Reinventing Schools

Since the 1983 report on the state of American education, A Nation at Risk, there has been two decades of pressure from business and political leaders and others to change the public education system. The simple solution that most pursue are mostly procedural changes like extending school days, better texts and harder curriculum. To be successful we need to find out if what is taught is relevant, does it address the deeper sense of what it means to be educated. If not, curricular content and pedagogical delivery may need to be reconfigured.
According to the research, in order for schools to achieve high academic standards for all students they must progress through three stages (Why, What and How). The first is convincing parents, educators and community members why the school needs change. Second is using reliable data to determine what needs to changed after people understand why. This step would include the educational vision of the school, what will be taught and a view of the organizational instruction. Third is determining how to change the school once everyone embraces the why and what. These three steps, in sequence, articulate the problem before finding the solution. Many schools do the opposite and any change would be ineffective if those involved do not believe in or understand what needs to be changed.
In the most successful high schools the staff and administration embrace change as exciting and challenging rather than threatening and intimidating. The explosion of technology requires breakthrough thinking. Students need to work harder, faster and smarter than their predecessors. Schools need to be able to prepare students to meet the future demands that will be placed upon them. Kodak was unprepared for the widespread adoption of digital photography; it had to lay off one quarter of its workforce in 2004. The old rules don’t apply and an “it’s always been done that way” attitude will not do. The agrarian calendar is not a good match with preparing students for the digital age.
Schools should develop a student focused vision and common focus that helps identify what changes need to be made. In general, throughout history there have been four roles of education, fostering intellectual development, preparing students to be productive citizens, for higher education and for the world of work. Over the past few decades our country has gone through some dramatic changes that require workers to have a new set of skills from those schools have traditionally provided. The tendency has been to rely on old tride and true curriculum but this old methodology is from and education system that would select and sort students, not help them achieve high standards of proficiency. The goal should be to teach students how to think not what to think. It is important to learn how to learn and embrace change so students can succeed in a changing society. To be successful schools need to help students apply high levels of cognitive knowledge to real life unpredictable situations.
Once the student focused vision is created what to teach must be identified. Many schools came to the conclusion that their curriculum is over crowded. A decision needs to be made on what is essential to learn, what is nice to know and what should be eliminated. A majority of successful high schools have identified literacy and writing as essential. An example is that several schools studied had a high percentage of freshmen not proficient enough in reading. The schools made a major commitment to an intensive literacy program in the 9th grade. They recognized that strong literacy skills would prevent academic struggle, frustration and drop outs. In successful schools teachers are trained and expected to teach reading within their individual disciplines. Also a commitment was made to rigorous 11th and 12 grade programs which mainly comprised of advanced math, science, language arts and social study courses.
Most schools developed small learning communities. Relevance is critical; it can help create the conditions and motivation for students to dedicate themselves to rigorous work. This demand requires students to take their own learning seriously. They are more likely to make this investment if they know that teachers, parents and other students actually care how well they do. They will try harder if they are connected, encouraged and assisted. So everyone needs to be involved and trusting relationships are essential.
After discovering why, identifying what and determining how they need to change the true challenge is breaking free of traditions and standard operation procedures. In general one third of the faculty will be excited, one third will be open minded but tentative and one third will resist. High performing schools seem to engage the top third to create and implement the plan for change. The middle third is asked to analyze evaluate and volunteer to use components of the plan, they usually come on board within a year. Successful leaders have found that when it is admitted up front that the plan will need frequent adjustments, the bottom third will get involved over time.
As schools make these changes they must analyze how they are doing along the way. They need to revamp, refine and redirect decisions and plans in place. School leaders should not worry about how many mistakes they make but whether they learned from coped with and made adjustments as needed.