Sweating the Small Stuff Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism

Sweating the Small Stuff Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism Sweating the Small Stuff Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism David Whitman Thomas B. Fordham Institute June 2008 Copyright © 2008 by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Press 1016 16th Street NW, 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20036 www.edexcellence.net [email protected] (202) 223-5452 The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a nonprofit organization that conducts research, issues publications, and directs action projects in elementary/secondary education reform at the national level and in Ohio, with special emphasis on our hometown of Dayton. It is affiliated with the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Further information can be found at www.edexcellence.net, or by writing to the Institute at 1016 16th St. NW, 8th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036. The report is available in full on the Institute’s website; additional copies can be ordered at www.edexcellence.net. The Institute is neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University. ISBN: 978-0-615-21408-5 Text set in Adobe Garamond and Scala Design by Alton Creative, Inc. Printed and bound by Chroma Graphics in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Lynn and Lily Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................. ix Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: The Achievement Gap and Education Reform ........................... 10 Chapter Two: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Paternalism ......................................34 Chapter Three: The American Indian Public Charter School .......................... 68 Chapter Four: Who Are We, Proud to Be, Amistad Academy .......................... 96 Chapter Five: Cristo Rey Jesuit High School — The School That Works .......122 Chapter Six: Kipp Academy — “Kipp-Notizing” through Music .....................152 Chapter Seven: The SEED School and the Custodial Culture ....................... 192 Chapter Eight: University Park’s Mission Possible ..........................................224 Chapter Nine: The Habits of Highly Effective Schools — and How to Create More of Them ........................................................................... 252 Chapter Ten: Obstacles and Alternatives to Radical Paternalistic Reform ......284 Endnotes .......................................................................................................... 312 Index ................................................................................................................. 342 Tables Table 3-1, Page 83 Academic achievement at American Indian Public Charter School and nearby schools Table 4-1, Page 113 Academic achievement at Amistad Academy and nearby schools Table 5-1, Page 140 Graduation and college-going rates at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and nearby schools Table 5-2, Page 141 Academic achievement at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and nearby schools Table 6-1, Page 176 Academic achievement at KIPP Academy and nearby schools Table 6-2, Page 183 Test scores of incoming students at KIPP Network schools Table 7-1, Page 216 Academic achievement at the SEED school and nearby schools Table 8-1, Page 246 Academic achievement at University Park Campus School and nearby schools Table 8-2, Page 248 SAT and AP test scores and college-going rates at University Park Campus School Foreword by Chester E. Finn Jr. and Marci Kanstoroom his book tells the story of six remarkable inner city secondary schools that have eliminated the achievement gap…or at least come close. They are living proof that poor, minority kids can learn as much as middle class white kids — and that great schools canT make an enormous difference in their lives, thus giving the lie to defeat- ists, determinists, and apologists who insist that this isn’t really possible in today’s America. But they are also proof that it isn’t easy. By the time youngsters reach high school in the United States, the achievement gap is immense. The average black twelfth grader has the reading and writing skills of a typical white eighth grader and the math skills of a typical white seventh grader. Graduation rates are low and college-going rates lower. At the schools profiled in this volume, however, inner-city black and Hispanic students surpass not only the average white student but even students attending high-performing suburban schools. These remarkable urban schools insist that narrowing the achievement gap is not enough; they declare that it must (and can) be closed — and their students must be set on a course to college graduation and later success in American society. ix SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF While many observers have written off urban secondary schools as beyond hope, while Washington dithers about “high school reform” and major foundations pour tens of millions of dollars into conferences, studies and pilot programs, these six schools — the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, Amistad Academy in New Haven, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, KIPP Academy in the Bronx, the SEED school in Washington, D.C., and University Park Campus School in Worcester — are already showing just how different things can be. Some of those names are likely familiar to readers. Some have been featured in earlier reports on “no excuses” schools. But it’s important not just to name and praise them but also to walk through their doors and see what makes them tick. In this ambitious book, veteran journalist David Whitman takes the reader inside their corridors and classrooms. The buildings are often cramped, old, and unlovely. Once inside, however, Whitman found inspiring principals, high academic standards, long school days and years, and a special ingredient that flavors everything about them, though many education experts wince when they hear it and few journalists have paid attention to it: a healthy, forceful, modern version of paternalism. Like firm parents, the principals, teachers and other staff in these gap- busting schools are engaged in explicit character training aimed at creating a culture of kindness, decency, integrity and hard work. But the adults in these schools don’t just mouth vague instructions like “be kind” and “work hard”; they translate abstract goals into concrete benchmarks and rules, check constantly to see how everyone is measuring up — and intervene whenever necessary. As Whitman reports, all of them “sweat the small stuff.” The schools are preoccupied with fighting disorder; they fix the proverbial broken windows quickly to deter further unruliness. Students are shown exactly how they are expected to behave — how to sit in a chair without slumping, how to track the teacher with their eyes, how to walk silently down the hall, how to greet visitors with a firm handshake, and how to keep track of daily assignments. Their behavior is closely monitored at all times and the schools mete out real rewards for excellence and real punishments for rule-breaking. This close supervision might sound like a teenager’s worst nightmare, but it is an atmosphere in which students thrive and that many come to appreciate. The orderly environment makes learning easier. Youngsters feel valued and x Foreword respected by their teachers; many report that their school is a second home. They learn new habits and develop new attitudes that pay off in small and large ways: they earn special privileges at school as they prepare to take their place in college and the world beyond. And college is where most are headed. The three high schools featured in this book send 85+ percent of their graduates to college, while only 31 percent of low-income 18-24 year olds nationwide ever enroll in college. (Among affluent young people, the college-going rate is about 75 percent.) Students attending the three middle schools score in the 80th and 90th percentiles on nationally normed tests. Data tables included in each chapter show exactly how these six schools compare with others in their neighborhoods, districts, and states. To the keen eye of David Whitman, who has written on social policy for many years at U.S. News and World Report and other publications, the clear standards and close supervision of students at these schools are manifestations of paternalism of a benevolent sort — which he takes pains to distinguish from less welcome kinds. Paternalistic policies, broadly understood, are those in which the government interferes with the freedom of individuals for their own good, requiring them to wear motorcycle helmets, for instance, or save money for retirement, even if they would prefer not to. In the United States, paternalism has often been controversial because it has frequently involved government imposing its values on poor or minority people in particular, and trying to change the way they live. Educational paternalism is not new — and Whitman recounts its mixed history, including some ugly chapters. In the late 19th century, for example, thousands of Native American children were sent off, often against their parents’ will, to attend Indian boarding schools that sought to eradicate their native culture, which was viewed as degenerate. Students were forced to undergo haircuts, give up their native clothing, speak English, and answer to Anglo names while they were lectured on monogamy, temperance, chastity and other Christian virtues. In the early 20th century, many urban schools took on the

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