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Building Smart Education Systems |
Voices in Urban Education
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A Smart System in London
VUE Number 21, Fall 2008
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Making Sure Every Child Matters
By Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
> Author's bio
In February 2000, an eight-year-old girl named Victoria Climbié died in London. A native of Ivory Coast, Victoria had come to the United Kingdom with her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, but an inquiry after her death revealed that Kouao and her boyfriend abused her and eventually killed her. They were convicted of Victoria’s murder in 2001.
Victoria’s case sparked outrage throughout England. In response, the Tony Blair government commissioned a report that found that Victoria’s death might have been prevented. Police, social service agencies, and doctors had opportunities to protect her, but none did. “On twelve occasions, over ten months, chances to save Victoria’s life were not taken,” the report concludes.
The report recommended a complete overhaul of the way government agencies and organizations responsible for children, youth, and families operate, and the government adopted those recommendations in 2004 in a policy known as “Every Child Matters and 2005 Children’s Act.” Under the policy, local authorities were required to develop a Children and Young People’s Plan for coordinating the multitude of organizations serving young people. This “integrated, front-line delivery” of services would be measured by a number of indicators around the five themes of the Every Child Matters agenda: Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution, and Achieve Economic Well-Being.
The Gordon Brown government reinforced this agenda at the national level by creating a new Department for Children, Schools, and Families. But responsibility for coordinating services rests at the local level. Each local authority appoints a Director of Children’s Services, who works with local agencies and community organizations to coordinate services and develop plans for improving outcomes for children and youths.
The Every Child Matters approach is a good example of what the Annenberg Institute for School Reform calls a “smart education system”: one that links a wellfunctioning school system with a comprehensive web of supports for children and families that fosters high levels of learning and development. Such a system places children and families at the center, involves cross-sector partnerships, aims at improving a broad set of outcomes for students and families, and involves shared accountability for improving those outcomes.
This issue of Voices in Urban Education examines the idea of a smart education system in practice by looking in depth at one local authority that has been remarkably successful across a range of health, social, educational, and economic indicators: the East London borough of Tower Hamlets. Located near the Tower of London that gives the borough its name, Tower Hamlets is now home to a large immigrant population, particularly Bangladeshi and Somali, and a large proportion of low-income families. Yet student achievement is above the national average, and the number of teenage pregnancies has dropped nearly in half since 2000.
Could such a system work in the United States? The good news is that there is growing support for the idea. In June, a task force of leaders from the education, public health, civil rights, and faith communities released a statement that envisioned what they called a “broader, bolder approach to education.”1 The statement emphasized that public policy should address a broad range of outcomes for children and youths, in addition to academic knowledge and skills, and that it should focus on linking schools with other agencies and organizations that support children and families to develop such outcomes. As the statement notes:
Yet as reformers in the United States pursue efforts to develop a broader, bolder approach to education, they would do well to look across the Atlantic to see how our British colleagues have done it.
FOOTNOTE
1 For more information about the task force, see www.boldapproach.org.
Archives
A Smart System in London
VUE Number 21, Fall 2008
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Making Sure Every Child MattersBy Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
> Author's bio
In February 2000, an eight-year-old girl named Victoria Climbié died in London. A native of Ivory Coast, Victoria had come to the United Kingdom with her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, but an inquiry after her death revealed that Kouao and her boyfriend abused her and eventually killed her. They were convicted of Victoria’s murder in 2001.
Victoria’s case sparked outrage throughout England. In response, the Tony Blair government commissioned a report that found that Victoria’s death might have been prevented. Police, social service agencies, and doctors had opportunities to protect her, but none did. “On twelve occasions, over ten months, chances to save Victoria’s life were not taken,” the report concludes.
The report recommended a complete overhaul of the way government agencies and organizations responsible for children, youth, and families operate, and the government adopted those recommendations in 2004 in a policy known as “Every Child Matters and 2005 Children’s Act.” Under the policy, local authorities were required to develop a Children and Young People’s Plan for coordinating the multitude of organizations serving young people. This “integrated, front-line delivery” of services would be measured by a number of indicators around the five themes of the Every Child Matters agenda: Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution, and Achieve Economic Well-Being.
The Gordon Brown government reinforced this agenda at the national level by creating a new Department for Children, Schools, and Families. But responsibility for coordinating services rests at the local level. Each local authority appoints a Director of Children’s Services, who works with local agencies and community organizations to coordinate services and develop plans for improving outcomes for children and youths.
The Every Child Matters approach is a good example of what the Annenberg Institute for School Reform calls a “smart education system”: one that links a wellfunctioning school system with a comprehensive web of supports for children and families that fosters high levels of learning and development. Such a system places children and families at the center, involves cross-sector partnerships, aims at improving a broad set of outcomes for students and families, and involves shared accountability for improving those outcomes.
This issue of Voices in Urban Education examines the idea of a smart education system in practice by looking in depth at one local authority that has been remarkably successful across a range of health, social, educational, and economic indicators: the East London borough of Tower Hamlets. Located near the Tower of London that gives the borough its name, Tower Hamlets is now home to a large immigrant population, particularly Bangladeshi and Somali, and a large proportion of low-income families. Yet student achievement is above the national average, and the number of teenage pregnancies has dropped nearly in half since 2000.
- David Bell provides the national perspective
by describing how the Every Child Matters strategy
works at the national government level.
> Full text - Kevan Collins shows how Tower Hamlets
uses data to monitor progress and plan for
improvements.
> Excerpt - Helen Jenner describes the benefits and challenges of arranging partnerships across a broad
range of sectors.
> Excerpt - Glenys Tolley provides the perspective of the
“third sector” to show how community organizations
can work with public agencies to support
children and youths.
> Excerpt - Sir Alasdair Macdonald describes the experiences
of a school that began to develop partnerships to
support out-of-school learning for youths and
parents before it was a national strategy.
> Full text - Janice Hirota, Robert Hughes, and Ronald
Chaluisan consider a partnership strategy under
way in New York City to suggest how such a
system might work in this country.
> Excerpt
Could such a system work in the United States? The good news is that there is growing support for the idea. In June, a task force of leaders from the education, public health, civil rights, and faith communities released a statement that envisioned what they called a “broader, bolder approach to education.”1 The statement emphasized that public policy should address a broad range of outcomes for children and youths, in addition to academic knowledge and skills, and that it should focus on linking schools with other agencies and organizations that support children and families to develop such outcomes. As the statement notes:
- The new approach recognizes the centrality of formal schooling, but it also recognizes the importance of high-quality early childhood and pre-school programs, after-school and summer programs, and programs that develop parents’ capacity to support their children’s education. It seeks to build working relationships between schools and surrounding community institutions.
Yet as reformers in the United States pursue efforts to develop a broader, bolder approach to education, they would do well to look across the Atlantic to see how our British colleagues have done it.
FOOTNOTE
1 For more information about the task force, see www.boldapproach.org.
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