A little bit of kick-butt discipline and focus apparently go a long way in public schooling. USA Today reports that public schools run at military facilities by the Defense Department inspire "fierce devotion" and outstanding results, notably including minority students.

...Students at the schools consistently rank near the top on federal reading, writing and math tests. And 50 years after the legal end of school segregation, the Pentagon's schools are models of integration and strong minority academic achievement. Last year, black and Hispanic eighth-graders in these schools outperformed their peers in all 50 states in reading.

'I think this is the finest school system in the world,' said Claire Smrekar, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University, who co-wrote a report on minority academic performance at Defense schools.

'There are excellent schools all over this country,' Smrekar said. 'But the consistency with which this school system delivers high performance and produces outstanding outcomes for these kids and their families is unprecedented.'

The military's little-known school system enrolls about 100,000 children — a fraction of the kids in military families — attending 220 schools around the globe. Nearly 30,000 of those children attend the stateside Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools, a system roughly the same size as the Des Moines, school district. The 69 schools that make up the domestic system are scattered throughout seven states and two U.S. territories and Cuba.

Teachers union honchos and their members need to hear more. Instead of wasting time and dues money trying to overturn our state's new charter school law, the Washington Education Association should schedule a presentation to its full membership by Smrekar. Assuming the WEA's "leadership" is actually interested in excellence, as opposed to feather-bedding.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 31, 2004 10:25 AM

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