Innovation found in Arizona, not Washington, D.C.

By Jonathan Butcher

“What happens if you design a school, from the ground-up, on the student instead of the bureaucracy?” ask creators of a short film about an Arizona charter school. The answer shouldn’t surprise you.

Carpe Diem Collegiate High School and Middle School, located in Yuma County, is the feature of a short film that highlights its innovative approach to education. Carpe Diem offers a “blended model” of schooling that includes face-to-face and computer-based instruction, where students rotate between online lessons and assignments and teacher-led sessions.

The results are astounding. A study found that last year “Carpe Diem ranked first in its county in student performance in math and reading and ranked among the top 10 percent of Arizona charter schools.”

In a recent speech, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised “educational innovations here in the U.S,” but didn’t offer many examples of actual innovations. Instead, Duncan touted increases in federal funding and a $4 billion “school turnaround program.” Duncan stressed the role of quality teachers in promoting student achievement, and rightly so, but then he praised “courageous union leaders” and participants in an “unprecedented conference on labor management” held last February. What’s innovative about that?

Parents want results like those that Carpe Diem can deliver, not federal funding increases and revised union contracts.

This fall, Arizona will be eligible to apply for the next round of “Race to the Top” grants, federal grants awarded to states based on innovative reform proposals. It’s hard for any state official to resist the lure of federal money, but as they consider applying, Arizona officials would do well to remember that innovation is not found in Washington’s spending increases or union contracts. Real innovation with real results can be found much closer to home.

Learn More:

Goldwater Institute: The Future of Learning: Better and Cheaper

Lur Films: Carpe Diem Collegiate High School and Middle School

U.S. Department of Education: Secretary Duncan’s Remarks at National Center on Education and the Economy National Symposium