{"id":2285,"date":"2019-06-06T17:44:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T17:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/?p=2285"},"modified":"2024-10-15T22:02:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T22:02:12","slug":"what-is-missing-in-the-equation-of-reinventing-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/2019\/06\/06\/what-is-missing-in-the-equation-of-reinventing-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Missing in the Equation of \u201cReinventing\u201d Schools?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cChange occurs in schools, often for the better, but it\u2019s\nalmost always gradual and incomplete.\u201d So concludes Chester E. Finn, Jr.,\nSenior Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in a recent essay<\/a>\non the difficulties of \u201creinventing\u201d schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finn focuses on \u201cbreak the mold\u201d schools of the \u201cAmerica\n2000\u201d plan of the late President George H.W. Bush. Finn brings to light the\nfact that the \u201cbreak the mold\u201d schools concentrated solely on creating brand\nnew schools while other programs focused entirely on transforming existing\nschools. He notes the deficiency of this approach: \u201cIn the former situation,\n\u2018it ain\u2019t broke,\u2019 so why change it? In the latter situation, it\u2019s tantamount to\ntaking an education sow\u2019s ear and striving to turn it into a silk purse.\u201d In\nother words, the circumstances were difficult in either situation because\nneither plan dealt with the source of the issue: maintaining leaders for\nschools through design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finn continues: \u201cSadly, similar tales can be recited of many\nother efforts at large-scale, top-down education change, whether at the\nmunicipal, state, or national levels. After an ambitious launch, with great\nleadership, political support and seemingly ample funding, things begin to go\nawry. Funding priorities change. Revenues declined. Leaders leave or are fired.\nElections happen. And the giant rubber band of American public education\nfollows its inherent need to snap back into its original shape once the\nexternal tension is eased.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He makes valid points; the top-down education change is not\neffective or beneficial, and at times you can have great leadership, support,\nand funding but things just do not go as planned. This mirrors the experience\nof Don Nielsen, Senior Fellow and program chair of Discovery Institute\u2019s American\nCenter for Transforming Education<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\nand author of Every School<\/em><\/a>, during his time serving\non the Seattle School Board  [1993-2001].\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nielsen and the other members of the school board had appointed General John Stanford to the superintendent position and things were rolling smoothly until General Stanford passed away from leukemia \u201c38 months after becoming superintendent.\u201d Nielsen states, \u201cBy the time General Stanford became superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, he had honed his leadership skills to a very fine level. In his two-and-a-half years as superintendent, he not only transformed Seattle Public Schools but transformed the attitude of an entire city toward its public school system, achieving widespread support.\u201d The way General Stanford was able to change the entire atmosphere in Seattle was through his leadership. He effectively \u201celiminated mandatory busing, decentralized decision-making, installed a new funding policy, and negotiated a union contract that eliminated seniority in the hiring of teachers\u201d and through all of this gathered support from every stakeholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, shortly after General Stanford passed away,\nthings started to go back to their old ways, maintaining the original status\nquo. This proves a point that Finn has missed: effective leaders can and do create\na movement, even in an entrenched bureaucracy. However, as Nielsen points out\n\u201cthat is unlikely to happen in our education system, as we have so few\neffective leaders and the current leadership training system is unlikely to\nchange that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership change requires change at the state level, not the federal or municipal level. The reason for this is that the states control the curriculum, the selection of leaders, the certification programs for teachers, the compensation for those positions the money, testing, and graduation. As Nielsen argues \u201cWe must look at changing the laws that now govern the present system. To do that will take political courage, something that is in short supply.\u201d He continues, \u201cwhat is needed is a new type of leader: a \u2018change agent.\u2019 In a way, we are looking to create educational entrepreneurs who think of doing school differently, [like General Stanford] leaders who will not be satisfied to effectively educate only a portion of their students.\u201d In essence what Nielsen is advocating for is \u201cto create leaders \u2018by design\u2019 who will then create whole new types of school for the 21st<\/sup> century. These leaders would be placed in schools or districts that need and want change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, our public schools operate on an obsolete system and the change that has been implemented is mostly \u201cgradual and incomplete.\u201d Nielsen rightfully argues that what is needed is \u201ca movement for change as opposed to a top-down dictum\u2026ultimately achiev[ing] the desired outcome: a school system that effectively educates every child<\/em>.\u201d We have that plan\u2014one state need only adopt it to lead the way for others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChange occurs in schools, often for the better, but it\u2019s almost always gradual and incomplete.\u201d So concludes Chester E. Finn, Jr., Senior Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in a recent essay on the difficulties of \u201creinventing\u201d schools. Finn focuses on \u201cbreak the mold\u201d schools of the \u201cAmerica 2000\u201d plan of the late President George H.W. Bush. Finn brings to light the fact that the \u201cbreak the mold\u201d schools concentrated solely on creating brand new schools while other programs focused entirely on transforming existing schools. He notes the deficiency of this approach: \u201cIn the former situation, \u2018it ain\u2019t broke,\u2019 so why change it? In the latter situation, it\u2019s tantamount to taking an education sow\u2019s ear and striving to turn Read More ›<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":343,"featured_media":2288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1062],"class_list":["post-2285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-educational-leadership"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Bailey Takacs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2285"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2285"}],"wp:action-assign-author":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/2285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}