"We should not be contemplating for whom “no excuses” schools are appropriate because “no excuses” schools are not appropriate for any children in a free society." - Paul Thomas, an associate professor of education at Furman University writing in The Answer Sheet

Under-resourced students, those who live in poverty, don't lack ability. They lack learning resources--language enriched home environment, involved parents. These students begin school significantly behind their middle class counterparts and they often never catch up. In order to make up their resource deficit they need more learning time, high levels of engagement, and smaller classes. Instead, these students are often expected to progress at the same rate in overcrowded classrooms in under-equipped schools.

Some believe that a KIPP-style education may be just what these students need to catch up. However, KIPP is not a silver bullet. Participation by students, parents, and teachers takes a special level of commitment and the approach has proven costly in terms of high turnover of students and teachers. Dropping out of middle school could be a wake-up call, or more likely, another disappointment.

If education is to be a means of raising young people from a lifetime of second-class citizenship and marginal employment, we may need to go to extraordinary, KIPP-like lengths. However, anyone who believes that the solution to improving education is to install a KIPP-like approach in every school is sadly mistaken. Some will opt-in. More will opt-out. Many will totally reject the idea.

KIPP students spend 68% more time in core academic classes than their contemporaries. They have a longer school day, a six-day school week, and they attend school for two weeks in the summer.

Our real challenge

We must keep in mind that our biggest education challenge is rooted in poverty. We can either cure poverty, which, in turn, will solve our education problems. Or, as what occurred in my own life, we can use education as a lever to improve the plight of the poor.

The truth

When we compare apples to apples in international education, we find our schools at comparable poverty levels are not only on par with the best in the world, our low-poverty schools are the best in the world. We know how to educate middle class students better than any other country. Our education challenge is identical to that of every other nation--educating our poorest, most under-resourced children. The refusal of the so-called experts to acknowledge this fact is distracting us from our true challenge--raising student performance in high-poverty schools that serve under-resourced students.

Poverty: An Excuse or a Reason?

Poverty is no excuse for the low-performance of many schools. Rather, poverty is a reason to provide the students who attend these schools with the additional resources they need to catch up to their middle class peers. If we don't provide those resources, who will? If we think that some magic bullet will make up for what these students don't receive in their homes or communities, we are sadly mistaken. This isn't about a handout. This is about a hand up. Raising the achievement of these students is about hard work, long hours, and a level playing field.

The Bottom Line

When it really comes down to it, if we would simply treat other peoples' children as though they were our own, many of our education problems would disappear.