Convocation 2011: Remarks of Alumni Council Award Winner

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, soon-to-be graduates, family, friends, faculty and alumni. It is a great honor to accept this award on this sparkling May day.

In preparing to stand before you this afternoon I made a series of mistakes. The most significant was to ask my three daughters their advice about what to say. I was told – unequivocally – not to be embarrassing, not to try to inspire, not to be serious and definitely not to be funny.

Thankfully, Harvard taught me to dig deep.

So this afternoon I want to say a few words about what I’ve learned is possible for children who depend on the quality of schooling the most.

Part of what I’ve learned, I learned here – from the students who shape this place and – particularly, from the faculty who anchor it.

Like Dick Murnane, who taught me the value of microeconomics, and – much to my surprise – actually taught me to like it.

And Bob Peterkin, from whom I learned to strip down the hardest decisions to their core and lay them beside my values – and only then decide what to do.

Like Richard Elmore – a rare hybrid – part Machiavelli, part Dewey – who persuaded many of us that the singular end in this enterprise is the quality of teaching.

And Pat Graham – who held the first draft of my dissertation at arms length as though it carried some kind of deadly virus and asked “What is this?” Responding – in her inimitable way – to my 40,000 words, with just 4 words of her own: “Put Knowles in it.” Pat gave me voice.

This place leaves indelible marks. And yet it is by doing the work we discover what is really possible.

A few years ago my colleagues published a report that tracked every student in the Chicago Public Schools from 9th grade, through college. What they found was stunning. The results were banner headlines in the Chicago Tribune.

Six and a half percent of Chicago Public Schools 9th graders had a 4 year college degree by the time they were 25. If you were an African American boy, the number was two and a half percent. These data excluded students with disabilities. So, 1 in 50 African American boys finished college by the time they were 25.

This is beyond broken. It is criminal. Why do I speak so bluntly? Because this has nothing to do with children. Yes, conditions matter – poverty, gangs, deeply neglected neighborhoods, too many absent fathers fuel these broken odds. But changing the odds does not dependon fixing these conditions. Teachers, school leaders and how we organize schools it turns out are among the most powerful antidotes of all. What wedo matters. Enormously.

How do I know? I know because in 2006, the same year we published that study, we started a charter high school serving African American children on the south side of Chicago. We accepted students by lottery, from 48 elementary schools across the south side. Seventy percent of the incoming 9th graders were at 5th grade reading levels or below. And as of last spring, 4 years later, those freshman were seniors, and 98% of the senior class was accepted to a 4 year college.

What we do matters.

At the Urban Education Institute my colleagues have built 15 years worth of empirical evidence that even schools in Chicago’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods can thrive if they are organized for improvement. They have to focus on five things:

Ambitious instruction, leadership, school culture, parent and community engagement and the professional capacity of teachers.

And when teachers and leaders attend to those five essentials they are literally ten times more likely to make substantial improvement and 30 times less likely to stagnate. The message here? This is firmly within our grasp. Instruction, parent engagement, school culture – these are things we control. Children rise – not based on where they live, their prior test scores, their color – but because of what we do.

But is this work possible at scale? Can we change the odds in significant ways for large numbers of poor children? I am convinced we can.
After the headlines in the Tribune we decided to find out precisely why so few students finish college – to identify the particular places we could intervene to change the odds. The potholes on the path to college my colleagues called them.

Remarkable things happened.

Teachers responded. Shayne Evans, one of the most gifted teachers I know, created a course for his 7th grade class – a course he simply called High School. Middle school students spent the whole year doing intensive research on the quality of every high school in Chicago – learning which high schools would dramatically increase their odds of finishing college and what it would take to get in. The result? The number of students on the honor roll doubled. And critically, that single course for a single class grew. Today, the curriculum spans 6th through 12th grade. Next year we will pilot it in 10 cities nationwide.

The federal government responded to our findings as well. The IRS streamlined the FAFSA, the byzantine application for federal financial aide – making it easier for families to overcome the biggest barrier to college – paying for it. There was even a White House press conference. With the IRS Commissioner, the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and Rahm Emanuel. While the fact the IRS responded to a band of educators on the south side of Chicago still shocks me – the real victory was this – in Chicago alone, the number of high school seniors successfully applying for federal aide has risen 65% to 87%.

And Chicago Public Schools responded. With our help, the district built an early warning system for every student not on track to graduate. Teachers, parents and school leaders all know who is at risk. Schools are required to intervene. And on track rates from risen from just over 50% to almost 70%. Ten thousand more students will graduate from high school each year in Chicago. Those graduates will live longer. They will earn more in their lifetimes. They will be significantly less likely to go to prison. They will vote, volunteer and give blood more often. And they will have children with higher levels of educational attainment.

This is possible. At scale.

But, it depends on us.

It depends on us to look clear eyed at the places we work – whether schools or schools of education – and ask are we organized for improvement? And it depends on us to find and use our voice. To challenge those that tell us children, particularly children growing up poor, can’t or won’t prevail. We can change the odds. It will take time to be sure. There are no silver bullets. But the opportunity is ours. And the evidence is before us.

Thank you very much.

For full coverage of Commencement 2011, visit http://wpdev.gse.harvard.edu/news-impact/tag/commencement/.