URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS RAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Trend shows students gain when city schools do "What Works"

America's urban school districts are making substantial progress in raising student achievement. Many school systems once derided as beyond repair are now posting double-digit gains in student achievement, many for three to five years in a row. Other districts have shown less dramatic gains, but still are an undeniable part of this trend. This news is detailed in a new report from the American Federation of Teachers called Doing What Works: Improving Big City School Districts, which also examines the factors behind this trend and how it can be sustained and expanded.

Nearly every city can claim individual schools that have broken a cycle of poor performance, and gains on achievement tests generally make news--for a day. But now a new story is unfolding--entire urban school districts, and not just individual schools, are improving steadily across many locations.

This irrefutable trend is only beginning to gain recognition.

"The failures of low-performing schools have been chronicled vividly, but the progress of big city districts, which many had deemed unreformable, has received considerably less notice," AFT president Sandra Feldman said. "While no one would claim that urban school districts have yet achieved universal excellence, no one can deny the progress evident in their accomplishments over the past few years."

Not every district profiled in Doing What Works has fully implemented all of the reforms described in this report, nor has every school. However, districts that have shown more substantial achievement gains have put in place a comprehensive set of reforms. Simply put, all the districts have improved student achievement by doing what works, including: putting high standards in place, implementing research-backed academic programs, strengthening professional development, reducing class size, providing extra help for struggling students, ensuring safe and orderly schools, and involving school officials, school staff, unions, families and community organizations.

"The lesson of these 'turnaround' districts is that putting in place--and sticking to--commonsense and research-proven reforms gets results," Feldman said.

Feldman acknowledged that much work remains to be done. "There is a long way to go, but there is a right way to go," she said. "These districts demonstrate which reforms produce measurable gains in student achievement."

Some of the most impressive improvements have occurred in the following districts, each of which has sustained gains for at least three years:

• Baltimore: Baltimore students' math and reading scores have risen three years in a row, with some impressive leaps. First-grade reading scores have soared nearly 20 points since spring 1998. And first-grade math scores have jumped 11 points just since 1999.

• Chicago: Scores on national assessments have increased steadily since the 1994-95 school year. Between 1995 and 1999, elementary and high school students scoring at or above grade level in reading increased by about 35 percent. By 1999, test scores were up an average of 10 percent districtwide. City officials also report higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates and lower mobility rates.

• Corpus Christi: Between 1994 and 1999, the number of students passing all state achievement tests increased by 24 percentage points. Low-income students made big gains, and local and community colleges reported fewer students needing remedial instruction.

• Minneapolis: Passing rates on all state assessments have increased since testing began four years ago. Since 1997, the number of students passing the state basic skills test jumped 25 percent in math and 70 percent in reading.

• New York City: All of the city's "low-performing" schools have improved, and those receiving the most intensive support, through a union-management program, improved at twice the rate of comparable schools. In the city’s District 2, where over half the students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, students outperformed statewide averages--urpassing many suburban districts.

• Philadelphia: The percentage of students scoring at or above the basic level on the Stanford-9 test increased for the fourth straight year--up 44 percent since 1996. Several grades posted double-digit gains, such as 10th-graders' 21.6 percent leap in the number of students at or above basic.

• Washington, D.C.: Student achievement has increased for the third year in a row. Significant percentages of elementary students moved out of the "below basic" (lowest) level. In sixth grade, for example, the number of students in the lowest performance level decreased by 11 percentage points.

Many other districts are seeing positive developments, as well. Hartford, Conn., for example, for years ranked the lowest performing district in the state. A strong partnership between Superintendent Anthony Amato and the leadership of the Hartford Federation of Teachers has led to a districtwide focus on literacy and research-proven practice, credited with helping lift achievement scores after only one year. In January 2000, state-announced student test scores revealed that Hartford students made double-digit gains in nearly every category. In fact, test scores improved more in 1999 than in the prior four years combined.

More than two million students are educated just in the districts mentioned above. Still, the report calls on school districts to extend the reach and accelerate the pace of reforms so that all children can benefit from what works.

In many districts, teacher unions are working with administrators to focus time and attention on the poorest-performing schools and, when necessary, redesign them entirely.

"Boards of education, superintendents, union leaders, parents, and school staff have to work together on solutions," said AFT president Sandra Feldman. "If we have the guts and patience to work together, we can rebuild these schools into places where teachers can teach and kids can learn and flourish.

"Imagine the progress that could be made if every district focused its efforts and resources on doing what works for all children," Feldman continued.

Advocates for strengthening public schools have pressed for these efforts even as politicians and pundits have called for vouchers, for-profit education--even the abandonment of public schools. Now is the time to stop fighting ideological battles and focus instead on doing what works, Feldman said.

"This is not only sound educational policy, it is what the public demands," she continued, citing recent surveys, including the 2000 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll, which show that the public would rather improve public schools than provide vouchers for private schools.

The report calls on urban school districts that are floundering to waste no time getting started on the work ahead: applying the lessons of successful reform efforts to the schools in desperate need of them.

"We know what works," Feldman said. "We must not stop until every school is one to which we would send our own children.

"No parent or student should have to feel that they have to leave a public school in order to get an orderly environment, high academic standards, a challenging curriculum and decent class sizes," Feldman concluded. "These districts show us that urban schools can work, are working, and that others can follow suit."

Doing What Works is available for download in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format (91k).

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