Parental choice is the answer.

ALL parents want what is best for their children. Let them pick the school they want their child/ren to attend be it a private, public or charter school.

That will root out poor schools, bad administrators and teachers.

And for those really ready for the future: virtual schools. Learn online, take tests at sites and use schools for art, music, pe, sports, social activities.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710793938&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

http://www.pbceducator.net/virtual/

http://www.palmbeach.k12.fl.us/PublicAffairs/PDFs/Home_Ed_Regis_Info_Forms.pdf

Parental choice. Let local, state and federal funds follow EACH child.

@enid -
Cool - planning on making all schools follow IDEA rules? Personally, I don't want a dime of my tax dollars given to a school that is unwilling to make accomodations to include everyone - especially my autistic child! Oh, and none to schools that want to teach their students about their idea of god. And while were at it, none to schools that set a tuition rate so high that only the "right kind" of families can afford to go and so perpetuate society's segregation of the haves and have nots.

I'm all for virtual schools and charters (as long as they are truely open to all), but vouchers to private & parochial schools? Not where I want my tax dollars to go.

PBS did a special on Brown vs Board during the 50th year anniversary. One of the leaders at that time stated that their goal was not integration but equality. They would have been satisfied going to their all black schools if the schools were given the same resources as the white schools. Integration was the quick and dirty way to recover after the lawsuit. And it destroyed many functioning black schools.

So .. do diverse schools benefit society? Absolutely... will it happen? .. not likely. You cannot legislate human nature. So the easy goal should be to make sure the resources that are needed for each school to serve its respective population are made available. That way , each child has a chance to succeed.

@Enid

If only ALL parents really did care as much for their children's education as you say they do then this problem would "take care of itself." Unfortunately, these parents that have the ability, determination, and know-how to have their children enrolled in a school of their choice are not also advocating for the students whose parents who don't come to the school once, don't look at their report cards and continue to send them to the same failing schools year after year. Until all children have access to these select schools, not just the ones lucky enough to have parents ABLE and willing to negotiate the maze of school selection, the problem will exist. OvertheTop is right - there are always going to be a group of kids whose parents - for whatever reason- are not advocating for their education. That's why it is essential that all schools receive the resources neded to serve THEIR SPECIFIC poplation of kids. And yes, that may mean some schools get a little more money and services than others. In my way of thinking, a just society is one where those who have the least get the most help. And i'd really like for someone to explain to me, a teacher for 11 years in the city, how pulling your kid out of a school and sending them to a private school helps "root out poor schools, bad administrators, and teachers."

@mike -
Actually, I think my family is making a school better for students at the school who's parents can't volunteer at the luchroom when our household does volunteer. I think that when we push for accomodations in IEP meetings other students who don't have their parents at their IEP meeting will have a school team that benefits from the ideas that we have advocated for. I think that when we give money to help buy books for the library even kids who have parents who can't afford to make donations will have access to those books. And other schools in the school system can look at things that have been successful at our schools and use those ideas to help their schools. I'd like to think our efforts and energy benefits more than just our kids even if they are our primary focus.

The comments here are representative of how lost we are.

Segregation is an affront to democracy. We can't make segregation "better." TFA, NLNS, KIPP, etc. and noble voluntarist efforts miss the point.

“In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868, when the Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896, when Plessy v. Ferguson was written.”

“Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments.”

“Such an opportunity where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”

“To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a
“Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority.”

“We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

(Chief Justice Earl Warren, Majority Opinion)

@ kenneth clarke

I think you may be missing the point of OverTheTop's comment (if I understood it correctly). It was never about being with white people. It was about access to resources. Unfortunately integration has destroyed so much of what was working and postive about the black community. I (and my parents) were educated in top notch public and parochial black schools.

@everyone: apologies in advance as the following is a derivative of blog focus.
Believe Choice, fairly applied and enforced has potential to move City Schools forward in the delivery of improved leadership, sound, rigorous curriculum, and most critically, high quality instruction. For innumerable reasons, our schools fail deplorably in the delivery of systemic quality instruction.

In relationship to charter, transformation, and innovation schools, Choice appears to be influenced by a variety of constituencies; many, not in the least concerned about “all” children residing in Baltimore City. As a frequent advocate for students receiving special education services, it is common practice for charter, transformation, innovation, and city-wide schools to be allowed to “return” students identified as eligible for special education services to zoned/home school. Frequently, it is a “back-door” strategy: parents handed transfer papers; advised to enroll elsewhere; counseled your child will face certain failure, go to North Avenue for a transfer; we have too few special students, the system will not provide sufficient resources to help your child or will often conduct IEP meetings to modify the learning environment to one more restrictive; thereby, forcing transfer.

A question, is the National Academy Foundation an innovation or charter school? Thought it was initially an innovation school of choice which received Gates/Open Society funding, but have been informed a former city-wide area administrator approved entry criteria to attract higher performing students at the request of the principal and NAF board members. Is it possible removing a choice school option would be left to the hands of one administrator without public disclosure or approval by CEO/board? How could someone charged with even partial responsibility for our children’s future approve/promote exclusionary criteria in the midst of the system’s promoting school choice? Are there any ramifications to changing status from innovation to city-wide?
(looking for a copy of Blueprint once posted on internet)

It will be when residents of this City demand full Choice, local government supports without requesting special “dispensations”, school board adheres to without “favor”, CEO abides by, state board of education oversees and when necessary, the courts intervene, that our schools will begin to honestly offer all children the realistic possibility of a quality education; not, just the lucky few.

Another solution, eventual return to Supreme Court to seek equality in education across districts.

Sorry, but I disagree. What we are really looking at here is a huge social issue that can not be addressed solely by school choice, a constitutional amendment, or a supreme court ruling. We have a constituency of parents/guardians/families that are disenfranchised and have given up completely on the promise of what a quality education can bring and have instead succumbed to the lure of drugs and violence. The influence this lifestyle has on children has such a negative impact on educational achievement. A school can not be expected to pick up the slack for a parent who spends the afternoon and evening selling or running drugs or engaged in prostitution. How is a child who has been given the responsibility to raise his or her siblings going to find time for the responsibilities of school? How is this child going to see the value of an education if no one in the home believes in the value? Why would a teen-aged boy in Baltimore who has to run drugs to keep the heat on and who knows that the male life-span in his neighborhood averages in the low 20's care at all about education?

The solutions offered in other responses aren't bad ideas - they are good ones. But, in order for them to work, some gutsy politician has to finally stand up and say enough is enough. We have to deal with the social issues. Tie government subsidies to parental involvement in the school, service hours, student achievement, etc. Force the currently uninvolved and uncaring parents to take some responsibility in the life they chose to create.

This may not sound very popular at first, but really take a breath and think about the culture our society has created in the most impoverished of neighborhoods. Does this culture foster student achievement and success? Or, does is foster a climate of fear and violence? Does it teach our most precious and valuable resource how to climb out of poverty? Or does it teach them that the only way to succeed is to follow in the footsteps of the dealer driving the fancy car and carrying the automatic weapon?

I have lived and worked in a number of urban areas.All have the same issues. I have often wondered what would happen if school systems were redrawn."Ground zero" would be the center of the urban area. Pie shape pieces would be be carved out which would include include urban and sururban populations.Then there would be the beginnings of a real mix of students. I know this would totally require a reorg but so what. These are all Md students!!!!

I'm a first time "writer" but wanted to add that the issues being discussed effect even the Howard County schools. We moved here a couple of years ago and chose to live in the more socio-economically diverse Columbia rather than some of the other areas of the county. We came from a state with many choices for schools and didn't realize that isn't the case here in Howard. My kids go to schools that are racially, culturally and socio-economically diverse but unfortunately don't have the same educational opportunities as the less diverse schools. When your kids go to these Howard county version of a "ghetto school" (yep the teachers use that phrase!) they are treated differently than if they were to go to one of the "wealthy", "white" top-notch schools in the same school system. My husband has a PhD and I have a master's degree and we've been astounded at the variability of opportunity within the school system. At the same time, we learned too late that there really is no choice here in lovely Howard!

Hey Liz, We bloggers read and write all night! Hahahha.......welcome aboard.Don't let us down.

I am a white parent of three children that are either in or just graduated from the Baltimore City Public School System. They have/are attending either a charter or "excellent" school (Midtown Academy & Roland Park Ingenuity) or Baltimore City College - considered by some as elite, magnet schools.

The kids at City actually come from a very WIDE swath of economic and educational stratas. After spending 14 years in the public school system, here are some of my thoughts.

My kids are/have gotten a very good academic education, as well as an opportunity to experience, for a time, being a minority (they are white in a majority African-American school system). For me school choice has given my children the opportunity to be educated in a system that was often "resource poor" but just as often "talent and commitment rich." I am not sure how to calculate the value they received by being in a more diverse environment than many of their white, middle class peers. I am incredibly grateful for the education my children have received in their Baltimore City public schools. I wish more middle class families (both white and black) would come back into the public school system and start advocating for quality education. That would make a huge difference. The poor, regardless of their race, should not be educationally segregated. This is not just about race. We have segregated our schools by class and the educational levels of parents.

I also regularly see the achievements so many students make regardless of their own family and economic challenges. Staying in the public school system is not always easy but my commitment to this choice is regularly affirmed by my my largely positive experiences.

I agree with Dr. Alonso and reject the apathy, cynicism, and excuses that assert that certain neighborhoods can't have great schools. We CAN have great schools, but we need to do this together. None of this is easy, of course, The civil rights movement was not easy. And quality schools that are color blind are not yet the norm. I refuse to assume we can't have them and am committed to continue imagining (and advocating, and organizing) them into being.