School Reform Basics

One of the most provocative ideas in the growing stack of education reform proposals that Gov. Dannel Malloy is churning out is a disarmingly simple one: What if the schools most in need of improvement could do whatever they had to do to fix them?

No 19th-century trade union rules dictating the school day. More pay for teachers. A longer day for children. Additional reading instruction and tutors. Teachers would be carefully selected and given more training, and much more would be expected of them.

Schools would be evaluated on one basic yardstick: whether goals for student learning were being met. (This counts as a radical idea in the world of public education.)

Would that make a difference in a state with the greatest achievement gap between poor and middle class students? Will that begin to vanquish the real villain, which is our acceptance of intensely poor cities surrounded by more affluent suburbs?

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