What Is 'Excellence for All'?

Meeting Kids Where They Are—Not Where We Wish They Were

By Jack Schneider

Precious, in all likelihood, is not going to college.

This runs contrary to the aims of the dominant players in modern school reform, who, whether they are in government, school districts, or philanthropic organizations, routinely employ the phrase “excellence for all” in justifying their expenditures. The theory of change among the educational entrepreneurs, it seems, is simple: Find what works and make it available to all students. As Teach For America’s chief executive officer, Wendy Kopp, has said of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: “He just wants to find and scale the ideas that work, period.”

Getting all students, and particularly the neediest students, into the kind of schools that their more privileged peers attend is a great goal. And it’s one that’s difficult to oppose. Who, after all, is going to take a stand against an aim like excellence for all? Consider how preposterous the linguistic alternatives sound: Excellence for some? Mediocrity for all?...