Since the No Child Left Behind approach was implemented we have made little progress in educating our urban youth and graduation rates have gone down for many populations.  We have been unable to develop and sustain movement towards excellence across the country, and even across school systems.  

There are exceptions to this, but we keep profiling excellent schools in systems where youth do not succeed outside of those schools.  This has been really perplexing to me for many years.  I have worked closely with principals who have taken underperforming schools and turned them around within two to three years.  Naturally those principals were recognized for their performance by being promoted or offered better positions with less urban systems, and the schools reverted within another two to three years.  It seems charismatic, skilled leadership can make a difference in schools.  That is good to know, but most principals aren't that charismatic.

Locally, Marian College in Indianapolis is part of a new program to train Principals in leadership and this should be a standard part of all preparation for this critical position.  

The Mayor of Newark made a point last week in an interview when he said we all have to step up and provider leadership if children are to succeed.  We can't wait for educational saviors before we provide quality of education our children need.  We all have to demand excellence and be a part of it.

We do, however, need a national strategy which makes sense.  No Child Left Behind has not been well thought out and hasn't worked.  The use of multiple choice standardized tests as the outcome measure doesn't work, takes up way too much time, convinces underperforming students they can't succeed and needs to be replaced by the types of outcome standardized being discussed now.