An interesting vignette in the Rocky Mountain News this week, about two staffers from the Education Trust sitting down with teachers and community activists from one of Denver's most troubled high schools. True to the Ed Trust style, the two lay it on the line: yes, kids are affected by what happens at home. Yes, poverty makes teaching difficult. But you can't control what happens outside the classroom, only inside the classroom, and you have to teach kids at the appropriate level and fill in the gaps in skills as you encounter them. "You [can't] remediate kids up to standard," says the representative from Ed Trust, "We've been doing that for 30 years, taking a sixth grader and giving them third grade reading. It doesn't work." The conversation grew out of an invitation to the Ed Trust from North High's principal, for an assessment of what was and wasn't working at the school. (Would that all school leaders were so open to external evaluation!) The author will return to this topic to report on what recommendations Ed Trust made, and return to North High in the future to see whether the effort makes a difference. Stay tuned to see what happens when committed ed reformers collide with a real school.
"Burden placed on teachers," by Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News, December 6, 2004