged, as the very end of this article offers some comfort:
“Everything we’re doing here, I might have it completely wrong,” Catania said. “But at least I’m trying.”
Innovation, it seems, is just about the
trying.
Being right doesn't matter in innovation as long as you are
trying.
I have to wonder if there is any room in innovation for having that same attitude about teachers or students? Hmmm.