A Whole New Education

Get ready for a major dose of "change" this November. Picking a new president means that both Democrats and Republicans are promising to be the party of "change", from which, we can assume, new priorities in Federal education will flow.

The question is: What will the new priorities be?

Given that Washington lobbyists, bureaucrats and legislators are the chief sausage-makers, we should not expect too much. In fact, as the recent farm bill aptly demonstrates, rather than bold, nimble or innovative change in existing policy, what we are likely to get are small baby steps and a whole lot of staying the course--even when it is not working.

But, that should not keep us, as professionals, from developing and advocating for a coherent set of priorities or principles that should drive consideration of new policies. If anything, it makes it even more essential that teachers establish a vision for what they would like schools to be and to do for young people.

If we are going to ever get anywhere in education, teachers, more than anyone, understand that there must be a vision, a plan and an underlying strategy to get there.

I am not a policy wonk or a politician, so the plan and the strategy will have to wait. But, I know enough after 20 years of teaching young people to put together the rudiments of an educational vision based on my experiences.

Here they are. The four guiding principles that will help get us to a more effective, equitable and dynamic education policy:

• Keep education local, as close to the community as possible. We have seen already what happens when we "outsource" education to the federal government: unfunded mandates, corporate cronyism, political ideology in place of sound educational policy. But, less well understood, are the ways in which state-level education policies have contributed to the rise of standardization in teaching. School rankings, state exit exams, increased mandatory school age, merit pay based on test scores, corporate sponsored charter schools--there are a lot of policies coming out of state legislatures that are equally, if not more, disastrous than at the federal policy. Bottom line: Fight like hell to keep as much power as possible at the community, or school board level.
• Invest in human beings, not fads or gimmicks. There are very powerful and persuasive arguments, using numbers, that the United States has never adequately funded its schools, and that most of that burden falls on teachers. I am not talking principally about "salary". I am talking about investing more money in training, development and alternative professional career paths. Everyone knows, or should at this point, that the key to a quality education in our public schools is the quality of our teachers. If you grow your staff, you will create a resource which, in turn, impacts students. Yes, we need to increase beginning teacher salaries, but more: we need to demonstrate to them that on-going training, support and development will allow them to reach their full potential and that as full professionals, they will be given more responsibility and authority to create effective education programming in their buildings. Pay more to attract novice teaching candidates, but then, invest in them, grow them and give them more responsibility and authority.
• Customize learning, don't standardize. The real truth is that what will help students, their families, their communities and ultimately, even our nation economically, is programming that develops the full potential of every student. Not every student can be a scientist; not every student wants to interpret literature or major in history or crunch numbers. The question for every student though, is this: What do you want to do with your one wild and beautiful life? If we set about creating schools where the essential thrust of learning is "customized" to the goals and desires of each individual, we will change the equation from learning as coercion to learning as a partnership in discovery. The bald truth is that standardization, through minimum competency exams, serves the interests of politicians and the corporate test industry but not students, their families or their communities. We need to get back to serving our students, their family and our communities.
• Educational excellence, not minimum standards. The lynch pin of education needs to be achieving excellence, whatever the chosen field of endeavor. That only happens when a student freely chooses to excel and invests themselves fully in their pursuit. It may sound like a cliche, but that means that a level of passionate intensity must be driving their efforts at learning. How do we get that? By having high quality instructors facilitating relevant and dynamic curriculum, having responsible and caring adults building positive relationships with every student, and by customizing the learning experience to fit the needs and desires of every student.

These are the four principles that form a coherent vision of how we can get to a much improved education policy. How each of these fleshes out at the policy level is much more tedious and fraught with potential complications and snags. Plus, it is not my field of expertise, so at this point, I would need to call for help.

What do you think can be done, either at the level of principles or at the level of policy, to arrive at a more effective, more equitable and more dynamic education for America's children?