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In the early '90s, National Public Radio sent Ira Glass to do a series of stories about two different public schools in Chicago. Both schools—Taft High and Washington Irving Elementary (which Ira revisits in Episode 275: Two Steps Back)–were, at the time, implementing massive and ambitious reforms.
Taft High spent three-quarters of a million dollars and four years trying to implement some of the most popular schemes for restructuring schools. They failed, for common reasons that are rarely discussed in the national debate over education. Test scores went down. Attendance went down. The dropout rate worsened. Teacher and student morale sagged. By the end of Ira's year of reports, many of the pro-reform teachers had quit or resigned.
Washington Irving Elementary had more success back in the '90s. They changed the way classroom instruction was done. Students did a tremendous amount of reading and writing. Test scores climbed. Attendance was no problem. The mood of teachers and students at the school couldn't have been better. But even at this exemplary inner-city school, there were problems. Lots of kids simply didn't want to do their work, despite all the attempts to make it appealing and interesting. And while test scores were rising, they were still about a year below national norms.
This American Life started the year after Ira's Washington Irving series, and these stories are a precursor to the program: told through scenes and characters, with funny moments as well as sad ones.
Washington Irving Elementary's eighth grade class, on their class trip to Washington, D.C. Ira Glass is in the middle row, at the far left; Mr. Perlstein is the white-haired gentleman in the back row, center. Click to enlarge.
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