Andy on your point about an implicit Service Level Agreement that may or may not be adhered to currently by SES providers, I came across this interesting point of principle in the preamble to the Workforce Investment Act Final rule that might have parallels to this situation with K12: “Training providers and their programs have to demonstrate successful performance to remain eligible to receive funds under the Act. And participants, with their Individual Training Accounts, have the opportunity to make training choices based on program outcomes. To survive in the market, training providers must make accountability for performance and customer satisfaction a top priority” Now admittedly there are some sensitive notions covered here such as choice, competition and performance accountability but in appropriate doses they seem reasonable to apply to the SES space, particularly given the absence of accountability that providers in the space appear to be subject to today. (See recent DOE Policy and Programs Study Service report on Title I and SES for example, where they write that over a quarter of current SES providers do not report on student progress to teachers)

Limited SES choice with loose accountability seem to be the current market parameters schools are asked to deal with. Good for SES, bad for kids, and bad for any innovation that might otherwise occur

Perhaps the best source on this issue is research from John Easton’s Chicago Schools Consortium. So, both the old and the new directors of the What Works Clearinghouse are people we should listen to. We need people not products, and reform processes not quick fix. SES, like credit recovery programs, can be the ultimate quick fixes and that realization makes it unlikely that there promise will be fulfilled.

Of course, extending the school day is hard, and that’s why we don’t tackle the problem. We have a shortage of effective teachers in low performing schools, students don’t need more of the same – boring drill and worksheets, and when kids get older the toughest problem is motivating them to really learn as opposed to guess at the answers in some bogus credit recovery program.

Of course if we extend the school day, we’ll need more high-quality digital learning and that’s tough. We’ll need to rcruit and train and retain more qualified teachers. We’ll need just as many private contractors.

The Stimulus could help if we invested in high-quality human capital, including tough and fair evaluations. But rules will discourage risk-adverse central offices from recruiting human talent. They’ve been incentivized to buy the same old discredited “products” preferably simply turn-key products from the vendors with the best Power Point presentations.

I don’t want to sound cynical. But if you had two equally sincere and effective instructors, one a classroom teacher and the other an SES tutor, how much time would they have to invest confering with each other over the student’s needs, problems, strenghts, and progress? Its time to give up on the silly idea that we can cut knowledge up into measurable pieces and by holding people accountable, children will learn. Humans have never learned that way, and I can’t believe that they ever will.