Expectations, fabulous. My grandmother used to tell me, you don't have to like me, but you're going to respect what I'm doing. We hired these amazing principals and there was a kid in the hallways between classes as I was touring. The principal comes out and starts getting on a kid, you're a butt in class. You can. And that's just one of many, many examples. It makes me cry, actually. It's so heartbreaking.
The good news about educational reform, says Harvard economist Roland Fryer, is that we know what it takes to turn a school around. The bad news is that it's hard work--and implementing it won't win you any popularity contests. Listen as the MacArthur Genius Award Winner and John Bates Clark medalist speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how pizza parties revealed the potential of incentives to improve students' test scores, and why he's far more concerned about closing the racial achievement gap than keeping the love of learning pure. He also discusses the five best practices of successful schools, and why it's his failures far more than his successes that keep him in this fight.