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I'm a little nervous, because my wife Yvonne said to me,

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she said, "Geoff, you watch the TED Talks."

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I said, "Yes, honey, I love TED Talks."

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She said, "You know, they're like, really smart, talented -- "

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I said, "I know, I know." (Laughter)

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She said, "They don't want, like, the angry black man."

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(Laughter)

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So I said, "No, I'm gonna be good, Honey,

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I'm gonna be good. I am."

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But I am angry. (Laughter)

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And the last time I looked, I'm --

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(Applause)

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So this is why I'm excited but I'm angry.

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This year, there are going to be millions of our children

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that we're going to needlessly lose,

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that we could -- right now, we could save them all.

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You saw the quality of the educators who were here.

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Do not tell me they could not reach those kids

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and save them. I know they could.

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It is absolutely possible.

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Why haven't we fixed this?

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Those of us in education have held on to a business plan

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that we don't care how many millions of young people fail,

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we're going to continue to do the same thing that didn't work,

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and nobody is getting crazy about it -- right? --

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enough to say, "Enough is enough."

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So here's a business plan that simply does not make any sense.

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You know, I grew up in the inner city,

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and there were kids who were failing

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in schools 56 years ago when I first went to school,

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and those schools are still lousy today, 56 years later.

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And you know something about a lousy school?

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It's not like a bottle of wine.

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Right? (Laughter)

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Where you say, like, '87 was like a good year, right?

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That's now how this thing -- I mean, every single year,

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it's still the same approach, right?

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One size fits all, if you get it, fine, and if you don't,

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tough luck. Just tough luck.

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Why haven't we allowed innovation to happen?

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Do not tell me we can't do better than this.

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Look, you go into a place that's failed kids for 50 years,

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and you say, "So what's the plan?"

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And they say, "We'll, we're going to do

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what we did last year this year."

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What kind of business model is that?

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Banks used to open and operate between 10 and 3.

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They operated 10 to 3. They were closed for lunch hour.

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Now, who can bank between 10 and 3? The unemployed.

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They don't need banks. They got no money in the banks.

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Who created that business model? Right?

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And it went on for decades.

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You know why? Because they didn't care.

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It wasn't about the customers.

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It was about bankers. They created something that worked for them.

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How could you go to the bank

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when you were at work? It didn't matter.

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And they don't care whether or not Geoff is upset

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he can't go to the bank. Go find another bank.

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They all operate the same way. Right?

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Now, one day, some crazy banker had an idea.

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Maybe we should keep the bank open when people come home from work.

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They might like that. What about a Saturday?

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What about introducing technology?

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Now look, I'm a technology fan, but I have to admit

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to you all I'm a little old.

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So I was a little slow, and I did not trust technology,

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and when they first came out with those new contraptions,

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these tellers that you put in a card and they give you money,

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I was like, "There's no way that machine is going to count that money right.

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I am never using that, right?"

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So technology has changed. Things have changed.

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Yet not in education. Why?

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Why is it that when we had rotary phones,

75
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when we were having folks being crippled by polio,

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that we were teaching

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the same way then that we're doing right now?

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And if you come up with a plan to change things,

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people consider you radical.

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They will say the worst things about you.

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I said one day, well, look, if the science says --

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this is science, not me -- that our poorest children

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lose ground in the summertime --

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You see where they are in June and say, okay, they're there.

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You look at them in September, they've gone down.

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You say, whoo! So I heard about that in '75

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when I was at the Ed School at Harvard.

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I said, "Oh, wow, this is an important study."

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Because it suggests we should do something.

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(Laughter)

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Every 10 years they reproduce the same study.

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It says exactly the same thing:

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Poor kids lose ground in the summertime.

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The system decides you can't run schools in the summer.

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You know, I always wonder, who makes up those rules?

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For years I went to -- Look, I went the Harvard Ed School.

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I thought I knew something.

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They said it was the agrarian calendar, and people had —

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but let me tell you why that doesn't make sense.

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I never got that. I never got that,

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because anyone knows if you farm,

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you don't plant crops in July and August.

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You plant them in the spring.

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So who came up with this idea? Who owns it?

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Why did we ever do it?

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Well it just turns out in the 1840s we did have,

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schools were open all year. They were open all year,

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because we had a lot of folks who had to work all day.

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They didn't have any place for their kids to go.

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It was a perfect place to have schools.

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So this is not something that is ordained

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from the education gods.

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So why don't we? Why don't we?

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Because our business has refused to use science.

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Science. You have Bill Gates coming out and saying,

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"Look, this works, right? We can do this."

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How many places in America are going to change? None.

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None. Okay, yeah, there are two. All right?

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Yes, there'll be some place, because some folks will do the right thing.

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As a profession, we have to stop this. The science is clear.

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Here's what we know.

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We know that the problem begins immediately.

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Right? This idea, zero to three.

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My wife, Yvonne, and I, we have four kids,

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three grown ones and a 15-year-old.

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That's a longer story.

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(Laughter)

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With our first kids, we did not know the science

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about brain development.

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We didn't know how critical those first three years were.

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We didn't know what was happening in those young brains.

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We didn't know the role that language,

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a stimulus and response, call and response,

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how important that was in developing those children.

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We know that now. What are we doing about it? Nothing.

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Wealthy people know. Educated people know.

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And their kids have an advantage.

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Poor people don't know,

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and we're not doing anything to help them at all.

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But we know this is critical.

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Now, you take pre-kindergarten.

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We know it's important for kids.

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Poor kids need that experience.

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Nope. Lots of places, it doesn't exist.

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We know health services matter.

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You know, we provide health services

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and people are always fussing at me about, you know,

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because I'm all into accountability and data

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and all of that good stuff, but we do health services,

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and I have to raise a lot of money.

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People used to say when they'd come fund us,

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"Geoff, why do you provide these health services?"

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I used to make stuff up. Right?

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I'd say, "Well, you know a child

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who has cavities is not going to, uh,

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be able to study as well."

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And I had to because I had to raise the money.

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But now I'm older, and you know what I tell them?

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You know why I provide kids with those health benefits

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and the sports and the recreation and the arts?

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Because I actually like kids.

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I actually like kids. (Laughter) (Applause)

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But when they really get pushy, people really get pushy,

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I say, "I do it because you do it for your kid."

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And you've never read a study from MIT that says

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giving your kid dance instruction

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is going to help them do algebra better,

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but you will give that kid dance instruction,

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and you will be thrilled that that kid wants to do dance instruction,

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and it will make your day. And why shouldn't poor kids

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have the same opportunity? It's the floor for these children.

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(Applause)

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So here's the other thing.

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I'm a tester guy. I believe you need data, you need information,

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because you work at something, you think it's working,

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and you find out it's not working.

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I mean, you're educators. You work, you say,

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you think you've got it, great, no? And you find out they didn't get it.

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But here's the problem with testing.

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The testing that we do --

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we're going to have our test in New York next week —

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is in April.

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You know when we're going to get the results back?

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Maybe July, maybe June.

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And the results have great data.

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They'll tell you Raheem really struggled,

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couldn't do two-digit multiplication -- so great data,

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but you're getting it back after school is over.

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And so, what do you do?

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You go on vacation. (Laughter)

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You come back from vacation.

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Now you've got all of this test data from last year.

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You don't look at it.

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Why would you look at it?

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You're going to go and teach this year.

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So how much money did we just spend on all of that?

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Billions and billions of dollars

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for data that it's too late to use.

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I need that data in September.

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I need that data in November.

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I need to know you're struggling, and I need to know

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whether or not what I did corrected that.

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I need to know that this week.

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I don't need to know that at the end of the year when it's too late.

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Because in my older years, I've become somewhat of a clairvoyant.

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I can predict school scores.

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You take me to any school.

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I'm really good at inner city schools that are struggling.

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And you tell me last year 48 percent of those kids

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were on grade level.

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And I say, "Okay, what's the plan, what did we do

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from last year to this year?"

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You say, "We're doing the same thing."

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I'm going to make a prediction. (Laughter)

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This year, somewhere between 44

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and 52 percent of those kids will be on grade level.

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And I will be right every single time.

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So we're spending all of this money, but we're getting what?

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Teachers need real information right now

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about what's happening to their kids.

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The high stakes is today, because you can do something about it.

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So here's the other issue that I just think

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we've got to be concerned about.

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We can't stifle innovation in our business.

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We have to innovate. And people in our business get mad about innovation.

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They get angry if you do something different.

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If you try something new, people are always like,

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"Ooh, charter schools." Hey, let's try some stuff. Let's see.

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This stuff hasn't worked for 55 years.

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Let's try something different. And here's the rub.

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Some of it's not going to work.

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You know, people tell me, "Yeah, those charter schools, a lot of them don't work."

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A lot of them don't. They should be closed.

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I mean, I really believe they should be closed.

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But we can't confuse figuring out the science

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and things not working with we shouldn't therefore do anything.

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Right? Because that's not the way the world works.

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If you think about technology,

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imagine if that's how we thought about technology.

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Every time something didn't work,

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we just threw in the towel and said, "Let's forget it." Right?

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You know, they convinced me. I'm sure some of you were like me --

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the latest and greatest thing, the PalmPilot.

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They told me, "Geoff, if you get this PalmPilot

245
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you'll never need another thing."

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That thing lasted all of three weeks. It was over.

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I was so disgusted I spent my money on this thing.

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Did anybody stop inventing? Not a person. Not a soul.

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The folks went out there. They kept inventing.

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The fact that you have failure, that shouldn't stop you

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from pushing the science forward.

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Our job as educators,

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there's some stuff we know that we can do.

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And we've got to do better. The evaluation, we have to start with kids earlier,

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we have to make sure that we provide the support to young people.

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We've got to give them all of these opportunities.

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So that we have to do. But this innovation issue,

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this idea that we've got to keep innovating

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until we really nail this science down

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is something that is absolutely critical.

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And this is something, by the way,

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that I think is going to be a challenge for our entire field.

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America cannot wait another 50 years to get this right.

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We have run out of time.

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I don't know about a fiscal cliff, but I know there's an educational cliff

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that we are walking over right this very second,

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and if we allow folks to continue this foolishness

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about saying we can't afford this —

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So Bill Gates says it's going to cost five billion dollars.

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What is five billion dollars to the United States?

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What did we spend in Afghanistan this year?

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How many trillions? (Applause)

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When the country cares about something,

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we'll spend a trillion dollars without blinking an eye.

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When the safety of America is threatened,

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we will spend any amount of money.

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The real safety of our nation

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is preparing this next generation

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so that they can take our place

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and be the leaders of the world

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when it comes to thinking and technology and democracy

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and all that stuff we care about.

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I dare say it's a pittance,

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what it would require for us to really

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begin to solve some of these problems.

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So once we do that, I'll no longer be angry. (Laughter)

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So, you guys, help me get there.

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Thank you all very much. Thank you.

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(Applause)

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John Legend: So what is the high school dropout rate at Harlem Children's Zone?

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Geoffrey Canada: Well, you know, John,

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100 percent of our kids graduated high school

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last year in my school.

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A hundred percent of them went to college.

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This year's seniors will have 100 percent graduating high school.

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Last I heard we had 93 percent accepted to college.

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We'd better get that other seven percent.

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So that's just how this goes. (Applause)

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JL: So how do you stick with them after they leave high school?

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GC: Well, you know, one of the bad problems

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we have in this country is these kids, the same kids,

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these same vulnerable kids, when you get them in school,

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they drop out in record numbers.

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And so we've figured out that you've got to really design

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a network of support for these kids that in many ways

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mimics what a good parent does.

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They harass you, right? They call you, they say,

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"I want to see your grades. How'd you do on that last test?

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What are you talking about that you want to leave school?

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And you're not coming back here."

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So a bunch of my kids know you can't come back to Harlem

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because Geoff is looking for you.

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They're like, "I really can't come back." No. You'd better stay in school.

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But I'm not kidding about some of this,

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and it gets a little bit to the grit issue.

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When kids know that you refuse to let them fail,

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it puts a different pressure on them,

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and they don't give up as easy.

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So sometimes they don't have it inside,

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and they're, like, "You know, I don't want to do this,

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but I know my mother's going to be mad."

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Well, that matters to kids, and it helps get them through.

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We try to create a set of strategies that gets them tutoring

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and help and support, but also a set of encouragements

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that say to them, "You can do it. It is going to be hard,

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but we refuse to let you fail."

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JL: Well, thank you Dr. Canada.

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Please give it up for him one more time.

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(Applause)