Some have suggested that Super-Tier would be too expensive. Truth is there is no correlation to spending and achievement after some base spending. You see evidence of this in Detroit and Washington DC, two of the most highly funded school districts with terrible results for kids.
There is evidence that districts in wealthy communities have high achievement, but most research shows it is less about the funding and more about the students, their backgrounds and family support.
To move every student to reading and doing math at or above grade level, certainly new resources will be needed. But we should look for realignment, utilizing evidence based pratices and eliminating programs that are not as effective.
I have been asked if this means I would support eliminating other programs like art, music and PE. Certainly not. Research shows that these other programs help develop the whole child and provide a context for student engagement. Additionally, good supplemental programs have been shown to improve student learning in math and reading.
The key here is that we need to be thoughtful about our how we leverage our limited resources, talent, time and money, through evidence based practices, to enable each and every student to achieve.
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