THANKS, W!:

The Battle for D.C.’s High Schools (NY Times, 8/06/09)

Mayor Adrian Fenty of Washington and his hard-charging chancellor of schools, Michelle Rhee, face great challenges in their attempt to turn around a school system that has long been known as one of the nation’s worst. The climb will be especially steep with the city’s 15 high schools, 10 of which are undergoing various forms of restructuring because they have failed to meet progress standards under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The mayor and the chancellor are justified in taking radical steps, especially in schools that have failed for decades on end. Among other things, the city should bring in a select few of the nation’s top charter school operators, but only the ones that have demonstrated clear success at the high school level. [...]

Green Dot seems a good fit for Washington’s difficult environment. It was pioneering high school charters nearly a decade ago, when many groups still viewed the high school problem as insoluble. In California, the group has opened 18 highs schools, developing a reputation for educating children who have been poorly served in the lower grades and sending a large proportion to college.

The genius of NCLB is that once a school is failing you can have radical reform. And all schools eventually fail.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 6, 2009 7:43 AM