If you aren't teaching kids to read and do math, you don't care about 'equity'

San Francisco's push to improve reading isn't going well, reports Ezra Wallach in the San Francisco Standard. "The district has invested $5 million in a coaching initiative, pushed out a new standardized curriculum, and set ambitious proficiency targets," he writes.

But literacy rates have slid lower, and a report to the school board warned the effort is “significantly off track” after two years. Among other things, a third of teachers aren’t using the new curriculum.

Since San Francisco Unified is trying to emulate Mississippi's reading reforms, Wallach asked Rachel Canter, formerly of Mississippi First and now head of education policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, to evaluate the district report. In a PPI study and an Atlantic article, Canter has written about why other states are struggling to duplicate the "Mississippi marathon."

California hasn't committed to helping districts change, Canter says. "Are teachers being coached? How frequently, and by whom? How bought in are school administrators? Who is responsible for making sure teachers actually use the materials — and why haven’t they done that?"

San Francisco Unified says its goal is "equity," says Wallach.

That's just talk, Canter responds. "When people tell me they deeply care about equity, and then they’re not willing to hold adults accountable for solving the problem, they don’t deeply care about equity. I want to see the action. What are you willing to do? Who are you willing to hold accountable?"

The primary mission of schools is academic preparation. If you are successfully teaching kids to read and do math, nobody is going to care whether you also have an ethnic studies curriculum. The issue is whether you are serving your fundamental purpose.

Politicians don't want to make people mad, she says. "The easiest way . . . is to say the right things and do nothing, but that’s why kids can’t read."

Mississippi holds schools and districts accountable by publicizing A-F ratings based on student proficiency and growth in reading and math, Canter says. The state intervenes in low-rated schools, and eventually takes over the district.

Students are held accountable by the third-grade reading gate: They can't advance to fourth grade without basic reading skills. Parents must be notified about their child's reading progress three times a year. "That creates a certain kind of urgency," says Canter. "We gave adults in the system real pressure and real fire to get the job done."