I think where the parents are educated, and the schools have a critical mass of interesting and fired up teachers, good things happen. Project Lead the Way is getting a lot of attention here in California. It's one of the few programs getting new money. It's like a charter school with safeguards- the kind you need to prevent people who aren't really educators, or who aren't really very good at education, from taking control of a school.
This is a charter school type model, but within a public school. So we are, if you will, super accountable. First the parents have to be very involved. If they don't come to the meetings their kids cannot get in the academy. Secondly, we have data to keep and reports to submit to the agencies- public and private- which are our agency partners. And finally, because our school hopes this academy will provide lessons to the greater school community on things like closing the achievement gap for Hispanic students, our school district is very very involved in what we are doing.
Whether this sort of thing will work in the inner city, I don't know. But it definitely works in suburban schools, and it's an amazing program where kids actually come out with amazing skills- being able to use 3D copiers and making architectural plans, for example- AND they do better on standardized tests as well. That's win win, I think. |
