Over the last 3 decades, my passion has been analyzing the causes of educational inequity as well as dramatically heightening the academics of low-income, Title 1 schools. These campuses comprise approximately 60 percent of the total number of public schools in the United States.

Based on my professional engineering and accounting/finance work experience outside the school system, as well as the accomplished success of my professional track record and work within the public schools, I am confidently knowledgeable in most aspects of the workings of the public education system.  

Since I live in Austin, I watch the Texas House and Senate Education Committees when the Legislature is in session – sometimes in person but mostly via the internet.  Similarly, I also watch the local school board meetings on their designated access cable TV channel.  But I frequently become very frustrated with these real time broadcasts.  As I sit in my living room, I find myself literally talking out loud to my television set or i-phone, I am usually saying, “That is not the right question to ask!”  Or I comment, “Why are you listening to someone that has never had success in academic reform – not once in their career at a low-income school?”  I occasionally call out to my wife who is in the other room, and rhetorically say, “Where is the accountability (i.e., program evaluation) of expected student outcomes with that curriculum initiative or legislation?”

In response to questions that legislators and school board members do not know whether to ask or do not want to ask, I am posing and answering seventeen salient public education queries. These questions and the related discussions drill down to the campus level – the area that is paramount to improving students’ social and academic outcomes. The responses also provide background information and the perspective of a seasoned teacher and veteran campus and district administrator. That point of view in and of itself allows the interested non-educator to gain a better understanding of the public education system and its weak points that indirectly, and directly, affect the educational quality of American children.

Of course, it is imperative that the reader fully understand that a student’s academic prowess directly influences a child’s self-esteem and social awareness. Academic ability and self-esteem are closely dependent on one another. Why? If a student is not doing well academically in school, it frequently and negatively influences their social awareness not only with their classmates, but it negatively impacts their self-esteem as well.  Students’ self-realization of their academic understanding generally begins when they are in the third grade and become cognizant that they do not understand the content during daily grade level reading, writing, and math lessons.

The psychological result of academic unpreparedness: In my educational experience as both a classroom teacher and campus administrator, children are usually quiet when they do not understand grade level content. They try not to draw attention to themselves as they quietly acquiesce to the reality that they do not understand the academic content in their elementary classrooms. On the other hand, some children act out and become behavioral challenges due to personal embarrassment, often attempting to divert attention away from their lack of understanding of the current classroom activities. These students may feel bored or disengaged because they struggle to participate meaningfully in the lessons. As a result, they resort to disruptive behavior, which not only hinders their own learning but also negatively impacts the learning environment for their peers. In fact, sadly, a considerable number of these affected students will (likely) drop out of school before or after they enter their high school years. In the long run, if academic struggling students are not pressed back to grade level, their poor academic prowess negatively affects their economic opportunities later in life. 

Note: When a child is disruptive in class, one of the first things a knowledgeable administrator investigates is the student’s academic ability.  If a child is struggling academically, the campus administrator knows immediately to begin literacy/numeracy interventions with the student.  They must implement a parallel course of academic intervention and behavioral monitoring checks throughout the day to curb the negative behavior.  Then, once the child is academically caught up, their disruptive behavior is invariably extinguished.  If the child is not struggling with grade level content, it is a much easier fix from a time perspective.  A student who presents both academic and behavioral challenges often demands a significant amount of attention from both the teacher and school administrators. Nevertheless, it is essential that the classroom teacher receives consistent support from the principal to ensure high-quality instruction continues for the rest of the class.

Let’s begin…

So, why do so many low-income students remain academically behind 3 or 4 (plus) years after enrolling in kindergarten or prekindergarten?  Let’s answer this question by posing a series of questions that state legislators, as well as school board members, should know. Then, I will provide key background information in my responses to help them question superintendents and administrators about improving achievement in Title I elementary schools. This writing is lengthy; however, an educational enthusiast can pick and choose which questions are of relevance to them.  Thus, the interested reader can focus only on those areas to (hopefully) gain a better understanding of that distinct part of the public school system.

For reasons of definitional clarity, when I use the term, academic turnaround, I specifically mean that a Title 1 elementary campus achieves the same academic results as non-Title 1 schools.  And there is not a performance or achievement gap between low and high socioeconomic elementary (or middle school) campuses in a school district – despite vastly different household incomes at each school.

Since this blog is too long to read on the computer, I am listing the 17 questions. Each one of these questions are independent of the other, and they can be read in that manner. The PDF document is a free download. It is housed at "The New 3Rs Academic Reformation" website and can be downloaded - after opening the "Expertise Resources' tab.

Asking these 17 questions and the associated responses required almost three decades of professional work in the public school system - employed in both low income elementary schools as well as their affluent counterparts. It required being a classroom teacher, campus administrator, central or district administrator, and an education consultant. Finally, my professional work experience in both traditional and charter public school systems was invaluable in understanding the root causes of the chronic student performance of low socioeconomic school settings.

I hope the interested educator, parent, journalist or legislator is able to use these questions and responses from the PDF download to begin to make sense of the public school system. In doing so, they will not need to expend 3 decades of their life as I did beginning back in 1992. They can begin their stage of investigation and learning about the public schools from a much higher level of understanding.

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