A political odd couple, Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton, is on a education reform tour of the country and they visited BASIS high school in Tucson where I taught AP courses. BASIS is also featured in the new ed reform documentary “2 Million Minutes.”
Gingrich said he agreed to help with the effort, impressed by
Obama’s “bold” position on charter schools and his willingness to upset
the special-interest apple cart. “If we just have the courage to go do
something, we can get it done.”The visit coincided with last night’s screening of a documentary
lauding BASIS for its rigorous approach to education. The charter
school, which has 650 students in Tucson and is working on opening a
branch in Oro Valley, has already been crowned as among America’s best
high schools by Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.Students are required to take at least six advanced-placement
exams, and pass at least one. They also must pass not only the course,
but an end-of-course exam in every subject to be able to progress to
the next grade. If they fail even one of the tests, they must repeat
the grade level.After popping into classrooms, Gingrich said that not only was he
struck by the academic focus of the students, but that it was being
done without a lot of expensive gadgets in a fairly bare-bones
building.He railed against education colleges for hijacking schools and
placing the “how to teach” on a par with lesson content. As a charter
school, BASIS does not have to hire certified teachers, he said, noting
that the former head of Intel, who has a doctorate in physics, could
not teach in California schools.He said the educational establishment has been fighting reform out
of “pure, naked self-interest. When they see a school like this,
they’re terrified.”
