I began to accompany other parents to school meetings. I witnessed my child’s story being played out over and over again. I held monthly parent meetings. I was a founding member of a statewide parent group that advocated for appropriate curriculum as well as providing support for parents. I lobbied at the state capitol, Washington DC and the National Institutes of Health for appropriate curriculum interventions for students in schools. I was a candidate (one of three) for State Board of Education in the Midwest. I was the only candidate endorsed by Planned Parenthood. I did not make it through the primary.

I went to the library. I went to education conferences and workshops throughout the United States and Europe. I went to an education research symposium that focused on brain research and what we know about learning.

After years of study, it is all pretty simple. I figured it out for my child and countless others I advocated for.

• Appropriately challenging curriculum and effective instruction are the two things that matter most in the education of our nation’s children.
• Children are born eager to learn.
• It is vital for the brain to be challenged. To make the proper connections early, and establish the foundation to facilitate advanced learning later on.
• In order to teach, the level of instruction should be one level above where the child is functioning.
• Children learn at varying rates. It is virtually impossible, and very expensive, to group children by age and expect one teacher to adjust the curriculum for each child in the classroom.
• If a child first learns something wrong (magic spelling) it is extremely difficult to relearn it the correct way. The brain connection was made wrong.
• If a child’s brain is unchallenged in the classroom for an extended period of time, he eventually loses all desire to perform.
• ADHD behaviors virtually mirror gifted behaviors.
• Children are processing information faster, regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic factors. IQ is increasing across the board at the rate of 3 points a decade.
• The curriculum in the United States is being dumbed down one grade level every ten years. It does not meet the needs of the majority of America’s children.
• There is a direct correlation between inappropriate curriculum, ineffective instruction and negative behaviors.

A Portland City Club luncheon I attended a few years ago featured a panel of local school principals. One of the featured principals (who had dramatically raised achievement at an elementary school in a poor area) announced that new teachers do not know how to teach children how to read. Privately, the superintendent of a large district in the Midwest advised his State Board representative of this same concern.

• Teacher education colleges are accountable to no one for the effectiveness of their graduates in the classroom.
• Individual student growth year to year is not measured and reported. As a result, appropriate curriculum and effective instruction are not factors in the current system of “accountability”.

As I learned first hand with my child and countless others; the effect of class size, race, ethnicity, funding, rich or poor, residing with one or both parents, pales in comparison with providing an appropriately challenging curriculum and effective instruction.