It comes as no surprise that the School Improvement Grants totaling billions of dollars haven鈥檛 done anything significant to help the nation鈥檚 5,000 lowest-performing schools (鈥�,鈥� Los Angeles Times, Jan. 27). That鈥檚 because the program focused exclusively on what takes place in school.
The trouble is that so much of any school鈥檚 success is directly dependent on what takes place outside its control. I haven鈥檛 seen the list of the schools involved, but I鈥檒l bet every one of them is located in the inner cities or rural areas of the country where poverty is endemic. Students from there bring huge deficits in socializatioin, motivation and intellectual development to school through no fault of their own. That鈥檚 not an excuse; it鈥檚 an explanation. Critics will be quick to point out the success of some charter and religious schools in educating these students. But they remain aberrations.
I believe that all children are educable. The challenge is to intervene early in their lives to help them become all they can be. But at the same time, it鈥檚 time to get real about what even the best teachers can accomplish. Dedication and professionalism are not enough to compensate for out-of-school factors. I wonder what the 419-page report by the U.S. Department of Education would have concluded if the billions of dollars were spent in the students鈥� homes and neighborhoods.