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RENAISSANCE 2010.
One hundred high-performing public schools in designated communities of need by 2010. Five-year contracts with heavy accountability measures, but beyond that, significant room for the charter schools to experiment. That's the idea of Renaissance 2010, one of Arne Duncan's signature initiatives in Chicago. Two years ago, I went out to the city of Austin to profile one of the most promising new schools, Austin Polytech, an advanced manufacturing high school that was a joint creation of city bureaucrats, local employers, community activist groups, and yes, even teacher's unions. The schools was very impressive then, and in the years since, its fame has grown, with Obama even mentioning it in speeches. The article is here, and though Duncan isn't mentioned by name, the innovative atmosphere that brought the school into being was largely his creation.
COMMENTS (4)
You mean the city of Chicago, right? Austin is a neighborhood...
Posted by: alli | December 16, 2008 11:09 AM
I'm betting alli is right and you meant Chicago, because otherwise -- you came to Austin two years ago and didn't tell me?
Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | December 16, 2008 12:15 PM
Ezra, why do you fall for these platitudes about innovation and accountability in education policy when you don't in health care policy? 1)the high school you name is teaching it's students to be metal workers. This is laudable, but hardly innovative. In fact, I know a few liberals who would object to the deliberate recreation of the class of origin by the state in this manner. (2) The school functions through increased $ from private sources along with its public funds, which allows it to purchase private contractual services, thus assisting in a massive transfer of public funds to private corporations with all of the conflicts of interest that structure entails (3)The school does not appear to be doing anything that could be recreated throughout troubled school districts. It's one school. It has a good metal working program. It's not clear but it may cream the best students. The teachers may not be unionized which may subject them to lower pay and worse working conditions or contribute to those decreases for unionized teachers. None of this is good in a systemic way.
Please approach education with the same depth of thought that you did with health care. Thanks
Posted by: ally's gift | December 16, 2008 2:20 PM
If you think Austin Polytech is just teaching metal working, you haven't a clue, or haven't bothered to check it out.
The whole point of the school is that old-fashioned metal-working is passe. Most of it is now done by automated equipment, and designing and managing for that is what's in order.
So try robotics engineering instead. Some of the kids did well in that regard at a science fair.
Or how many 'metal worker' high schools, or any high schools for that matter, bring a leader of the Italian Coop movement to address their students on worker and community ownership options, or are raising money to send a study tour of students and teachers to the Mondragon Worker Cooperatives in Spain?
Why is the school doing this? Because part of the school's mission is projecting social entrepreneurial alternatives for community and economic development in low-income areas.
I was on the design team for this school and follow it closely. Frankly, to speak kindly, you don't know what you're talking about.
Posted by: Carl Davidson | December 22, 2008 12:11 PM