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Posted on Wed, Jan. 30, 2002
Give Ingalls, Isely parents more choice
By Cindy Duckett
Parents of students at Ingalls-Edison and Isely-Edison academies should be
the ones to decide what kind of school is best for their children ("Parents
discuss value of Edison," Jan. 18 Local & State).
As an interested observer, however, I would like to offer those parents a
few suggestions to consider. For those who have Internet access, the best
place to start would be at www.noexcuses.org. There you can find at least 21
working examples of high-performing, low-income schools, along with contact
information that parents could call for assistance with ideas that could be
replicated in Wichita.
In the list of educational reform models on that site are Core Knowledge
schools. I helped lead the effort to bring those magnet schools to Wichita
several years ago.
Another model on that list is direct instruction, an approach to curriculum
delivery that is teacher-directed rather than student-led. No Wichita school
has ever tried that on a school-wide basis, though the data show clearly
that it works.
My idea of an ideal trial school to replace the Edison concept would be to
combine the Core Knowledge curriculum with the direct-instruction delivery
method.
Another Web site that Edison parents should check out is the one for the
Mabel B. Wesley Elementary School in Houston at:
http://es.houstonisd.org/WesleyES/Inf.Page/information.htm. Founded by
nationally renowned black educator Thaddeus Lott, the school has a
population that is 96 percent black with three-fourths of students on
government lunch programs.
If you believe the fatalists or the racists, a high minority population or
predominantly low-income student body are supposed to equate with failure.
But just three years after Lott's takeover as principal at Wesley in 1975,
the school's third-grade reading scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills
had risen from 2.7 to 3.8, which means the average third-grader was reading
about eight months above third-grade level. By 1995, 98 percent of Wesley's
third-graders passed the reading portion of the Texas Academic Assessment
System, a test of basic skills.
Lott is one of the nation's leading proponents of direct instruction. He was
so successful at Wesley that he is now superintendent of the Houston Unified
Charter School District. Lott is also a leading proponent of parental
empowerment and school choice.
On Feb. 20, minirallies in support of the school-choice issue will be held
around the country on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court opening arguments
for the Cleveland voucher program. In that city, parents with students
trapped in low-performing schools do get to have a say in the education
their children receive.
A Wichita rally on that date at Ingalls and Isely would be a terrific goal
to begin working toward. If Edison parents would like my assistance in
pulling a rally together, I can be contacted at CKDuckett@kscable.com. It
would be my hope that all Wichita parents would turn out to support such a
gathering -- not just Edison parents.
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Cindy Duckett is a Wichita-based education advocate and director of Children
First: CEO Kansas.
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