Stellar schools

Chalkboard
Originally uploaded by kpishdadi.

Is the title of an editorial in today's Baltimore Sun, that seems to take up the "positive deviance" line that I've been discussing in the context of education--identifying clusters of excellence in otherwise dysfunctional institutions and working to replicate these practices and lift up the organization.

From the editorial:

The National Center for Educational Accountability, based in Austin, Texas, has been examining elementary, middle and high schools, using three years of testing and other performance data as well as socioeconomic data. By comparing schools that have similar demographics but not-so-similar academic outcomes, NCEA has distilled a handful of "best practices" that have been echoed in other studies, but that clearly make a difference. Among them: clear academic focus and challenging curriculums; strong school leadership and highly qualified teachers; intense monitoring of how teachers teach and students learn; and appropriate interventions when student performance starts to lag. High expectations for students are implied in the rigorous curriculum, and NCEA experts also cited the need for cooperation and coordination among professionals at the district, school and classroom levels....

Implementing some of NCEA's best practices could be made easier with extra resources, such as money, time or personnel - particularly in schools that have high concentrations of needy students. But the main ingredient for success is really commitment to academic excellence. So long as more schools and districts maintain what NCEA experts call a "laser-like focus on teaching and learning," the center's list of high performers will likely keep growing.

Index Keywords: education