“Your son will have to repeat this grade”
The year was 1976. My kindergarten teacher in the “Iron Triangle” neighborhood of Richmond, California, explained to my mom that I had failed the subject of “chair sitting.”
As a public school teacher herself, my mom expected me to attend public school. When she learned that I was failing, however, she decided she had to try something different. She and my dad scraped together the money for tuition at a private Montessori school in Berkeley.
Montessori worked for me. Three years later, when I returned to public schools, I was a full grade ahead of my chronological peers, rather than a full grade behind.
My school days were not so unusual
My experience would not surprise education scholars. Sir Ken Robinson has explained how inapt traditional K-12 schools are for many students. Richard Whitmire’s book explains why boys struggle in most schools. Weak teachers make things much worse; as Stanford University’s Eric Hanushek has explained,
the magnitude of variation in the quality of teachers, even within each school, is startling. Teachers who work in a given school, and therefore teach students with similar demographic characteristics, can be responsible for increases in math and reading levels that range from a low of one-half year to a high of one and a half years of learning each academic year.
Parents know all this. As taxpayers, parents spend about $600 billion per year on K-12 public schools. Those who can afford more, however, also spend billions out of their own pockets for tutors, afterschool programs, summer camps, and sometimes private schools. Sending a kid to private school means walking away from tens of thousands of dollars already paid in taxes — but it happens often. Even in prosperous suburbs with high-performing traditional public schools, parents worry about rote learning, inapt content, unhealthy food, and uneven teacher quality. In less prosperous areas, for families with fewer financial resources, or for parents whose children have special needs, the system can feel like a brutal and hostile bureaucracy.
The new public schools: tailored to the needs of all children
That is why all parents should know about a new kind of public school. At these schools, the technology, curriculum, and pedagogy differ from what we saw when we were students.
Even the cafeteria is different: students eat whole foods instead of mass-produced tater tots stuffed with sugars and trans fats. Tablet computers deliver customized content, such as books and multi-player games, automatically adapted to each child’s level and style of learning.
These tablets replace chalkboards and readers, and automatically measure student progress so kids never have to stop to take standardized tests. These regular measurements serve as mere inputs to sophisticated assessment systems that adapt to each classroom and provide actionable feedback for students, parents, and teachers. Computers also handle paperwork for the class, freeing teachers to focus on synthesis, mentoring, and individual engagement.
Kids of vastly different backgrounds and abilities work together developing their full potential. The most effective teachers engage across many classrooms, communicating via technology to thousands of children.
Just as fascinating as the classroom innovations are the economics. The school costs the same as any other public school (nationally, the average cost per pupil was $12,401 for the 2011–2012 school year). Their purchasing agents resist the lobbying of textbook, computer, and agribusiness companies. They obtain nearly free content from the public domain. They use bulk purchasing and their public mission to obtain steep discounts for hardware and supplies. The find that they can purchase healthy food, often locally grown, within existing budgets. Additionally, mobile computing allows students to go outside more often. Students spend so much time outdoors that they use real estate only occasionally, for certain kinds of performances and hands-on learning. Overhead costs have plummeted, much as middle management costs were cut in the private sector decades ago. All of these cost savings are re-invested in recruiting, training, and compensating teachers, helping attract and retain amazing talent.
Where you can find these new public schools
The biggest reason parents should know about these new public schools is that they don’t exist yet. In a chapter of the book Educational Entrepreneurship Today, just released by Harvard Education Press, several authors and I describe how venture capitalists, venture philanthropists, teacher leaders, and public officials are working toward public schools of the type I just described.
We are already seeing the early stages. My colleague David Osborne recently described how teacher-led schools have innovated to meet student needs. In San Jose, California, the teachers union president Jennifer Thomas worked with the local district leadership to combine rigorous standards with student-specific safety nets; the result improved college attendance despite demographic challenges. This is but one example of how the teachers’ unions have started to invest in seed ideas that might lead to big changes. These efforts are not limited to cities and suburbs; for instance, a rural high school in Indiana has started to embrace “blended learning” that combines great teaching and digital empowerment.
The private sector is also playing a key role. Businesses are sprouting up to empower teachers: a former New York City public school teacher built a marketplace for lesson plans called TeachersPayTeachers, which has paid millions of dollars to teachers who have come up with outstanding ideas. More broadly, “teacherpreneurs” are finding ways to change the profession without leaving the classroom.
As with all public sector services, however, change requires public demand. Parents who want these innovative new schools must be full partners in supporting teachers and political leaders in innovation. They can do this by accepting risks, embracing the nonprofit sector and private sector as well as paying taxes to the public sector, engaging thoughtfully, and setting high expectations. More and more, Americans are realizing that we have the tools, the resources, and the teachers to give our children the best school system in the world.
This column was adapted from a post published by Peter Greene's Curmudgucation on May 4, 2016.