“One of the really, really important things associated with this program that a lot of people don’t understand…is that if you take away one of…those nine, a lot of people would think you have eight “There are ninths left. I’d say you have zero ninths left.”
“It’s not a menu-driven challenge. It’s not about stringing together enough individual projects or pilot projects or demonstration projects or categorical programs. It’s about doing the analysis to determine what set of structural features are so integrated that they will produce the power, synergistically, to displace what is the largest institutional structure of this state or any other state. It’s a huge monolithic institution, and it doesn’t isn’t going to move because you’re pointing it at or because you want it to.”
— David W. Hornbeck, educational consultant, former Maryland school principal.
In a September 1990 report, the Business Roundtable recommended the following elements for a successful education system:
1) The new system is based on four operating assumptions: a) all students — not some, many, or most — can learn at significantly higher levels; b) the know-how already exists, within some teachers and schools, to successfully teach all students; c) the content of the program must lead to higher order skills and the teaching strategies must be those that work, which means that there must be different strategies for different learning situations; d) Every child should have an advocate, either a parent or family member or a mentor that the education system or the wider social service system should provide.
2) The new system is performance or results based. Too often, school staff are asked, “Did you do what you were told?” The right question is: “Did it work?” Trying hard is not enough.
Results must be produced and measured, appropriately to achieve a high productivity economy and maintain democratic institutions.
3) Assessment strategies are as solid and rich as outcomes, because assessment inevitably influences what is taught. We need to re-examine how student performance is assessed, encouraging testing and other assessment strategies that reflect thoughtful integration of knowledge, understanding of main ideas, and problem solving.
We need to let go of the kinds of strategies that simply emphasize recall or recognition.
4) Schools that succeed are rewarded and those that fail are penalized. A results-based system must include a system of rewards and penalties.
Our system rarely has such logical incentives and disincentives. For example, a successful school (not individual teachers) would be a school in which the proportion of its successful students, including its at-risk students, is increased by a prescribed amount from the previous relevant assessment period. Ranges of rewards and penalties should provide challenging alternatives that are known to all parties in advance. Success should be rewarded; those who fail should be helped rather than punished.
5) School personnel play a major role in making educational decisions. The school’s responsibility for results and the school’s authority to decide how to achieve these results are closely linked.
parts of the same proposal. Meaningful authority could include actual involvement in the selection of school staff, with the teaching staff helping to select the principal, the principal helping to select teachers, and both helping to select uncertified staff.
School authority could also include significant budgetary control and authority over curriculum, instructional practices, disciplinary measures, the school calendar, and student and teacher assignments.
6) Particular emphasis is placed on staff development, in at least four areas: a) initial training with greater emphasis on subject matter, field experience and effective use of technology; b) additional certification opportunities for career changers and well-qualified non-school majors; c) strong research and development capacity to identify schools and teaching practices that work with all children, including a training system for staff to participate in this process; d) selection, preparation, and refresher programs for administrators, instructional support staff, and other non-teachers to provide leadership and support that contributes to improved student outcomes.
7) A high quality pre-kindergarten program is essential, at least for all underprivileged 4-year-olds. Although not an elixir for all ills, evidence clearly shows that such a program can significantly reduce teen pregnancy, poor school performance, criminal arrest rates, dropouts , the impact of placing students in special education programs, and other negative and/or costly factors that are far too prevalent among students today.
8) Health and other social services are sufficient to reduce significant barriers to learning.
Higher educational expectations cannot be met without addressing poor student health (through prenatal care, good nutrition for young mothers and children, preventive health care and childcare). safe children), criminal and drug behavior in schools, and poor physical facilities, which can impede student discipline and concentration. Education is work, and the conditions necessary for successful endeavor are no less important in the learning environment than in the workplace. Delivering these services will require unprecedented collaboration between agencies and possibly the realignment of governance structures tasked with delivering these services.
9) Technology is used to increase student and teacher productivity and to expand access to learning.
Technology is not a panacea, but it is an essential part of any systemic change agenda, including enabling individualized, student-focused curricula in a mass context, improving the necessary focus of teachers on students with disabilities and other students at risk; meet the greater information and management needs of a results-based education system; and expand the breadth and depth of staff development and productivity to enable staff to achieve higher performance goals for students.
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