Do You Want the Recipe for the Secret Sauce?

Why was Socrates sentenced to death by the rulers of Athens?

Socrates was viewed as a threat to Athenian society because his relentless questioning challenged traditional religious beliefs, political structures, and democratic authority. By making influential figures appear foolish and encouraging young people to think critically, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth, which was seen as undermining the state

Some things haven’t changed? Socrates needed a union.

The leaders in the aeries of power have been chasing the secret sauce seemingly forever. In 1983 the  A Nation at Risk set off criticism of the education system that is still reverberating, 

• The problem: The report used stark language, comparing the mediocre performance of U.S. schools to an act of war by a foreign power, and noted declining student achievement and international competitiveness. 
• The cause: It identified a decline in educational foundations, a loss of high expectations, and a lack of disciplined effort as key issues. 
• The recommendations: It called for higher graduation standards, more time on task, more effective teaching, stronger leadership, and reforms in teacher training and compensation

The reaction: the creation of the charter school movement, measuring teacher performance by test scores, and pointing to teachers as an impediment to educational change

You can’t leave it up to teachers, too many are “liberal,” too “progressive,” we must monitor their performance, cull out the inept and the ones who challenge authority.

“No Child Left Behind” (2001) was widely acclaimed and required.

Annual testing: Schools had to give students statewide math and reading tests every year in grades 3–8 and once in grades 10–12. Parents and caregivers had the right to get individual test results for their kids. All kids had to take the tests, including at least 95 percent of students in the disadvantaged groups.

Instruction became test preparation centric, students, schools and school districts ‘measured” by the result of the required standardized tests. 

De Blasio’s chancellor, Carmen Farina was a fan of Lucy Calkins and popular among teachers, until the Science of Reading folks jabbed a spike through Lucy’s heart. Thirty/five states, including New York State passed legislation requiring phonics instruction. New York City jumped onboard, Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks required phonics instruction in every classroom.

The Mississippi Miracle, holding over low achievers in the third grade led to significantly higher achievement in the fourth grade. Perhaps we’ve found the recipe, or not.

Bill Gates’ Measure of Teaching (MET), four years, $45M, at the core a 360 degree camera in teacher classrooms, the teacher activities coded and analyzed: the results are trashed by a range of scholars.

Does the “recipe” depend on a proscribed method of instruction or the content (aka, the curriculum), or the skills of the individual(s) teacher, or teachers?

A just released study of the small high schools in NYC, and there are hundreds of small high schools. Under the Bloomberg regency the Department moved away from the triage approach, save some high schools and abandoned the rest, and closed 150 schools including dozens of high schools with depressingly low graduation rates, the city moved from 125 large high schools to almost 500 small high schools, campuses with 4-6 high schools per campus with about 400 students in each school.  The results are impressive.

(January 27, 2026) — MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm, released new results today from its rigorous multiyear study of small public high schools in New York City. The findings show that these district schools, which serve mostly disadvantaged students of color, boost postsecondary enrollment by 9.5 percentage points and college degree attainment by 2.5 percentage points

“Our study confirms that the important leg-up provided by New York City’s small public high schools continues beyond high school for a wide range of disadvantaged students, making them more likely to access and succeed in postsecondary education,” said Virginia Knox, President of MDRC. “It is rare, and exciting, to have evidence of sustained impact for such a large-scale high school reform.

What is commonplace in small high schools is teacher collaboration, and the evidence is overwhelming that teacher collaboration improves ,student outcomes,

… teacher collaboration significantly improves student achievement by fostering consistent, high-quality instruction, promoting shared best practices, and enhancing teacher efficacy. When educators work together, they create a more supportive, aligned learning experience that increases student engagement, lowers turnover, and boosts overall student performance. 

See additional research findings here.

Do we know which schools are collaborative?  The answer is yes, every year parents, staffs and 6-12 grade students participate in online school surveys, the survey process closes April 1.  

The UFT, the teacher union and the Department of Education participate in the PROSE program,

PROSE stands for Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence. It is a program predicated on the UFT’s core belief that schools work best when all members of the community feel respected and the word “collaboration” is not just a cliché.

PROSE is about school-level innovations. It offers schools the ability to alter some of the most basic parameters by which they function, including the way teachers are hired, evaluated and supported; the way students and teachers are programmed; the handling of grievances; and certain city and state regulations. Schools in the program explore and implement a variety of innovations at their schools.

While evidence supports the effectiveness of staff collaboration I’ve urged the Research Alliance for NYC Schools to take a deep dive, so far without success. 

And while we dance around mayoral control a former deputy superintendent  proffers, “…  instructional models should precede governance decisions.”

Six chancellors over the last twelve years, the current chancellor following the lead of his predecessors, 

Kamar Samuels, the new chancellor of New York City Public Schools, discusses his plans to enhance rigor and equity across the district. Samuels says he plans to build on initiatives such as NYC Reads and NYC Solves to ensure all students have access to grade-level material,

In other words, do what we’ve been doing, just do it better.

Two of the most thoughtful educators of our generation, Daniel Willingham and E D Hirsch cast aside the latest fad, phonics as the answer, and point to “shared background knowledge,the article is a “must read,”   

American educators have returned to the notion that shared background knowledge is essential to reading instruction, ending a decades-long lost cause that insisted reading skills and levels were the paths to literacy. 

In hopes that we can help knowledge transition from fad to mainstay, we offer this article as a primer on how knowledge indispensably supports reading comprehension and critical thinking. Our case rests on three main pillars. First, we will review the empirical evidence for the importance of knowledge to comprehension. Second, in the interests of avoiding past mistakes, we will examine the faulty assumptions that hampered reading instruction for nearly a century. Third, we will look to the future and offer what we believe are reasonable predictions for improved student outcomes and even restored national comity if districts stick with knowledge-rich, carefully sequenced curricula. 

So, I’ve laid out the recipe, the core question: are there any chefs?