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Currently, Illinois State Senator, Reverend James Meeks, is seeking support for his effort to compel Chicago Public School students to skip the first day of school and, instead, travel to Chicago's most affluent suburbs and attempt to enroll there, despite that this is prohibited by Illinois' school residency requirement.His efforts, as well as the school reform efforts of Bill and Melinda Gates, along with Jonathon Kozol's latest harsh critique of America's schools, "The Shame of the Nation," were recently featured on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, coupled with a plea for volunteers to help find the answers to America's school failure.The following is my response:

An Open Letter to Bill & Melinda Gates, Jonathon Kozol, Rev. Meeks, & Oprah Winfrey:

As a seasoned educator I witness firsthand every day the problems with our current educational system that are not simply the result of racially-biased education, but of a bureaucracy designed to ensure the success of only one group of students.I have identified what I believe to be the five greatest problems affecting America's schools today, as well as five corresponding and achievable solutions.

In order to confront our nation's growing educational crisis we must first face a stark reality.What is being characterized as a "race" problem is actually largely a "poverty" problem.In America's poorest school systems it is clear that more is needed to offset the devastating effects of poverty, crime, drug abuse and tragedy pervasive in the homes of many of our most struggling students.These are psychological, if not medical, issues that cannot simply be remedied by strict adherence to State learning goals.Still, our teachers are evaluated primarily on their ability to impart this prescribed curriculum at a prescribed pace and at a prescribed difficulty level.They are, in turn, required to rate (grade) their students' performance on their ability to demonstrate mastery of this instruction.Needless to say, students who enter their classes lacking in sufficient supports to overcome their emotional and physiological distractions, many with a history of inattention to these needs, will likely fail.Unless they are special education teachers, they are neither trained nor otherwise qualified to address these learning deficits, while most have little extra time available to do so.Most regular education teachers have very full classes with cumbersome teaching expectations.

Naturally, greater access to better resources would help more students, yet a disparity in distribution of resources exists not only from district to district, but between schools within the same district.Rev. Meeks need not direct Chicago students to the outlying suburbs where they don't reside, but to the north side of their own city, where some of the schools appear indistinguishable from the best suburbs, in terms of resources and facilities.School districts are permitted to report their schools' demographic and test score data by school, while reporting their "per pupil expenditures" by district average.This results in many districts funneling the bulk of their resources, not toward their neediest students, but toward their most affluent.

Nevertheless, it is not a lack of resources, alone, that is failing these students.In one very poor Illinois school district, students of all cultures and races from a local military base move into the district throughout the year and do exceptionally well, often comprising most of the honor's classes.No, there are other factors preventing the success of our neediest students.

5 Major Problems:

Problem 1: Special education "Quotas" – Despite the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 and its subsequent revisions, this Act has never been fully funded by the U.S. Department of Education.As a result, states have been forced to impose unofficial limits, called "expectations," on the percentage of students that schools may "identify" for supplemental educational services and assistance.Excessive identification of students for these services, even if needed, could result in a school being sanctioned by their State, or at least investigated.Too often, therefore, it is the parents who are the "squeakiest wheels" whose children receive the help they need, with the financially-strapped schools bypassing those students whose parents simply don't understand or don't care.Schools situated in more affluent areas, having the luxury of tapping their communities' generous property taxes, are more willing to address the needs of more of these students.In some cases, students with fewer learning needs in these districts will often receive more services than those with greater needs residing in poorer school systems.

Problem 2: "Retention" as the first Intervention – Instead of identifying all potential learning needs early on, many students are, instead, simply "held back" one grade level, particularly in poorer schools, in the hopes that repeating the prior year's instruction will reinforce the material and resolve their learning deficits.This rarely works, sometimes resulting in the students simply being "retained" once again.The long-term negative impact on a student's future is often not understood by those making the decision.It is not until the child is a 16-year old middle-schooler that the devastating limitations are realized.Statistics show that entering high school at this advanced age almost ensures that they will drop out before ever finishing.Sadly, this practice is largely driven by schools' efforts to comply with the No Child Left Behind mandate now prohibiting "social promotion" based on age, alone, when not accompanied by prescribed "grade-level" achievement.What is misunderstood, however, is a concurrent mandate requiring that students be educated "with their same-aged peers."School structure is so indoctrinated with an adherence to artificial "grade-levels" that most educators cannot perceive of teaching to multiple ability/achievement levels within one age-level.

Problem 3:Schools assume too many health problems that "good teaching" can't fix – Many of our poorest neighborhoods today are fraught with heavy drug and alcohol use, occurring both during pregnancy and throughout parenting.Drug abuse and poverty is often coupled with violence and parental neglect.This affects pre-natal development, early nourishment, neuro and cognitive development.Many children of these environments also develop serious psychological problems requiring significant intervention that often goes untreated.Recent studies have shown that a large number of diagnosed "learning disabilities" actually stem from unidentified vision or hearing deficits, while many "behavioral disabilities" are actually symptoms of severe depression and other pathologies.Unfortunately, lack of affordable healthcare, coupled with burgeoning child protective agency caseloads, results in many of these children's needs being, instead, dumped on the schools to "fix," long after the damage has already been done.

Problem 4: Expectations that are too high discourage many – There is an obsession in America for us to appear smarter as a nation than we really are.As part of our futile attempt to improve our schools, our legislators have chosen to ignore a key reality.That is, that Americans are not all descendants of scientists, professors, symphony conductors, and surgeons.Most, instead, are the offspring of factory workers, middle-managers, retail clerks and truck drivers.This does not mean that all students shouldn't be given the same opportunities to achieve greatness.But, as standardized test scores continue to demonstrate, a child's potential for higher learning is clearly established by the age of 12.Yet, in most of our high schools, we now require that all students complete a college-preparation track in order to graduate.Never mind that most of the courses listed on their transcripts are so watered-down that they cannot subsequently pass college entrance exams.This is not the result of poor teaching, but of administrative pressures borne from school boards seeking to please parents who are more interested in the "pomp and circumstance" than a quality education for their children.Ironically, the public pressure to have unsubstantiated course titles appear on students' transcripts stems, in part, from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which was compelled to raise their academic standards when awarding athletic scholarships, (and so now award students who only appear to meet their criteria.)"Wink, wink."

Problem 5: Schools don't help the vocational-bound – The best way to explain this is to share a personal story:

My grandmother was an intelligent woman who worked as a very capable secretary for most of her 90 years.Recently, Chicago Public Schools made available an internet database of all of its former graduates.In searching her name my family discovered that she had, indeed, graduated from Chicago Lawn High School in 1913 at the age of 15 with a two-year diploma as a "Stenographer."As we perused the list of graduates we were amazed to discover that most of them had been designated for a particular career path at the very young age of 13.Some of the other two-year career diplomas being earned that year included Mechanic, Engineer, and Carpenter.There were also some students who had completed a college-bound diploma, (also in only two years), but these were by far in the minority.

My grandmother had obviously been properly identified for her profession at a very early age.Clearly, an emphasis on earning a viable living was taken more seriously in that era, than it is today.My grandmother likely never completed a course in biochemistry or trigonometry, but was a very successful and productive member of society throughout her life.Today, many students, aware of their own limitations, and with a need to become self-supporting, are faced with an enormous list of difficult and unneeded courses.As a result, many become discouraged and simply drop out.

As with any true change, a complete paradigm shift must occur in order to expect different results.In the case of America's schools, we must first come to terms with what we want them to achieve, and what we do not; which students we want to help, and what results we expect.If our priorities continue to be 1) college for all, whether or not students are well-suited for higher learning; 2) athletic scholarships at any cost, even if it means a disingenuous education; 3) timely graduations, even if little has been learned; 4) four years of high school, when two years are sufficient; and 5) a punitive attitude toward the children of inadequately-prepared parents, even if it means we will all eventually pay for their shortcomings; then we cannot complain when we get what we wished for.

5 Workable Solutions:

Solution 1:Eliminate special education quotas – It is both immoral and criminal to provide specialized educational services to some students, and not others.Schools must no longer be held to any sort of quotas in providing needed supplemental services, based on "typical" needs of most schools situated in "typical" neighborhoods, but schools must be adequately funded to meet all identified learning needs within their power to address.

Solution 2:Eliminate physical retention away from same-aged peers – Within any 12-month age group there are variances in developmental levels.It is unreasonable, therefore, to expect all students, some who may be 11½ months apart in age, to be able to grasp all instruction equally at the same time.However, rather than move students as a group through all academic subjects, regardless of inequities in understanding, students should be taught with their same-aged peers at their current levels of subject mastery.Further, standardized tests, regarded as an additional burden by most schools, should be incorporated directly with the instruction, as mastery exams, with required scores for promotion, to the next level of instruction, (not age group), rendering student mastery far less subjective and political.

Solution 3:No longer burden schools with resolving medical problems – Schools, which are not governed by the American Medical Association (AMA), are incapable of adequately serving as medical and mental health facilities, being expected to treat all factors affecting a child's learning simply because learning is a factor in their medically-based conditions.Schools must be given the leeway to partner with designated medical providers to share some of the burden of their students' specialized learning and developmental needs originating outside of their schools.At the same time, the medical community must relieve schools of the burden of treating all precipitating medical conditions affecting learning.

Solution 4: Set realistic expectations for Secondary Education – This can be done by utilizing student achievement data, along with parental and student input, in determining students' secondary education options. Virtually all other industrialized nations require entrance criteria and commitment from students and parents in order for a student to be admitted to a college-bound instructional track.All other students in Germany, Japan and most other developed nations are assigned a more realistic path that will ensure their ability to be self-sustaining adults.In the 1970's only 16 credits were required for graduation from most high schools in the U.S.Today it is closer to 24.What are we trying to prove?In most cases, all of the basic academic coursework of English, Math, Science and History must still be repeated during the first two years of college, while a General Education Diploma (GED) is able to be obtained by completing just one 4-hour exam.For those students who are not so inclined, why do we not permit a basic high school diploma, which may not meet all NCAA and Ivy League requirements, but would qualify students for admission to most community colleges and vocational schools?Instead of being afraid of allowing "lowered" standards, we would be setting more realistic options that would ensure success for more students who can never reach a "bar" that is too high.

Further, by allowing a basic high school diploma, able to be completed in two years, (particularly with the availability of online courses already utilized by many high schools), students who have earned this diploma, most by the age of 16 or 17, could then enter job training internship programs, allowing them competitive access to viable careers.

Solution 5: Return to Vocational Diploma options – This is an extension of the above solution, but even more defined for students who are less likely to access post-secondary training options on their own, even with modified diploma requirements.This option would allow students who lack the ability or desire to complete even a two-year traditional diploma to enroll in a vocational diploma completion option, (such as my grandmother and her classmates), while still in high school.Numerous areas of vocational need in America could be fulfilled by this mutually-beneficial opportunity, while students would leave high school far more employable. With both options, students would be rewarded for their strengths, and gain a sense of purpose and self-worth, often before being seduced by gangs and other illegal activity.Instead of denying students opportunities to realize their full potential, more potential would actually be utilized for more students.With teacher shortages and student dropout rates at an all time high, there is simply no need to demand more than necessary from those who are less capable or inclined, particularly when it is at the expense of their realizing their true talents.

Chicago Public Schools maintains the unrealistic expectation that all of its high school graduates complete a fairly grueling college track that even they know is impossible to attain.While all of its graduates' transcripts reflect completion of "Advanced Algebra-Trigonometry" and other advanced coursework, the under-achieving students are, instead, placed into "substitute" lower-level courses, such as "Basic Math." Instead of Chicago school leaders, and others, creating false expectations, why not simply face a reality that was very clear to their predecessors 95 years ago, and allow these students a legitimate and achievable path to successful adulthood?At the time, this would permit greater learning opportunities with fewer distractions for the more advanced students who truly do wish to pursue a college education.

Published August 20, 2008