SACRAMENTO, CA - The influential education research organization EdSource recently published a report that supports key findings in They Have Overcome: High-Poverty, High-Performing Schools in California. That Pacific Research Institute study, released in fall 2002, profiled eight public elementary schools whose low-income students achieved at high levels. The PRI study analyzed the curricula, teaching methods, standards implementation, and other factors at these schools and found a common formula for success.

First, the schools PRI profiled use a structured, systematic, phonics-intensive reading program called Open Court. The schools ensured that all teachers had adequate training in Open Court's direct-instruction teaching methods that involve teacher presentation of material followed by practice, review, and frequent assessment. These proven methods are an anathema to liberal educators who favor student-centered learning, whereby students discover their own knowledge and teachers act as mere facilitators.

The schools were also highly focused on implementing the state's rigorous academic content standards, not only in the classroom but also emphasizing the standards in teacher professional development activities. Further, the schools had high expectations of their students.

A similar formula for success is echoed in the EdSource report, "Lowest-Performing Schools," released in February. It found that in a survey of very low-performing schools that made "exemplary progress" in raising test scores, 75 percent used the Open Court reading curriculum. Most of these schools were from the Los Angeles Unified School District, which adopted Open Court in 2001-02.

EdSource interviewed Los Angeles school officials who noted that their "exemplary progress" schools "were among those that had most fully implemented the elements of the state's recommended direct-instruction approach, in this case through Open Court." The Los Angeles officials also said that teacher training in Open Court has been extensive, with teacher professional development days and teacher coaching devoted to the curriculum.

Dr. Norma Baker, principal at Hudnall Elementary in Inglewood, told PRI, "Everything we have here is content-standards driven." The EdSource study quotes a principal who said, "the California standards have provided a blueprint for making major headway."

In the PRI study, all principals had high expectations for their low-income students. Sue Wong, then-principal at Lane elementary in East Los Angeles, said: "You get what you expect. The teachers and classrooms that do well are those that have high expectations." The EdSource study found that a common thread to success "is the schoolwide focus on student achievement and high expectations...."

Interestingly, the EdSource study found that school district spending and teacher salaries couldn't be correlated with student performance - an important point given that many education groups demand higher taxes for education spending. Also, the EdSource study found that teacher turnover is a major problem and that the cause can be traced, in significant part, to seniority rights in union contracts that allow teachers to jump to different grade levels or schools. Another PRI study, Contract for Failure, which analyzed 460 teacher union contracts in California, also found that union seniority rights prevent the right teacher from being placed in the right classroom at the right time.

The EdSource study confirms PRI's findings: that empirically proven research-based curricula combined with proven research-based teaching methods and based on the state's rigorous academic standards can result in high achievement for all students. There is simply no excuse for failure.