Dive Brief:

• The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss has reprinted a Q&A with Joan Goodman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Education and director of the school’s Teach For America program, about "no excuses" charter schools, originally published on independent blog EduShyster.
• Goodman used her access to schools as a TFA mentor to investigate the culture inside "no excuse" charter schools and found that "submission" was key.
• “No excuses” charter schools are schools that believe poverty is not an excuse for the achievement gap.

Dive Insight:

Here is an excerpt from the interview with Goodman, explaining what a "no excuses" school is and what it needs to work: 

"These schools start with the belief that there’s no reason for the large academic gaps that exist between poor minority students and more privileged children. They argue that if we just used better methods, demanded more, had higher expectations, enforced these higher expectations through very rigorous and uniform teaching methods and a very uniform and scripted curriculum geared to being successful on high-stakes tests, we can minimize or even eradicate these large gaps, high rates of drop outs and the academic failures of these children. To reach these objectives, these schools have developed very elaborate behavioral regimes that they insist all children follow, starting in kindergarten. Submission, obedience, and self-control are very large values. They want kids to submit. You can’t really do this kind of instruction if you don’t have very submissive children who are capable of high levels of inhibition and do whatever they’re told."