NPR has a good news story from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. Brimley Elementary School that serves many low-income students, and it is thriving. More than half the students are Native American.
What’s the secret of their success? Federal aid of an extra $1 million. And it makes a difference.
The principal explains what he does with the extra money:
“So that does help, big time. That really gives us an extra pot of money,” says Routhier. He adds that the school uses that pot for things like hiring more staff and early interventions for struggling students. There’s a resource teacher for special education and a speech and language pathologist.
“First-graders who are having a tough time with reading and writing get one-on-one time with a specialist. There’s an intervention teacher for kids in fourth, fifth and sixth grades — they mostly focus on math. There are teachers’ aids to help out in all the kindergarten, first- and second-grade classrooms. And class sizes are small, averaging 22 kids.”
Teachers regularly give diagnostic assessments to see what the students need and how they are progressing.
There is no miracle ingredient, no silver bullet. It makes south sense that you wonder how it became a news story. But in these crazy times, when everyone has a plan to change everything, common sense seems shocking.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane, Come on now, this gives the impression that it is the lack of funding that is the key ingredient keeping schools from improving. There is plenty of money feeding the educational trough. It is being diverted into the hands of corporate computer “wise guys,” aided and abetted by corrupt government officials and fraudulent education administrators. They have been draining the well dry, and we need to shame them and their greedy cohorts.
Ian
Yes, there is plenty of money being poured into the “education trough” as you put it. But, as you put it, it is being diverted to charters/ed tech providers/politicians/etc. Those are the same people who, while pocketing all this money, simultaneously say that “throwing money at” public school won’t help the problem. This piece is a good illustration that, when the money actually does get to public schools, powerful things can and are done with it. Lack of funding for actual public schools (as opposed to funding for charters, vouchers, consultants, tech, etc.) *is* a huge problem. Just because the money is being spent, doesn’t mean it’s being spent well.
Again, not really sure what you’re arguing with Diane about.
I agree there would be plenty of money in some urban schools if the money went to the classrooms. A good example of the waste is the city of Newark, NJ where Mark Zuckerberg truly intended his millions to go to the students and yet saw it disappear into the pockets of the “reformers” and “consultants.” If only he had consulted with his wife, a pediatrician, he would have known how best to help the children. I’d be willing to bet the teachers in the Newark schools continued to buy their own supplies even after that generous donation. They, and their students, likely never saw a cent.
LJ,
I also thought of M Zuckerberg’s gift:
•About $20 million! went to the group that conducted a survey on how to spend the money
•The CEO of Foundation for Newark’s Future, Greg Taylor, was paid $382,000 to administer and coordinate matching funds. He left after a few years.
•Bob Braun’s Ledger describes consultant fees paid through Foundstion NF.
•A chunk of money went toward retroactive teacher pay and i heard that Mr Zuckerberg was gracious enough to pay that without requiring matching $; he understood that donors might not honor retroactive.
•Foundation NF did provide funds for proposals through the Teacher Innovation Fund–but the amounts were likely less than consultants got.
Mr Zuckerberg deserves credit for his willingness to donate a substantial sum again in California with closer oversight.
And the Brimley principal knows how to get a bang from an educational buck
Of course JUST throwing money at the problem is not the ENTIRE answer but without it, just TRY to get along.
Too: Too often forgotten. The thing that pulled us out of the great depression, 1929, was WWII when spending money by the government was NOT the problem the problem was winning the war.
Too, some, many are concerned with raising taxes. Raising taxes on whom is never mentioned, only raising taxes. After WWII taxes on the rich were near 90%, our economy boomed.
Of course there were other important mitigating circumstances BUT now no one is talking about raising taxes that high [although the billionaires would never miss that extra money].
Interesting that the Minnesota governor raised taxes 2% on the wealthy, over $150,000 if my memory is correct, passed a law that women should be paid equally the same amount as men, passed a law raising the minimum wage and in 4 years, again if memory is correct – it was a short period of time, he took Minnesota from a huge deficit to a surplus.
There is a humongous amount of propaganda, misinformation and a lack of important information by the corporate media. Corporate media promotes corporate agenda.
Austerity is NOT the answer that some would have you believe.
If you spend anytime in your child’s public school classroom it will be obvious to you that the number one priority of “reformers” should be to reduce class size and enlist the help of more teacher aides. Children are lacking in one on one help and this is the number “one” reason why our children trail behind other countries. No amount of testing or computer learning programs can make up for this. Computer programs are substitutes but they are lousy substitutes because they don’t provide relationship building skills and human mentorship interaction which really are the foundation for career success. Relating to people makes one successful in work and in their personal relationships.
Somewhere over the rainbow (at Brimley Elementary School) there is still a pot of gold of gold, but in many places, it has been stolen by the reformsters
“
SomeNowhere over the Rainbow”The rainbow has been broken
By those who push the test
The pot of gold was stolen
Along with student zest
If you’ve never heard Eva Cassidy sing “Somewhere over the Rainbow” you haven’t really heard the song.