What lousy schools could learn

If educationists were interested in quality education, they would seek out successful schools and emulate their practices. These practices might then even get taught in ed schools.

Fat chance!

Phonics, Saxon math and Core Knowledge are red flags to educationists.

Here is an account of a charter school that has been incredibly successful with the disadvantaged.

Will the champions of "social justice" and equity champion its curriculum and methods?

At bottom, the reasons for Amistad’s breathtaking success are pretty simple. For starters, it boasts a rigorous academic program. The Amistad curriculum is highly traditional, based on research-based methods. For reading, it’s phonics, phonics, phonics, supplemented with literature when the kids are ready for it. The school uses the old-fashioned—and proven to work—Saxon Math program to teach ‘rithmetic. And Amistad bases its history, science, and arts instruction on E. D. Hirsch’s content-rich Core Knowledge program. What students need to know at every grade level, moreover, isn’t flexible. Every six weeks the school assesses the kids, with the evaluations then used to figure out which students need help in what subjects. With an extended school day, mandatory summer school, and tutoring before and after school, there’s time for students to catch up.