Community Schools: What's Missing is Synergy
I had the opportunity recently to interview David Kirp, a UC-Berkeley professor, author, and a member of President Obama's 2008 transition team.
One of Kirp's areas of expertise is early childhood education, and he helped with the blueprint for the $500 million in challenge grants now being offered by the U.S. Department of Education.
The full interview is available for EdMedia Commons members, but I wanted to take a moment here to share a few of Kirp's interesting points. Kirp's new book is entitled Kids First: Five Big Ideas for Transforming Children's Lives and America's Future. Among his suggestions is that parents start nest eggs now for their children's post-secondary education, and he encourages both public and private entities to offer matching funds for every dollar saved. I asked Kirp how his suggestion juxtaposes with the current debate over whether a college education is worth the financial cost. He didn't minced words, calling it "Groundhog Day in American politics," and pointing out he heard the same arguments being made in the 1970's.
"We are in a tough moment and nobody’s doing well, but I don’t think anyone is going to argue a high school diploma is going to give you the skills you need to do well in this economy," Kirp said. "A four-year degree isn’t always necessary. But you’re going to need something beyond high school, and that something is going to cost money."
Kirp also believes children would be better off if less time (and money) were spent hunting for the Next Best Thing, and instead people joined forces to support strong programs that are already working. "Every foundation I’ve ever talked to says if a group is thinking systematically –and not programmatically – and they come to us, we’re going to give them more money," Kirp said. "Do you each want $25,000 checks? Or do you want a $500,000 check to work together? This has to happen on a wider scale."
When it comes to unifying forces on behalf of kids, schools, Kirp said public agencies and nonprofits have a long way to go -- even with a fairly impressive example to follow. A half-century ago, seniors were much worse off than children when it came to their share of federal spending. That changed when AARP mobilized seniors. "This is an organization with just three items on the agenda: Social Security, Medicare and prescription drugs," he said. "Everybody’s got the AARP message. There is nothing in the universe of children’s advocates that even comes close."
Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email me at erichmond@ewa.org. I'm also on Twitter @EWAEmily.
The full interview is available for EdMedia Commons members, but I wanted to take a moment here to share a few of Kirp's interesting points. Kirp's new book is entitled Kids First: Five Big Ideas for Transforming Children's Lives and America's Future. Among his suggestions is that parents start nest eggs now for their children's post-secondary education, and he encourages both public and private entities to offer matching funds for every dollar saved. I asked Kirp how his suggestion juxtaposes with the current debate over whether a college education is worth the financial cost. He didn't minced words, calling it "Groundhog Day in American politics," and pointing out he heard the same arguments being made in the 1970's.
"We are in a tough moment and nobody’s doing well, but I don’t think anyone is going to argue a high school diploma is going to give you the skills you need to do well in this economy," Kirp said. "A four-year degree isn’t always necessary. But you’re going to need something beyond high school, and that something is going to cost money."
Kirp also believes children would be better off if less time (and money) were spent hunting for the Next Best Thing, and instead people joined forces to support strong programs that are already working. "Every foundation I’ve ever talked to says if a group is thinking systematically –and not programmatically – and they come to us, we’re going to give them more money," Kirp said. "Do you each want $25,000 checks? Or do you want a $500,000 check to work together? This has to happen on a wider scale."
When it comes to unifying forces on behalf of kids, schools, Kirp said public agencies and nonprofits have a long way to go -- even with a fairly impressive example to follow. A half-century ago, seniors were much worse off than children when it came to their share of federal spending. That changed when AARP mobilized seniors. "This is an organization with just three items on the agenda: Social Security, Medicare and prescription drugs," he said. "Everybody’s got the AARP message. There is nothing in the universe of children’s advocates that even comes close."
Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email me at erichmond@ewa.org. I'm also on Twitter @EWAEmily.
Labels: Andre Agassi College Prep Academy, college_finance, community schools, David Kirp, early childhood, early_childhood, readiness
posted by Emily Richmond at
6:12 AM
2 Comments:
From where I sit, I see two trends in education.
Yes, there's the constant "next best thing" -- which right now includes Promise Neighborhoods and Community Schools (shades of the "once best thing" settlement houses, but that's a different story).
At the same time, there's the "more and more of the same" where if we're not getting better grade 3 reading scores and higher graduation rates after 40 years of birth-5 programs, what we need are more birth-5 programs, and better birth-5 programs ... We can't take a step back and see that the programs have had the unintended consequence of raising the school entry bar so that the 5-year-old entering kindergarten is now supposed to have already mastered what the 6.5-year-old was expected to know half way through Grade 1 in the late 1980s. So today's poor kids who aren't attending "quality" preschools start FURTHER behind, which makes the odds even higher that they will be LEFT behind.
But when, as in the city where I work, a nonprofit is advancing reading scores a grade a month ... or, as at our Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club (serving almost exclusively low-income families), almost every kid who attends at least 3x/wk advances to the next grade and 20% make A/B honor roll ... no one is asking what we do that works. Because we're not professional educators. Just people who really care about hitting the goal.
So other people will keep throwing their big grants at the problems. We'll keep graduating solutions. And hope someone someday asks how.
You've made some good points, especially about the knowledge gap that's persisting in the early grades. Could you tell me the city you work in and the name of the nonprofit group? I'm interested in following up.
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