Bay.
We also express our appreciation to Steve and Jan Chappuis at the ETS Assessment Training Institute; Dennis White at George Washington University; Dan Rea at Georgia Southern University; George Jackson at Iowa State University; Diana Leigh at Ohio State University; Sam Stern at Oregon State University; Steve Jackstadt at the University of Alaska-Anchorage; Fritz Erickson at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; Jim Stigler at UCLA and the LessonLab; Diane Boothe, Kathleen Budge, Ken Coll, Jonathan Brendefur, Phil Kelly, Roger Stewart, Ross Vaughn, and Scott Willison at Boise State University; and Boise State University doctoral students Marybeth Flachbart, Margo Healy, Celia King, Lisa Kinnaman, Sheila Scott, and Jane Walther, who each read early drafts and provided timely feedback. We are especially indebted to Deb Yates, assistant professor at Albertson College of Idaho. Deb first heard Bob Barr speaking in Indianapolis 10 years ago, later came to Boise State to study with us, and became Barr’s last doctoral student. She not only coauthored his last book, Welcome to Middletown (Solution Tree, 2006), but constantly “trolled” the Internet, finding late-breaking research that was used throughout this book.
Our heartfelt thanks go to the Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies staff; Diana Esbensen, Jenny Newhouse, and Kerri Pickett provided much-needed assistance throughout this project. We couldn’t have done this without your support.
Our thanks also go out to the many folks at Solution Tree who have made this possible: Jeff Jones, Rhonda Rieseberg, Jane St. John, and the rest of the crew; and our editors extraordinaire, Sue Kraszewski and Gretchen Knapp. You have shaped this book in so many ways. It’s great to be back home.
And to Bev Moss, the “glue” of our production team, who stuck with us through another 18 months of late night and weekend drops, frantic emails and unreasonable requests, your word processing and research assistance allowed this book to happen…. We can’t thank you enough.
Bob Barr: Thanks to a number of friends in Newport on the Oregon Coast who shared their music, support, encouragement, and even an occasional dinner while I wrote portions of this book. Special thanks to Dick Schwartz, Beth Mallory, Maggie Bortz, Clay Foster, Jill Pridgeon, Renae and Sky Richmond, DeEtt Brault, Sandy Wieneke, Howard Shippey, Scott Paterson, Gus Willemin, and, of course, my pals, Tami, Rick, Peggy, Barry, Burt, and Duane.
Special thanks are in order to my entire family: to my wife, Beryl Barr; to my daughter, Bonny Barr, and her family, Jerry Williams, Sadie, and Sam; and to my son, Brady Barr, and his family, Mei Len and little Isabella—all of whom, once again, rallied around to help me struggle through yet another major research and writing project.
William Parrett: Thanks to Tom, Therese, Jessie, Carey, Danielle, Christina, Patti, Tim, Jeannie, Holly, Dad, and Jan. Each of you in some way helped me make it through another book. Finally, to the Parrett-Dehner family, Ann, Mia, and Jonathan—words could never express how much your patience, encouragement and support have meant to me throughout this work. I could never have completed this without the three of you.
Foreword
For many years, most Americans—including most American educators—have believed that schools can’t make much of a difference in the lives of the children they serve. Especially if those children are poor or members of minority groups, their destiny was thought to be low achievement, no matter what their schools did. Sure, maybe one or two could be saved. But surely not all or even most. Why? Because, in the end, “socioeconomic factors” like poverty, low levels of parent education, and the like would always win out.
The view that schools can’t make a difference has covered up a multitude of sins. While many Americans believe that the underachievement of minority or low-income students is largely about them and their families—that is, that all kids are taught the same things, but some simply manage to learn less—the truth is actually quite different. Certainly, these students often enter school behind. But instead of organizing our educational system to ameliorate that problem, we organize it to exacerbate the problem. How do we do that? By giving less to these kids who come to us with less. Indeed, we give these students less of everything that both research and experience tell us make a difference.
Thus, instead of helping to close gaps between groups, what we do in schools often has exactly the opposite effect. Children who come to us a little behind leave a lot behind. African-American and Latino students leave high school with skills in math and reading that white students have when they leave middle school. And the gaps between poor and rich are also cavernous.
What’s so devastating about all of this is that we now know that it doesn’t have to be this way. For around the country, there are schools that are proving every single day of the school year that poor and minority children can achieve at high levels—if we teach them at high levels and provide them and their teachers with the support they need to get there. Demography is not, in other words, destiny—or at least it doesn’t have to be.
It is hugely important for both educators and the general public to know how powerful schools can be. And indeed, the stories of schools that serve very poor children, yet produce very high results provide exactly the tonic of hope and inspiration that can help restore the luster of a public education system that has lost considerable public confidence over the last two decades.
But these schools are important for far more than inspiration. The educators in these schools have unlocked some of the mysteries that still plague schools more generally. How, indeed, do we enable all of our students—including those who seem disaffected and disengaged—to master the high-level skills and knowledge they need to secure a foothold in our increasingly complex economy and society?
There have, of course, been some studies of these high-performing, high-poverty schools. But these are often small and idiosyncratic. And until now, nobody has tried to look across these studies and distill some of the key lessons that can provide a foundation for improvement efforts in other communities.
With this book, Bob Barr and Bill Parrett have done an enormous service to educators who want to jump-start improvement efforts in their own schools or communities. In one volume, they’ve looked across all of the many studies and distilled the major findings in a highly readable fashion.
There’s a lot here. But then again, real improvement never follows from just one new program. Indeed, in our own studies of high-performing schools, what’s immediately obvious is that the educators in those schools think differently about almost everything.
The Kids Left Behind will give you plenty of food for thought.
—Kati Haycock, Director of the Education Trust Washington, DC
Chapter 1
A New American Revolution
“What does it mean to be an American? Well, to me, it means that no matter who you are or how many problems you have, in America, everybody has a chance.”
—Fourth-Grade African-American Student
A revolution is occurring in public education, and it has generated dramatic changes in our nation’s schools and classrooms. This revolution is shattering attitudes and beliefs that have existed for decades and focusing national attention on the need to educate all students effectively. With a high-quality education, almost anyone, regardless of race, gender, social class, or national origin, can gain access to economic prosperity and security. Without an adequate education, the promise of prosperity and security that is the foundation
