An Update on Yesterday's Promised Miracles: Chelsea Three Years Later

There's an old saying that every educational experiment is doomed to succeed. In fact, many are pronounced successes before they even get started.

A few weeks ago, I talked about the "Breaking-the Mold" award for successful educational innovation that Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander bestowed on Educational Alternatives, Inc. (EAI). That's the private, for-profit company that is going to run nine Baltimore schools for the next five years. Some of EAI's ideas sound interesting, and maybe the outfit will do great things. The trouble is, Secretary Alexander gave them the award after they'd been on the job for only two days. This is not unusual. Many people claim success in advance for their educational schemes -- particularly those who ride in on a white horse to show the ordinary teachers and administrators how schools should be run. This kind of easy attitude toward making claims is unfortunate because it gives everybody the wrong idea about what's involved in improving our schools. It also dishonors the people who are engaged in the day-to-day business of making schools work. And when the miraculous claims turn out to be much exaggerated or altogether without basis, some people become disillusioned and others cynical about the possibility of any change for the better in education.

Recently, I was at a Fortune magazine education summit where I saw John Silber, the president of Boston University. Silber was responsible for Boston University's takeover of the Chelsea school district nearly three years ago. Chelsea is an impoverished district across the river from Boston. In 1989, the Chelsea schools were failing by every measure. They had the highest dropout rate and about the lowest test scores in the state. Silber said that if he could just do things his way in the Chelsea schools, he would bring about miraculous changes. Indeed, he called Chelsea "a crucible of the American dream."

What kind of results did Silber promise? He said, among other things, that by the end of the fifth year of the takeover, average test scores for third graders in math and reading would be at the statewide average; average test scores for students who were with the new system for five years would be "dramatically above the statewide average"; the dropout rate would have declined from an annual rate of 15 percent to well below 10 percent; average daily attendance would be above 90 percent; and teacher absenteeism would decline by an average of 20 percent. ("Boston University's Report on the Chelsea Public Schools: A Model for Excellence in Urban Education," 1988, chapter 3.)

We are now near the end of the third year of BU's stewardship of Chelsea's schools, and there are signs of trouble in the enterprise. For example, Chelsea has its third superintendent in three years, which is probably a record even among unsuccessful urban districts. Moreover, the interim report of the Chelsea project shows that there has been little measurable progress and some things are actually worse. The dropout rate is the same as it was when BU took over; the student attendance rate is unchanged at 81 percent; and teacher attendance is down. Test scores for third graders rose slightly between 1989 and 1991, but scores for students in the sixth and ninth grades fell. And after improving in the first two years, SAT scores are now 44 points below what they were when BU took over. (Report to the [Mass.] Legislature, "The Boston University/Chelsea Partnership," Sept. 1, 1992.) Of course, the five years that comprise this part of the experiment are not over, but very few reasonable people would say that the results Silber promised are likely to be attained in the two years that remain.

When ordinary school people who are trying to improve their schools say they need more money, they rarely get much sympathy. "Public schools are always calling for more money" is what they hear. But to what does John Silber attribute his lack of success? For one thing, the lack of money.

When ordinary school people who are trying to improve their schools insist that test scores and statistics are not the whole story, they are accused of trying to avoid accountability. And their invitation to come into the school and see "a lot of good things happening" -- teachers smiling, students engaged in learning and the like is likely to be met with a sneer. So what does BU' s report on Chelsea say? It says that, despite what the statistics indicate, a lot of good things are happening. As Silber puts it, "Somebody ought to go into the classroom and look at what's going on and see the excitement in these kids.

It's interesting that after all the hoopla about how Chelsea was going to "provide a model of school reform across the nation" and after the project has failed to deliver on its promises, John Silber is still looked on as some kind of education guru. Would a business person who has promised amazing results but didn't deliver still be listened to respectfully three years later?

We should put a ban on claiming miracles for programs that are nothing more than plans. Doing so is like claiming a cure for cancer or the common cold because you've come up with an idea that you'd like to try. We should honor people who recognize the difficulty of what they are doing and have humility about the prospects of success. But those who over-claim and give phony promises of success in advance should be treated like the hucksters they are.