ONE, WELL-MADE KEY to Unlock the Door to Educational Success

I have often used this medium to advocate a different approach to addressing minority underperformance. If there is a succinct way to describe what I have said in many words, it would simply be HARD WORK. I have oft quoted Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, and cited the examples of high performing schools in support of my contention that parental involvement, support system, and yes, hard work, seem to have been the determining factor. Then I read more about the Meyerhoff Model pioneered at UMBC (see http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11378.shtml and http://www.umbc.edu/Meyerhoff/the_meyerhoff_model.html , etc.) and recognized a philosophical kin.

The program, a brainchild of an African-American, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, President, University of Maryland Baltimore County, embodies the very concepts I have been advocating. I reached the conclusions of the Meyerhoff Model through a simple question: Why do Asian-Americans, in disproportionate numbers, do well in any environment?

The answer, as I have repeatedly asserted, is in our cultural values. If you visit the national site honoring Dr. King, you will find, prominently featured outside, a sculpture of Mahatma Ghandi. It symbolizes Dr. King’s foresight in embracing a strategy pioneered by another community. Success, I assert, is recognizing a good strategy, be it the brainchild of someone else, and embracing it. Overwhelming success is recognizing a good strategy and making it better.

With that philosophy, I advocate what I fervently believe is a reasonable strategy to address the “achievement gap” --use what can be learned from successful groups. If another minority is a good example, then learn from them.

When Jerry D. Weast, the schools superintendent in Montgomery County, Md., was asked what he was doing to improve low-performing schools, his answer was “that his public school district spends big bucks every year trying to teach low-income parents “how to kick my butt … how to work the system just like affluent people.” Here is a better strategy to improve school performance—create, support, and enhance programs like the Meyerhoff Model adapted for schools. Learn from the Asian-American cultural model of education.

I challenge Dr. Weast to prove me wrong in my belief that a pilot program of this type will be far more academically successful than gutting GT, steamrolling Special Education, and shoving Seven-Keys in the lock on the door to educational success.

My idea won't be a quick fix. It sure might turn out to be a permanent fix. So, why not give it a try?

It takes just ONE, WELL-MADE KEY to unlock the door to educational success.