Two of our members strongly recommended the article by Paul Tough in the Nov. 26, 2006 NY Times Magazine entitled "What it will take to close the Achievement Gap." Tough noted that schools achieving the most impressive results with poor and minority students tend to follow these practices:
"many more hours of class time than a typical public school....classroom instruction and lesson planning as much as a science as an art....explicit goals set for each year, month and day....principals have considerable authority to redirect and even remove teachers who aren't meeting these goals....and a conscious effort to guide the behavior and even the values of students by teaching what they call character"
Comments