A Public School System Success Story

There was an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday about a top-rated public school system:

Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

"Amy Dilmar, a middle-school principal in Georgia, is well aware of the many crises threatening American education. The lost learning that piled up during the coronavirus pandemic. The gaping inequalities by race and family income that have only gotten worse. A widening achievement gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students. But she sees little of that at her school in Fort Moore, Ga.  It is run not by a local school board or charter network, but by the Defense Department. With about 66,000 students — more than the public school enrollment in Boston or Seattle — the Pentagon’s schools for children of military members and civilian employees quietly achieve results most educators can only dream of."

"...On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal exam that is considered the gold standard for comparing states and large districts, the Defense Department’s schools outscored every jurisdiction in math and reading last year and managed to avoid widespread pandemic losses."

"...Their schools had the highest outcomes in the country for Black and Hispanic students, whose eighth-grade reading scores outpaced national averages for white students.

"Eighth graders whose parents only graduated from high school — suggesting lower family incomes, on average — performed as well in reading as students nationally whose parents were college graduates."

"...There are about 50 U.S. schools for children who live on military bases and more than 100 schools internationally for students whose parents are stationed abroad, from Belgium to Bahrain."

"...Fort Moore, a major Army base formerly known as Fort Benning, sprawls across 182,000 acres on the Georgia-Alabama border. Roughly 1,900 students attend school on the base each day, while their parents practice shooting, parachuting and other training drills.   The schools — four elementary schools and one middle school — look a lot like regular public schools. Students arrive on yellow buses. Classrooms are brightly decorated with crayon drawings and maps of the United States. "

"...But there are key differences.  For starters, families have access to housing and health care through the military, and at least one parent has a job."

“Having as many of those basic needs met does help set the scene for learning to occur,” said Jessica Thorne, the principal at E.A. White Elementary, a school of about 350 students.

"...Competitive salaries, scaled to education and experience levels — help retain teachers at a time when many are leaving the profession. At White Elementary, teachers typically have 10 to 15 years of experience, Ms. Thorne said."

"Even small details matter. A well-stocked supply closet means teachers do not have to pay for paper, pencils, and other necessities themselves."

"...Prudence Carter, a Brown University sociologist who studies educational inequality, said the Defense Department’s results showed what could happen when all students were given the resources of a typical middle-class child: housing, health care, food, quality teachers."

"We aren’t even talking about wealth — whether they get to go to fancy summer camps,” Dr. Carter added. “We are talking about the basic, everyday things.”

Military life comes with its own hierarchies, with base pay ranging from $25,000 for an entry-level private, to six-figure salaries for experienced officers. At Fort Moore, higher-ranking officers live in white stucco houses, while enlisted soldiers are in modest duplexes. About a third of students on the base qualify for free or reduced lunch."

"But the schools are more socioeconomically and racially integrated than many in America. Children of junior soldiers attend classes alongside the children of lieutenant colonels. They play in the same sports leagues after school."

"Defense Department schools are not immune to other conflicts, includingcharged debates over race, gender and identity.But the schools are inherently less political — big decisions come from headquarters — and therefore less tumultuous.Case in point: An academic overhaul that began in 2015 and has stuck ever since.Defense officials attribute recent growth in test scores partly to the overhaul, which was meant to raise the level of rigor expected of students."

"The changes shared similarities with the Common Core, a politically fraught reform movement that sought to align standards across states, with students reading more nonfiction and delving deeper into mathematical concepts. But unlike the Common Core, which was carried out haphazardly across the country, the Defense Department’s plan was orchestrated with, well, military precision.  Officials described a methodical rollout, one subject area at a time: New curriculum. Teacher training. Global coordination, so a fifth grader at Fort Moore learns similar material as a fifth grader in Kaiserslautern, Germany."

"It took six years to finish carrying out the changes, longer than the average public school superintendent’s tenure."

"Logistical planning, including a predictable budget, “isn’t very sexy,” but it is one key to success, said Thomas M. Brady, the director of Defense Department schools since 2014."

"Such strict structure is something Cicely Abron, an eighth-grade math teacher, rarely experienced in nearly 20 years in public education.  At Faith Middle School, she cannot supplement curriculum and must work off an approved list. She receives detailed feedback from coaches and administrators who observe her class. Collaboration with other teachers is required and built into her weekly schedule.  The approach is meant to guard against what Dr. Dilmar, the school’s principal, calls “pockets of excellence” — a teacher who helps students soar in one classroom, while an instructor down the hall struggles."

"American school districts often have an “all-star team mentality,” Mr. Dougal said, relying on exceptional teachers and principals to get results.  But the most effective jurisdictions, he said, have a “systemic way of improving everybody on the team.”  Instead, the goal is to raise the floor for all students, something that Jason Dougal, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, sees in top-performing countries like Finland and Singapore."

I thought the article was interesting, in part because it demonstrated what can happen if students have baseline security in their families, even though there was a lot of difference in incomes.  Also there was a disciplined, coordinated roll-out for changes to the curriculum.

I hadn't been aware that the Defense Department ran a school system, though I should have been, since I knew that my sister-in-law had attended high school in Sicily when her dad was stationed over there.

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