Fresh eyes on public education

Until this summer,  I never associated urban education reform with Davidson College, a private liberal arts school on a tranquil suburban campus.  But the college's new education scholars program has placed summer interns in the thick of Charlotte's quest to turn around inner-city schools. 

Davidson education scholars at work

The eight undergraduates are working with key players, mentoring high school students and living uptown at Johnson C. Smith University's Mosaic Village.  Among the assignments:  Shadowing  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Deputy Superintendent Ann Clark,  helping the public-private Project LIFT analyze data and plan strategy, working with support and advocacy groups ranging from Teach For America to Communities in Schools,  and connecting directly with schools,  including CMS' Billingsville Elementary and Sugar Creek Charter School.  The students have a range of career plans,  but all see themselves making a difference in education.

The real-life experience is bound to teach them things they'd never learn in a college classroom,  even from the best of professors.  Their views are likely to energize the groups they work with and broaden the public discussion.  Part of their assignment is to blog about what they're thinking and learning.  They've already weighed in on digital education,  discussed the frustrations imposed by web filters designed to protect kids and discovered that red tape can bog down well-intentioned projects.  And one of them has demonstrated video blogging skill that leaves  me in the dust  (not that that's hard to do).

I got to meet the scholars early on,  talking to them about CMS and blogging during their orientation.  They struck me as smart, energetic people who ask good questions.  I'm eager to read more about their summer.  Maybe in a few years we'll all get to see some of them in action.

Dropout success: Hard to gauge

The headline on the national Communities in Schools press release last February was eye-catching: "Evaluation Ranks Communities In Schools as Most Effective Dropout Prevention Organization in America."  The ranking,  it said,  was based on  "the largest and most comprehensive evaluation of dropout prevention programs ever completed."

The attached 34-page report was much less dramatic. There was no independent entity doing long-term tracking of participants in various dropout-prevention programs.  Instead, CIS had commissioned ICF International to look at how well the schools participating in the program are carrying out its work and suggest ways to improve the system.  The group also pulled in some effectiveness data,  including randomized controlled trials in three states  (only two involved high schools)  and effects on dropout and graduation rates from four other groups listed on the federal What Works Clearinghouse.

For those of you who want to delve in and draw your own conclusions,  a description of the data sources in on pages 4-5 of the report.  The comparison with four other programs is on pages 12-13,  and data on  differences between CIS schools and comparison schools not using the program is on pages 22-23.

My conclusion:  There was nothing clear enough to justify a  "best in the nation"  headline,  or even to grab the attention of general readers.  I didn't loop back to this until Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools repeated the claim as part of its 2012-13 budget pitch.  At that point,  I was surprised to discover that the What Works Clearinghouse does do effectiveness ratings on dropout prevention programs, but Communities in Schools isn't among them.

Talking to folks in the U.S. Department of Education,  which runs the clearinghouse,  led me to Mark Dynarski,  a former clearinghouse director who developed the dropout-prevention effectiveness tracking.  Now a consultant,  he was quick to tell me he has "a financial relationship"  with ICF and with the philanthropy that paid for the CIS study.  But he wasn't complimentary about what he saw:  Small numbers,  "cherry-picking" of findings and a marketing spin on the conclusion.  He said you might expect a group that started in 1974 to have extensive long-term studies:  "They sure don't study themselves a lot, do they?"

Not that it's unusual to find a dropout prevention group with sparse data.  Dynarski agrees with the journal  article by John Tyler and Magnus Loftstrum saying such data is "woefully inadequate,"  even though boosting graduation rates is a top priority for public schools across the country.  "The Dropout Prevention
Center/Network lists hundreds of dropout prevention programs in its online database of  'model programs.'  Only relatively few of these programs,  however,  have been rigorously evaluated for effectiveness," they write.

Amid CMS' woes, student's hopefulness shines

As Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools struggles to close an estimated $100 million budget gap, there's been lots of controversy and debate over how the budget cuts and school closings are affecting low-income students. Sometimes, the adults shout so loudly the voices of the students themselves get drowned out.

Communities in Schools, the drop-out prevention program, is producing a series of videos about students it's helping in local schools. I watched this one, about Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology student Jarvis Williams. I've never met the young man, but I was inspired by his quiet determination to succeed, despite his family's less-than-ideal financial circumstances. Maybe you will be, too.