Four years ago, New
York Times’ columnist David Brooks declared Geoffrey
Canada’s charter schools to be miracle schools. The
column was titled “The Harlem Miracle.” He did so based on the
assurances of Harvard economist Roland Fryer and his colleague Will
Dobbie. Fryer said in an email to Brooks that the charter schools
of the Harlem Children’s Zone had produced “enormous gains.” Brooks
wrote: “In math, Promise Academy eliminated the
achievement gap between its black students and the city average for
white students. Let me repeat that. It
eliminated the black-white achievement gap. “The results changed my
life as a researcher because I am no longer interested in marginal
changes,” Fryer wrote in a subsequent e-mail. What Geoffrey Canada,
Harlem Children’s Zone’s founder and president, has done is “the
equivalent of curing cancer for these kids. It’s amazing. It should
be celebrated. But it almost doesn’t matter if we stop there. We
don’t have a way to replicate his cure, and we need one since so
many of our kids are dying — literally and
figuratively.” Canada is a very charming man, and I
personally like him. We have appeared on various TV shows together,
including a debate on NBC’s “Education Nation.” But I don’t believe
in miracle schools. Not even when they are run by the immensely
personable Geoffrey Canada. And I don’t like it when someone with
the vast resources of Canada, far more than any neighborhood public
school, trashes public
schools because they can’t succeed as his schools do.
(The link takes you to a TED talk where Geoffrey Canada
speaks with his usual charm and passion about “our failing public
schools.”) As this story in the New York Times pointed out, the
Harlem Children’s Zone has two billionaires on its board, assets of
more than $200 million, two teachers in every classroom, small
classes, medical care for students, and an array of resources and
services unavailable to public schools in poor neighborhoods. I
have always wished that every public school, especially in poor
neighborhoods, could offer the same services as Canada’s schools,
and I salute Canada for providing them for the students at his
charter schools. But are they miracle schools, as Roland Fryer told
David Brooks? After all, miracles should not be a one-time deal;
they should go on forever, right? The short answer: No. They face
the same problems as other schools serving poor kids, and their
results are not miraculous. Below are the scores of Canada’s
charter schools on the recent Common Core tests. The city’s public
schools had an average passing mark of 25% in ELA and 30% in
mathematics. The charters of the HCZ have scores all over the map.
Some are higher than the city average, some are lower. Some are
dramatically higher (like grade 5 in math at HCZ 1 at 46%), some
are dramatically lower (like grade 6 in English language arts at
HCZ 1 at 9%). Bottom line: There is no miracle here.
Harlem Children’s Zone 1
22%
26%
21%
9%
24%
27%
2
56%
20%
43%
31%
26%
28%
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No miracle for sure. Uh oh! Time to go back to figuring out what is on the test and only teach those things- then drill, drill, drill!!! I hate to be cynical but that is what it has all come to. I really find it disgusting that someone would bash public schools when the schools described have an enormous amount of resources. Sad.
I just started reading your blog this month (I love your links and highlight of “heros” across the country) but I’m now confused.
A few weeks back you seemed to indicate that these test scores were phony: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/08/08/those-phony-misleading-test-scores-a-ny-principal-reacts/
And that test scores that raise the bar to 6 feet shouldn’t penalize the students who can only jump four feet: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/08/11/breaking-news-common-core-tests-widen-achievement-gaps/
And while I hear you that a man with so much wealth should logically provide better results then other local public schools, should we really trust these results? I thought your argument was that they don’t mean much, especially for poorer students? Did I misread your earlier point?
I’m also curious how his schools compared to other local schools. I think it might be even more telling if his kids bombed while other local schools produced similar results – it would be an interesting comment at least on educational funding as I’m guessing the other local public schools don’t have access to his funds.
Tom Enwood,
I am not opposed to testing for diagnostic purposes. That is, using tests to identify students needs and how to help them. Tests also show trend lines, as in NAEP, where we see changes over time for states and districts.
I oppose the use of tests for rewards and punishments. It distorts the purpose of education.
So long as reformers brandish test scores as proof of their superiority, we will have to keep paying attention to their boasts and their results and how they game the system by kicking out low-performing kids. Canada kicked out an entire grade when he started.
Not to mention, it would behoove us to know what his teacher turnover rate is like. I would love to interview teachers who have taught in his schools and get their take on the organization. Why are they no longer teaching there . . . That’s the first question I’d pose.
I don’t have lot of use for test scores, but what’s interesting about them is that even by their own standards (i.e., test scores), the rheephormers don’t succeed. Even if these drill-to-kill, SLANT and chant schools did succeed in raising test scores, they wouldn’t be worth the control and abuse kids have to go through. But all that control and abuse doesn’t even raise test scores. So why subject kids to it?
CUI bono? Follow the moolah.
There’s that disgusting phrase again (parroted by Canada) that has become one word: “ourfailingschools.” It is a phrase that seems to be repeated every hour of every day without any questions as if it were unquestioned wisdom. It’s very similar to the anti-Social Security propaganda which falsely claims that SS is in crisis, it’s bankrupt and it will not be there for you, all lies. “Ourfailingschools” and yet the NAEP scores have been going up for all groups over the past 40 years. Our schools are supposedly so horrible and yet the US is still the biggest economy on the planet and a leader in innovation. HCZ gets tons of money and Canada gets very well compensated for his gig. Hey, I thought throwing more money at the schools was not the solution. I guess that rule only applies to the real public schools.
Last time I looked, Geoff’s salary was $400,000. Plus speaking fees and product endorsements (Amex).
Canada is a great political asset to the corporate privatization campaign–a charming, articulate man of color who smoothly hides the truth about our public schools(high poverty, under-financed, over-regulated, no cherry-picking students most likely to succeed, increasing test scores over decades, etc.) and private charters(unimpressively mixed results, over-financed, under-regulated, free to choose and keep only students that make them look good). Canada expelled the entire 8th grade cohort which was to be the founding 9th grade for his high school, because that 8th grade cohort was not performing well enough to make the HS look good. He sent those rejected kids back to the NYC public schools and then selected a new cohort to do it over. And, his schools put two teachers in every classroom!! Class sizes around 15-20!! Medical, dental services!! Counselors!! A new school building financed by Wall St banksters!! Wow, what a luxurious model which proves nothing except that Money matters more than anything, despite what the corporate advocates claim.
It’s a sad commentary that all the outside and inside assistance in the world is not enough to help kids in poverty. I think it goes to show that nothing can beat poverty like jobs with livable wages –the last thing our government wants to ensure because that means stepping on the toes of their corporate sponsors.
What gets me is that I will have to sit in an inservice next week and hear about one “miracle” school or another, knowing full-well that it’s a lie. And I will be the soul person to call b———-t on such a claim while my colleagues will look away and stay silent. Sometimes I feel we teachers get what we deserve.
So true DET, sad but so true.
Oh well, I guess Canada will have to expel some more classes in order to maintain his miracle worker status. As he did before, he’ll call it a “tragedy,” and then go on his charmng way as a front for privatizing public facilities, since his newest school sits on land expropriated from park/playground/parking for public housing residents in Harlem.
True to form, this subsidy to the highly-compensated Canada was just the opening wedge in taking over public housing in NYC, with plans now afoot to build luxury towers amid projects that have the misfortune of being located in gentriflying locations.
Why, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine another “Teacher’s Village” rising on what used to be public housing land, allowing TFA to hit a trifecta: busting teacher unions, privatizing the schools, and accelerating dispossession of the poor in NYC. It’s win, win, win for Wendy and her acolytes.
As for how charming and personable Mr. Canada is, I’d remind readers that those are the basic job requirements for every fraud and con artist.
So….if all this money (new building, 2 teachers per class, low class-size) and these wraparound services (healthcare, dental care, counselor’s, etc.) don’t improve the achievement gap…what will? I guess the only question not answered here is…what curriculum was used?
What I think is strange is the fact that Canada and journalists early in the game admitted that his students didn’t do well when another achievement test (sight unseen) was administered. Also a journalist from City Limits Magazine visited his school and was not impressed. She said that the children were being drilled on the test itself and even had test prep booklets instead of history texts! (“Hope or Hype in Harlem,” Helen Zelon, City Limits, March 2010 – pay wall).
Canada is doing exactly what I would do in urban schools: two excellent teachers to a room, small classes, counseling, medical supports etc. However, I am baffled by his continued assertions that his school can be compared with the traditional school that has none of the supports that he espouses. Also, why would Harvard professor Fryer proclaim a miracle on test scores reported by the school? Surely he must know about the test prep. Is everyone just selling their souls to the devil for money, or am I missing something?
We know from history that a severe economic downturn causes people, even middle-class people, to fight over scant resources. Even prestigious colleges must fight for grant money to continue their research. Is that what we’re seeing here?
Pro-accountability commentators, as a last resort, complain that we anti-testing forces shouldn’t point to the collapse of charter scores, because we don’t believe in the tests.
The data-masters’ decision to weaponize the Common Core tests before they launched them might have been a serious miscalculation. Personal experience is colliding with the talking points they’re frantically pushing out to liberal pundits, about how Common Core is a modest little project under attack by tea party crazies. The tests are looking more and more unhinged, megalomanic, and toxic. That message is reaching every stratum in New York state.
Now, it’s dawning on people there’s no safe haven for any children. Suburban and charter school students were all slimed. In New York, it seems like everybody knows children who’ve been subjected to the tests!
Here’s an example of how cogent response is escaping the newsmuzzle. It’s from a writer at Corporate Responsibility Newswire who has a nine-year-old grand daughter. Looks like she’s been reading our stuff.
http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/986-the-light-and-dark-of-social-enterprise-part-two
Saw a group of charming students from Canada’s program at the 50th anniversary March on Wednesday. Staff photographing the group for PR. Gave them a copy of A. Philip Randolph’s bio with notation that high school in Philadelphia named for him has no library.
Held up my sign:
Philadelphia Mississippi 1963 Black children not allowed in libraries Philadelphia Pennsylvania 2013 No school libraries
Barbara McDowell Dowdall English Department Head (Ret.) A, Philip Randolph Technical High School Sent from my iPhone