Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department.

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/us/schools-pandemic-defense-department.html
https://archive.ph/LW9e0

Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department.
Schools for children of military members achieve results rarely seen in public education.
By Sarah Mervosh
Oct. 10, 2023, 5:01 a.m. ET

Amy Dilmar, a middle-school principal in Georgia, is well aware of the many crises threatening American education. The lost learning that piled up during the coronavirus pandemic. The gaping inequalities by race and family income that have only gotten worse. A widening achievement gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students.

But she sees little of that at her school in Fort Moore, Ga.

The students who solve algebra equations and hone essays at Faith Middle School attend one of the highest-performing school systems in the country.

It is run not by a local school board or charter network, but by the Defense Department.

With about 66,000 students — more than the public school enrollment in Boston or Seattle — the Pentagon’s schools for children of military members and civilian employees quietly achieve results most educators can only dream of.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal exam that is considered the gold standard for comparing states and large districts, the Defense Department’s schools outscored every jurisdiction in math and reading last year and managed to avoid widespread pandemic losses.

...

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. So let me get this straight:

Schools that have money poured into them and that teach students that come from full-employment households that have adequate food and housing and guaranteed health care outperform the wider population??? AMAZING.

[redqueen]

2. Succinctly put

[jimfields33]

6. I'd add that when the teacher calls and says little Johnny was bad in school,

The parents take action to ensure it doesn’t happen again. No not abusive but they ensure it’s not tolerated. It can be highly embarrassing for the parents to get these calls since all the military members know each other.

[Squaredeal]

11. Absolutely. You didn't misbehave. It would reflect badly on you military parent.

My deceased wife, a graduate of DOD schools, told me this. She called her adopted military father “Sir”.

[mopinko]

8. this gets packaged as IB

and sold to schools as gifted ed, based on these numbers, then they wonder y it doesnt produce the same results at a chgo hs.
meanwhile, they quibble about lunch debt.

[Aristus]

3. I grew up in DoD schools.

Loved them. And I learned a lot. I imagine one of the reasons for this is that parents didn't get to choose the curriculum. The curriculum was formulated by professional educators working for the DoD. There was none of this "Don't you DARE teach science to my kids!" shit. Of course, this was back in the 70's, before the crazy religious right had gotten their talons into every redneck out in Squalor Holler.

[Elessar Zappa]

4. I think our education system must still be pretty good, in general.

The younger folk seem to be more aware of right wing propaganda and are more liberal in their ways and voting habits. I subbed for a while and was very impressed with the curriculum and the kids. I get your point that the religious right is trying to change that and have done it in certain districts. We have to keep fighting them so it doesn’t spread any further.

[Aristus]

5. Thank you. That's good to know. I always listen to the teachers.

[redqueen]

9. Half of US students are not at grade level

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades

[mopinko]

7. that curriculum is what ib is all about.

international baccalaureate hs program.
it’s funny. this gets sold to all kinds of schools based on how successful the program is, based at least in part of these dod numbers.
it’s what passes for gifted ed in several chgo high schools.

[Redleg]

10. Same here

I attended DoD schools from 2nd grade through 7th and really benefited from it. I remember the science curriculum being very effective.

[Squaredeal]

12. The education offered by DOD schools are equivalent to many private institutions,

Which have annual tuitions of $40,000, or more.

[Squaredeal]

13. My deceased wife, who attended DOD schools overseas through high school, also commented...

that she never experienced racism there and was shocked to learn that it existed in America when she came here to attend college.

[Wingus Dingus]

14. My kids attended DoD schools for some of their elementary years.

I was glad of it, didn't have to worry about the quality of local schools.