Education Week - February 4, 2015 - 22

COMMENTARY
Low Standards Do a Disservice to All
By Wade Henderson
I
T
n the 60 years since Brown v. Board of Education, we've
repeatedly seen the promise of equal educational opportunity
denied to poor and minority children. These inequities
come in many different forms, but the most pernicious
is the low expectations placed on those who have access
to the fewest resources. In 1997, the U.S. Department of
Education released an illuminating study about the education
of disadvantaged students. Buried in the findings
was a simple statement: A straight-A student in a high-poverty
school would be struggling to make C's in a low-poverty school. It
was evident schools were not giving students an equal shot at success
beyond the schoolhouse doors-and students of color, students
with disabilities, and those with other disadvantages suffered the
most from these low expectations.
Since 1994, federal policy has required states to have academic
standards statewide in reading and math in order to receive funding
through Title I, the main federal program for disadvantaged
students. But none dared to set them near the rigor required for
success in college or careers. For all the transparency the No Child
Left Behind Act gave to the achievement gap, it equally gave perverse
incentives to states to keep standards low to avoid the political
consequences of widespread failure. Low standards do a disservice
to all students, especially those whom the law was designed
to help.
The Common Core State Standards offer an opportunity to address
the fundamental educational issue facing poor and minority
children who don't have access to the same instruction as their
peers in wealthier communities. These new standards, if properly
implemented with care to address this reality, could make real the
promise of equal educational opportunity we've been struggling to
What the Military Might Teach Schools
By Hugh B. Price
hree decades ago, a panel
appointed by then-U.S. Secretary
of Education Terrel
H. Bell issued a scathing
critique of America's schools
in a report titled A Nation
at Risk. It triggered an
avalanche of top-down and
bottom-up reforms that engulf public schools
to this day. While the achievement gap between
African-American and Latino students
and their white peers has narrowed,
and high school graduation rates are climbing,
the achievement gap between poor and
rich children has widened significantly.
And far too many children continue to struggle.
Roughly half of black and Latino 4th graders
score "below basic" in reading, according to the
2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Minority students are disproportionately
disciplined, suspended, and held back in grade.
The suspension rate among students with disabilities,
which includes those with learning difficulties,
is outrageous. Disaffected youngsters
still drop out in droves.
The modest gains of those students prompted
the Schott Foundation for Public Education in
2012, in its "Urgency of Now" report, to venture
this arresting projection: "[A]t the current pace
of progress, ... it would take nearly 50 years for
black males to secure the same high school graduation
rates as their white male peers."
Students who struggle perpetually in school
often lack the social and emotional skills
needed to succeed academically. They act out,
interact poorly with teachers and classmates,
pay scattered attention in class, and skip
school. Social and emotional competence matters
in the workplace as well; employers depend
on their employees to possess self-esteem
and interpersonal skills; feel pride in work accomplished;
and understand goal-setting, selfmotivation,
and teamwork.
Low-income and minority children are more
likely to exhibit academic indifference and behavioral
difficulties associated with social and
emotional deficits. They face life hazards, such
as poverty, divorce, maltreatment, and neglect,
that undermine healthy development. Instead
of growing out of these problems, they increasingly
disengage and eventually drop out of
school. And the presence of large numbers of
such students can overwhelm teachers who
face withering pressure to improve test scores.
Research and real-world experience show
that student interventions focused on fortifying
social and emotional skills can help improve
academic performance and behavior in
school and beyond. If asked which American
institution embraces this robust commitment
to the academic and social development of
young people, the U.S. military is probably the
least likely to come to mind. Yet the military
enjoys a well-deserved reputation for reaching,
teaching, and training young people who are
rudderless and drifting through life.
One military initiative that offers guidance
to young people is the National Guard Youth
ChalleNGe Program. A civilian intervention
program devoted to turning around the
aspirations and life prospects of high school
dropouts, it treats academic and social development
as coequal objectives. The basic experience
consists of a 22-week residential stint on
22 | EDUCATION WEEK | February 4, 2015 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary
a military base.
Currently, ChalleNGe operates in 27 states,
Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia,
serving roughly 5,000 16- to 18-year-olds a
year. Since its inception in 1993, more than
115,000 former dropouts have graduated from
the program.
While the program attracts high school
dropouts from all walks of life, these young
people share certain characteristics, including
disenchantment with school, truancy,
disruptive and violent behavior, disrespect for
teachers, family conflict, poverty, parental and
personal substance abuse, drug dealing, gang
membership, and physical abuse.
Eight core components reflect the program's
commitment to academic and social development.
The "academic excellence" component
prepares students to obtain a high school
diploma or gEd certificate or, at a bare minimum,
become functionally literate and employable.
Through leadership and "followership"
training, cadets earn opportunities to
lead their peers, while also learning to heed
the instructions of their teachers and mentors.
"Responsible citizenship" covers the rights and
obligations of citizens, voting, the role of government,
and the legal system.
Cadets devote at least 40 hours to community
service, such as building a walking path
in a park. These activities provide opportunities
for experiential learning, where the participants
practice their reading, math, planning,
and teamwork skills. Military researchers
have found that, compared with general literacy
instruction, this kind of learning-to-do
instruction generates rapid and robust gains
in job-related literacy that endure over time.
Through instruction in life-coping skills, participants
develop techniques for dealing with
anger, stress, and frustration; handling peer
pressure; and making constructive choices.
Job-skills instruction focuses on exploring career
options, developing résumés, filling out
job applications, and preparing for interviews.
There are also physical-fitness and healthand
hygiene-components to the program.
The dual mission of fostering academic and
social development drives the staffing configuration.
The unique feature of ChalleNGe is the
"cadre" staff of military veterans, retirees, and
National Guard reservists who are considered
the heart of the program. They sit in classrooms
and patrol the corridors to keep order so
that cadets can learn and teachers can teach.
They listen to and counsel the young people.
They make sure homework gets done, correct
wayward behavior on the spot, and ensure
that cadets dress appropriately.
A random-assignment evaluation by the
nonpartisan education and policy-research
organization MdRC provides convincing evidence
that ChalleNGe works. Roughly two
years after graduating, cadets were much
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Education Week - February 4, 2015

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