Orange County Register April 23, 2003

Can minority students from poor families excel in school? Some in education claim that bad test scores reflect these students' low-income backgrounds, an explanation that lets schools off the hook too quickly.

However, the tremendous academic success of a handful of public schools with large populations of students from high-poverty backgrounds explodes the "too poor to perform" myth. Such success is attainable even in these times of budget austerity.

At the elementary school level, where students must obtain the basic skills and knowledge necessary for future success, there are a number of high-poverty, high-performing schools in California. High performance means the school received a ranking of at least a 7 on the state's 1-to-10 Academic Performance Index scale, while high poverty means having 80 percent or more of students on government-subsidized lunch programs. These schools also have sizeable percentages of African-American or Hispanic students.

If we closely examine these schools, they have a common formula for success. And that success can easily be replicated by lower-performing schools in the state and nationwide.

First, school leaders must have the right attitude toward students. The assumption shouldn't be that low income automatically equals low achievement. This approach is followed by leaders like Dr. Norma Baker, principal of high-poverty, high-performing Hudnall Elementary School in Inglewood. Dr. Baker says that if one sets high expectations for children and communicates that to them, "then they in turn will work hard to meet those expectations."

These schools also take the state's rigorous academic content standards seriously. While many other schools have ignored the standards, which are the basis for state tests, Dr. Baker says that at her school, "Everything we have here is content-standards driven." Payne Elementary, another high-poverty, high-performing school in Inglewood, requires that teacher lesson plans indicate what standards are addressed during particular lessons.

Choice of curriculum is critical. Structured systematic phonics-based reading programs such as the Open Court reading curriculum, for example, are used by many high-poverty, high-performing schools. Principal Sue Wong, who made Robert Hill Lane Elementary School in East L.A. a success story, said that her school used to use a non-phonics reading program with terrible results. After switching to a structured phonics program, she says of her students, "We saw growth, we saw improvement, we saw more commitment." Parents were amazed by their children's progress.

The successful schools ignore trendy touchy-feely teaching methods that put students in charge of their own learning, with the teacher as a mere facilitator. Instead, they use teacher-centered direct instruction. High-poverty, high-performing schools have not bought into the anti-testing philosophy that pervades many teacher training textbooks. On the contrary, these schools see testing as an important tool in diagnosing the weaknesses of both students and teachers.

It is important to point out that these successful methods can be implemented even during times of budget austerity. Having high expectations is not expensive, nor are adhering to state standards and using empirically proven teaching methods. The state Board of Education has adopted a phonics-based reading series, and there is a good chance the state will free up billions of dollars in earmarked funds so school districts can have the flexibility to purchase textbooks.

For lawmakers and education policymakers, then, there are important lessons to be learned. There are schools in California that have overcome demographic challenges and have become beacons of light in a foggy education landscape. The real challenge is to use these successful models to raise the performance of all underachieving children in the Golden State.

William E. Simon Jr. is a former Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Lance Izumi is a Senior Fellow in Education Studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached via email at lizumi@pacificresearch.org.