Mark Langley,
Education Specialist
Alumni Profile -- (Fall 1999 Newsletter)
Imagine reforming the entire public school system. Imagine
that public schools everywhere gave children a classical education
and a fully-integrated character program through highly-interactive
teachers who provide individualized attention. Mark Langley
(class of '89) imagines such a system. More importantly, he
is helping to build it as Curriculum Development Manager for
the Boston-based educational management organization known
as "Advantage Schools."
"I'm lucky to be here. It's a perfect fit for me,"
says Langley who assists in preparing curricula and teaching
texts for the elementary, middle, and soon-to-be high school
charter schools that Advantage is setting up throughout the
country.
Advantage was founded in 1996 by various education reform
leaders from Massachusetts who sought to operate public schools
around the country, primarily in urban settings, under states'
charter laws and outside the constraints of public schools.
They wanted schools that would attract parents and teachers
seeking an alternative to current public and private school
options. They were goal-driven; they wanted to promise and
deliver results. And they wanted to do it at a profit.
In just three years, Advantage has secured $35 million in
private equity capital which it is using to open 25 new urban
charter schools in cities nationwide this fall and in 2000,
and to expand eight schools already in operation. Advantage's
schools follow the trend of charter schools nationwide. Two
years ago, 400 charter schools were in operation; today there
are over 1,000. Next year that figure will double.
Typically, local parents or community leaders will form the
school by requesting a charter from a state, which then allocates
money per child attending the school. Advantage then manages
the school under contract with the local board. Currently,
Advantage manages 16 schools serving almost 10,000 children
in nine states and the District of Columbia.
Early results look promising. In San Antonio, Texas, for
example, kindergartners scored better than 94% of their peers
nationally in reading on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, after
just seven months in their Advantage-managed school. Indeed,
unlike most public schools, Advantage boasts that all of its
students will be reading by the end of Kindergarten. Advantage
also designs tests to ensure its teachers are teaching the
right materials the right way.
In developing curricula, Langley and his superiors at Advantage
rely on the fundamental principle that there are specific
and definable things that students should know. The Advantage
curriculum is much in line with the recommendations that E.D.
Hirsch makes in his popular "Core Knowledge" books
(books like "What Your 3rd Grader Should Know").
But whereas others have set forth goals only generally, Langley
aims to "flesh out" the details, providing teachers
with detailed and concrete lessons in every subject. "We're
basically trying to set a minimum standard or catalogue of
everything our students should know, and then script out a
plan for teachers to ensure that it's all communicated effectively."
Langley explains that public schools, too, can adopt the
same curricula and teaching methods that Advantage develops
- and they often do, after first loudly protesting the presence
of a charter school in their vicinity. But public schools
are usually constrained by bureaucracies and teachers' unions.
State standards, he says, wield a surprisingly high degree
of influence on education, because the test makers design
their tests around those standards. "Loose or indefinite
standards can make for widely-varying curricula, which can
be very good or very bad. Our program aims to provide definite,
concrete curricula that test-makers can point to and say,
'That material needs to be tested.'"
What I particularly like about this program," says Langley,
"is that the founders here are determined to make classical
education work not only because of its intrinsic merit but
also because it is a smart business approach. They see that
kids really learn to think better this way and that the results
are measurable. Plus you see signs of a renaissance occurring
in the inner city. You can't underestimate the impact on the
surrounding neighborhood when you've got 500 kids studying
Latin in uniforms."
Langley is no stranger to the classroom. For nine years before
he came to Advantage, he taught middle school and high school
as Assistant Headmaster at Trivium School, in Lancaster, Massachusetts,
a school founded by his father-in-law on the classical and
Socratic model. Needless to say, that was a good fit for him,
too, having married his classmate from Thomas Aquinas College,
Stephanie Schmitt. Together, they raise six children in nearby
Sterling, Massachusetts.
Langley came across the job at "Advantage" while
applying for a teaching position at one of its charter schools.
Advantage hired him for the curriculum position instead. "They
saw that I had gone to Thomas Aquinas College and had a real
understanding of classical education. There is not a day when
the impact of the College on me escapes what I'm doing here.
We spend a great deal of time thinking about what should be
taught and how the mind comes to know. My superiors really
see the value of classical education in this. If not, we would
be just another school making tall claims about teaching kids
to think."
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Fall 1999
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