A new TIME article on continuing efforts to improve failing public schools includes a passage that caught my eye. It focuses on insights gleaned from the success of three Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia:
Of course, the education establishment (i.e., the teachers’ unions and ed schools) likes to remind critics that children are not cogs and what works for companies may not necessarily work for schools. But the business analogy holds, says Mastery CEO Scott Gordon, if you see kids as customers and schools as the product to be reworked, perfected and sold. Mastery schools operate with obsessive attention to data. Daily and weekly figures on student performance, attendance, tardiness–these numbers are pored over by teachers who are themselves regularly monitored and evaluated. The goal is for every person in the building to be constantly improving.
Gordon believes that if you focus on the performance of the adults and the system in which they operate, student success is sure to follow. The biggest problem with many failing schools, he and others in the turnaround movement say, isn’t the kids, the parents or the community–though all three are undeniable factors. The key flaw is that the schools are poorly run. “We are trying to apply modern-management common sense,” says Gordon. “Invest in your talent, set goals–continuous improvement, constant feedback.” This differs, he says, from typical public schools, where teachers receive evaluations only once a year–light management exemplified.
Charter schools ? freed from the sclerotic effects of a typical public school establishment ? have the opportunity to find new ways to improve public education. That is, if the establishment doesn?t aim to shut them down.
