A Tale of Three States

In chapter 5 of The Flat World in Education Linda Darling-Hammond takes a closer look at three different states to try and uncover what fueled their success or lack there of. As discussed in the last post there have been many court cases where people are fighting for the right to an education. Some of those cases actually do make a difference but the changes that stem from them must be well planned and consistent.

Connecticut and North Carolina are two states that are really taking steps to make positive changes in the education culture. Both of of these states have made major changes in the profession of teaching by raising standards and equalizing salaries. Connecticut spent an initial $300million to equalize teacher salaries so that urban districts could compete for good teachers and between 1986 and 1991 raised the base salary by 50%. This created a surplus of teachers and allowed districts to be highly selective. In North Carolina the state started a fellowship program that selected high school students to recieve an "enhanced and fully-funded" teacher education program in return for years of service. And Connecticut added more rigorous licensing standards and tests along with a mentor program and increased professional development opportunities.

Along with changing the expectations of excellence from teachers they have both instated new teaching and learning standards. With the new standards came new ways to assess and evaluate students learning in varied ways. The best part about these changes is that they have been well supported and implemented consistently for more than 15 years and have the data to show real improvements. In Connecticut the students have new standards that they are held to and these standards are assessed with low-stakes testing that is only used to improve the teaching and curriculum.

Not every state has had as much success as these two. California for example is moving in the wrong direction. They came away from Serrano v. Priest which got the ball rolling for equal funding until Proposition 13 passed limiting property taxes and starting the slow decline and inequity in funding. Not only were the schools loosing funding and they were using that funding in ineffective ways with: poorly implemented class size reduction, failure to enforce state policies, and overly prescriptive curriculum mandates.