Success in the semi-public sector

An article entitled “The Instigator,” in the May, 2009, edition of the New Yorker magazine tells the story of a group of charter schools in Los Angeles called Green Dot schools, which were started two years ago by ”Rock the Vote” founder Steve Barr, a (more or less) businessman who had previous success with an unusual charter school in an Latino neighborhood. With no educational background whatsoever, Mr. Barr had to actually call a teacher friend to help him interpret the very test scores which proved that his first school was succeeding.

Now the successes of the Green Dot schools among low-income students from primarily single-parent homes are attracting national attention, starting with Arne Duncan, current Secretary of Education. Pragmatists on both sides of the party lines are hailing their success and clamoring for “more Green Dot schools” to be founded – everywhere.

The article is revealing, but not so much for what it says about how the Green Dot schools succeed – they are remarkably “ordinary” in their teaching methods, and often employ teachers who have (mercifully) not had the traditional teacher college education. “At his schools, the principals lay out firm curricular guidelines, in keeping with California state standards and Green Dot benchmarks, but teachers are free to huddle, and decide what to teach and how to teach it, for the most part, as long as students pass quarterly assessments.” According to charter school entrepreneur Don Shalvey, “There is no secret curriculum-and-instruction sauce at Green Dot at all. Steve just hires good people. They’re just doing old-school schooling.”

What is more revealing is one of his critiques of the traditional public schools the students are coming from. “These poor schools, you have an Advanced Placement track, and the teachers only believe in triage, so they put the kids who have a chance in that track,” Barr explains. “It’s built on the back of the other three tracks.”

What can we learn from this?

1. Failing public schools teach the most able and fail the serve the rest effectively.
2. People with no educational background can run successful schools.
3. Teachers with no specific training in education will tend to use tried and true methods, and will tend to be successful with them.
4. It is more important that the teacher know the objective (in this case, state standards and test scores) than teaching methods and the latest philosophies.

It’s not rocket science.