Schools that work: Juanito can read at Hoover Street Elementary

Nearly all the students at Hoover Street Elementary in Los Angeles come from low-income Hispanic families and about half are not yet fluent in English. Yet 78 percent of third-graders read proficiently, far higher than the expected 23 percent proficiency rate.

Chad Aldeman crunched a massive data base to look for "bright spots," schools that are outperforming expectations based on student poverty rates. You can find interactive graphs on The 74. Last year, he posted the school districts doing the best job of teaching kids how to read.

Charters did especially well, he writes. They made up 7 percent of the sample, but 11 percent of exceptional schools. In New York City, "many of the highest-poverty, highest-performing schools are charters, led by the Success Academy Bronx 5 Upper Elementary, the Bronx Charter School For Excellence 4 and Icahn Charter School 6, also in the Bronx." 

Reading scores are falling in many parts of the country, writes Aldeman. "Too many kids are struggling with the early reading skills they will need to succeed in higher-level work."

We spend a lot of time talking about what isn't working very well. Maybe it's time to learn from success.