Another report calling for a top to bottom school reform made headlines recently. Tough Choices or Tough Times by the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce calls for ending high school 10th grade for most students, early childhood education, better teachers with more pay, contractors to run schools, lifelong learning subsidies, etc. Diane Ravitch reviews the report as misguided in Education Week.
The question is, Will anything come of this book beyond the fate of similar past reports? There have been many ambitious efforts by prestigious panels to significantly change schools. Following the famous Eight-Year Study educators were determined to use the results to change schools and wrote, Education for All American Youth in the 1940s. Living and Learning,, a splendid and thorough Canadian 1960s report recommended wholesale change beginning with the aims of education. A marvelous report, The Reform of the Intermediate and Secondary Education (RISE) in the 1970s called for wholesale reform of schools in California. More recent calls include: Turning Points, Breaking Ranks (both volumes).
Perhaps, it’s that schools can’t or won’t change. Every school has staff members that welcome change and staff members that resist change. They offset each other. That’s why IALA promotes choices for students and staff. Many of the choices can be new schools to avoid the long painful process toward change in an existing program that usually does not come to fruition.
So, start over with a new school or create a school within the school and give it far-reaching decision-making authority. Make it a choice for both staff and students!