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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'd rather have a podcast about school districts that are making progress and have instituted policies or changes that have led to overall improvement. Because we hear all about the problems but nothing about real solutions with concrete examples. It makes me feel like there aren't any.[/quote]

I totally agree.  I haven't listened yet, and it sounds interesting/entertaining but also, not to contain actually any ground breaking new information.

What do we do about it?  What are the solutions?  Are they scalable?  Someone report back if she gets to that....[/quote]
The solution is in the living room at home. Which is why there exist no government policies that will ever work, other than parental education (which itself requires parental involvement) and early intervention (which is proven to work amazingly well for as long as it continues). I know it’s impossible to believe on DCUM, but not everyone cares if their child goes to college or even graduates high school, not everyone wants to read 20 minutes per day to their children or nag them to do their homework. The best place to invest policy money is in poorer preschools. If you paid just $1000 to teach every single poor URM 4 year-old to read fluently, you would see the single greatest leap in education in a single generation.[/quote]

The school district in my city was taken over last year by the state. By the numbers, it's probably one of the worst districts in the country. As in any district there are parents who don't care about education, but I talk to many students and parents who came here specifically because they thought their kids would get a good education in an American school, go to college, live the American dream. I even talk to students who were sent here by their parents to stay with other family members or family friends to get an education. 90% of students are low-income, 80% are kids of color, 35% are english learners (DOJ sued the district for not providing appropriate EL Services]. We have families in which the parents are not literate in any language. Families that speak indigenous languages. I work for a small college prep program. We operate bilingually in English/Spanish and can provide services in 3 other languages, but it gets really tough with smaller language groups.

I'm highly educated and not wealthy, but doing okay. I've tried 2x to get my child services through the district (she was in EI for her first 3 years). I was told that there are too many kids further behind. I know that's not how IDEA works, but I also know that if I fight and win, I'm probably taking those services from a kid with fewer resouces. So I pay out of pocket for the support the school should be providing. If I didn't have money, an understanding of the system, a sense of what my child is/isn't learning, and where my kid is academically compared to here peers my kid would not be making progress. Here issues cannot be solved by reading at home, lots of books, or even parent teaching.[/quote]

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