Focus on fixing the broken system, not the broken schools

The adults in the room are busy again.

On Thursday, the New York State Education Department revealed its annual list of “accountability decisions.” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa touted the development of “multiple strategies to improve educational equity” across New York. The Rochester City School District declared that it has finally found a winning strategy at School No. 9, which showed unusual progress on state tests.

“Rochester is on the move, building momentum and excitement as we accelerate the agenda to lift our schools and make a collective impact on every child,” cheered outgoing Rochester City School Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams.

All this hoopla misses the point: We have a public education system that creates broken schools. A lot of them.

Piecing schools together, without any glue

The adults try to cover that fact up by spending tens of millions in federal and state tax dollars to temporarily do something different at the “bad” schools. We officially declare them broken and hastily develop remediation plans. We piece the “bad” schools together without using glue, and manufacture data points to tout our “good” work. Then, as we move on to the next “bad” school, we ignore the crumbling in our wake. Exhaustive research shows these school improvement efforts have no long-term effect on student outcome.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that we still have a public education system that creates broken schools. A lot of them.

We should be making “accountability decisions” about the adults who are responsible for keeping this reprehensible system in place.

Money matters

There are a few bright spots. For example, New York state education officials are veering away from using standardized test scores as the sole measure of a school’s performance. Research has shown these tests place detrimental limits on what and how children learn. The tests can be gamed by adults who want to prove they are doing a “good” job more than they want their students to learn.

The state’s broader approach to school accountability shows serious problems exist in some area suburban districts and charter schools too, not just RCSD. That revelation brings us back to the fact that we have a public education system that creates broken schools. A lot of them.

So why aren’t we building a better system?

The first step should be to acknowledge that money matters. Failing schools that are given additional funding almost always show progress until that funding is taken away. Notably, the extra money is often used to add social workers, mental health counselors and other student and family supports that, when consistently funded, have made a significant difference in other impoverished communities.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature must start by redesigning the system the state uses to distribute operating aid to school districts and continue increasing education funding. Children in districts with high or growing poverty rates need a lot more help than they are getting. That investment will be far less than what we now spend on the consequences of our failure to educate these children. Public assistance and incarceration, for example, don’t come cheap.

We know that more money is far from the only answer, especially if it is handed to a school board that has demonstrated incompetence in managing a $1 billion budget. There are many other steps that need to happen. Until the adults in the room start taking them, we will keep failing kids. A lot of them.

 MORE: Closing failing schools is a failing solution in Rochester