T/MC Editorial: The School Reform Backlash

The feature editorial in the March 21, 2004 Chicago Tribune was titled, The School Reform Backlash. Some of the paragraphs in this article highlighted the large number of children attending poorly performing public schools and the lack of services that were available. For instance:

According to the March 21, 2004 Chicago Tribune report titled, The School Reform Backlash, "In Chicago, some 270,000 students were eligible this year for a transfer to better schools. Of those, some 19,000 students applied to transfer, but there was room in the better schools for o­nly 1,100 students.

In the end, some 800 students showed up in a new school and about 500 of them are still there." "By contract, about 14,000 Chicago students are now being tutored under the new law, out of 133,000 who are eligible.

Individual and small group tutoring in math and reading has the greatest potential to boost student achievement among those who have fallen behind. It makes little sense to transfer a child before tutoring is offered.

"The Tribune editorial goes o­n to say, "The law says that in a school labeled as failing, all low-income students must be offered tutoring, regardless of whether they are performing at standards. It would be wiser to make sure remedial programs are targeted at those who truly need the help."

The editorial concludes with "Many of the reforms in No Child Left Behind are doing just what they should be doing: forcing teachers and schools to examine every aspect of effort to find new ways to help kids learn."

In addition, the editorial says, "A student's performance is not o­nly the responsibility of schools and teachers. Parents must play a vital role. Some try to avoid that duty and that's a shame. Just look at the thousands of Chicago parents who were offered free tutoring for their children and failed to take advantage of it." We agree fully with the need to look at new ways to help kids learn. However, this is where the Tutor/Mentor Connection moves to a different direction than the Chicago Tribune. First, the issues of poorly performing schools go much deeper than what teachers and parents are doing. There must be an o­ngoing discussion of the impact of concentrated poverty o­n the aspirations, motivation and preparation to succeed in school. In the same March 21st issue of the Chicago Tribune the front page article told of the increase of violence against teachers in schools. This was not mentioned in the editorial, yet if good teachers fear teaching in inner city schools, imagine how good students would fear coming to class every day to learn! Just o­ne or two students can disrupt learning for all students in a school. Second, leaders must begin using spatial analysis tools, like Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to discuss the distribution and availability of needed resources, such as tutoring services. The T/MC receives calls from parents and social workers each week who are looking for tutoring or mentoring programs. As soon as they tell us what zip code they come from, such as 60636 (Englewood), we know there are no programs available and this is a frustrating response for those parents. Readers can view the PROGRAM LOCATOR at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net and quickly see that some zip codes where there is heavy poverty and larger numbers of poorly performing schools have no tutor/mentor programs, or none for youth in middle and upper grades. The Chicago Tribune, other media and or public leaders continue to leave business, professional and faith groups out of the responsibility for helping kids learn, move through schools and move to careers. The T/MC is a fervent advocate for comprehensive forms of tutoring/mentoring because we feel it is o­ne of the few forms of civic engagement that connects adults from o­ne side of the economic divide with the issues of youth living in the other side. We also feel that government funding will never make enough tutor/ mentor programs available for kids in poor neighborhoods, and that we'll never be able to make needed reforms to how kids learn by working through the existing school unions and public education system. In business if something's not working good companies rethink how they do business and invent new ways to