Big City Education: We Know What Works, So Why Don't We Do It?

Current State of Big-City Education

• NAEP data indicates that 46% of fourth-grade students in large urban districts are performing at a "below basic" reading level (unable to read), a figure that declined from 56% in 2003 but remains critically high.
• In math, 40% of eighth-grade students in these districts scored below basic in 2013, down from 55% in 2003.
• At the current rate of growth, projections suggest it would take 16 years to close the achievement gap between big-city district students and the national average.
• Approximately 75 million children will be educated in urban districts over the next 16 years, underscoring the urgency of intervention.
• There is a documented disconnect between high school graduates' perceived critical thinking skills and the actual deficiencies identified by teachers and employers.
• High percentages of new college entrants and workforce participants require remediation in English and math, respectively.

Core Reforms Identified by Leaders

• Paul Vallis outlines five essential practices common to all high-performing schools:
  • Curriculum and instructional strategies aligned to standards with specific instructional time on task.
  • Use of formative data assessments to enable early interventions for struggling students or weak teaching.
  • Year-round, school-based training for staff on delivering specific curriculum models.
  • Allocation of equal instructional time for basic instruction and targeted interventions.
  • Establishment of strong instructional leadership teams rather than reliance on a single principal, utilizing a "pay for performance" model for additional responsibilities.
• Rudy Crew emphasizes three additional structural areas:
  • Restructuring the day and school year, noting that current durations and intersessions are misaligned with educational needs.
  • Deepening parental and community engagement, viewing parents as essential partners rather than episodic participants.
  • Redefining accountability from a punitive "catch someone doing wrong" model to a supportive system that incubates best practices and stabilizes the environment for growth.
• Tony Miller (former U.S. Dept. of Education) highlights that:
  • 40-45% of large urban districts saw statistically significant gains in NAEP scores between 2009 and 2013, with math scores doubling the national gain rate.
  • The School Improvement Grant program, which required replacing principals and up to 50% of staff in the lowest-performing schools, showed the greatest sustained improvement relative to the national average.
  • High-performance outcomes depend on execution culture; strategy alone fails if the school culture lacks high expectations.
• Ed Rendell argues that:
  • There is no evidence that specific governance forms (e.g., mayoral control) directly correlate with results; the primary barrier is state funding.
  • Pennsylvania reduced state funding for education from 51% in 1981 to 33% under Rendell's predecessors, dropping to 34% under his successor, which Rendell calls a "disaster."
  • Finland's success is attributed to strict teacher selection (top 10% of college entrants) and high pay, whereas the U.S. attracts the bottom third of SAT scorers into teaching colleges.
  • Specific high-impact, funded interventions include mandatory full-day kindergarten, one-on-five small group tutoring, and smaller class sizes.

Governance Challenges and Political Barriers

• Rudy Crew notes that reforms often lose fidelity due to the political need for officials to claim credit for a new "brand," causing successful initiatives to morph or be abandoned under new leadership.
• Antonio Villaraigosa (former LA Mayor) describes a "checkered" record where:
  • School board governance often prioritizes adult union interests over student outcomes, with 98% of teachers receiving satisfactory ratings despite a lack of classroom observation.
  • Seniority and tenure systems resulted in 55% of teachers being replaced in his targeted turnaround schools, compared to a 3% replacement rate district-wide.
  • Attempts to implement mayoral control in LA were successfully sued and blocked by the existing district, forcing a shift toward collaborative partnerships.
  • The academic performance index (API), a key metric for school success in California, was abolished for the upcoming three years, hindering the demonstration of growth.
• Ed Rendell contends that states must be the primary funders of education, as cities lack sufficient property tax bases and federal funding covers only about 7% of total costs.

Workforce and Compensation Strategy

• Tony Miller and Rudy Crew suggest raising starting teacher salaries by approximately 20% would significantly improve the quality of applicant pools.
• Miller proposes a two-tiered system to bypass existing tenure hurdles for new hires:
  • Prohibit tenure for the first three to four years.
  • Grant a significant salary bump (up to 30% increase) upon demonstrated effectiveness.
  • Create a "master teacher" track allowing classroom educators to earn six-figure salaries without moving into administration.
• Villaraigosa and Rendell agree that current decisions based almost entirely on seniority deter talented young professionals who seek merit-based advancement.
• Paul Vallis draws a parallel to the military, advocating for training specifically "to the task" rather than abstract theory, followed by a promotion system based on performance and increased responsibility.

Forward-Looking Proposals and Strategic Shifts

• Rudy Crew proposes a "quid pro quo" federal strategy:
  • Select 50-70 superintendents across different congressional districts.
  • Provide funding contingent on implementing specific reforms: business linkages, internships, globalization standards, Common Core alignment, and new assessments.
  • Require immediate results rather than waiting a decade for long-term interventions like pre-K to pay off.
• Vallis uses the Chilean earthquake recovery effort as a case study for scaling without personnel turnover:
  • By aligning curriculum, creating a three-tier Response to Intervention (RTI) system, and training 110 local instructional leadership teams, reading scores rose significantly and math scores jumped within two years in 1,100 schools.
  • This was achieved without firing a single principal or teacher, proving that model implementation and training can yield results regardless of staff stability.
• Rendell suggests eliminating student loans for anyone entering the teaching profession as a recruitment incentive.
• Crew argues for a shift from testing compliance to global competitiveness, focusing on literacy, math, science, and cognitive development strategies derived from brain research.
• Villaraigosa warns that political will is difficult to sustain for K-12 reforms because the return on investment for upfront costs may take 10 years to materialize.