School Failures = Opportunities
Local school practitioners must view their failing school report cards as opportunities to promote and implement classroom methods and ideas that enable the flexibility and creativity of teachers and students alike. The poor performances of schools that is so evident now can be a platform that empowers individual teachers to expose their unique talents and abilities in the classroom. The crisis situation in our nation's public schools has essentially laid the foundation for our best and brightest educators to be successful. Principals simply need to get out of the way and remove administrative and scheduling barriers, so that teachers can do what they do best -- teach. The constraints of legislative and district wide mandates do more to stifle teacher productivity than they do to encourage it. The result of these bureaucratic roadblocks is that large numbers of the best teachers continue to flee the lowest performing schools in favor of less cumbersome or higher performing school settings. The perennial complaints of teaching professionals (e.g. the absence of administrative support and adequate teaching resources) can be muted if teachers are at last allowed to manage their teaching and learning activities in ways that complement their respective comforts and strengths.
The bureaucrats and educational elites should interpret the extensive school failures as a clarion call to move beyond tradition and the status quo (especially since so many of the old methods are no longer applicable and have failed our students) to a discovery and embracing of solutions that reflect innovation and fresh perspectives for educating our youth. The dire straits characterizing schools nationwide call for unusual partnerships among professionals and groups that historically have not been open to working with one another. State, local, and federal levels of government, teacher unions, liberals, and conservatives will need to find effective ways to cooperate and coordinate to achieve substantive and measurable progress toward comprehensive school reform. The conditions of our schools and the seemingly intractable academic challenges confronting our young people must move the education establishment in ways that cause them to dispel their usual agendas and interests. For once, we must all urgently focus on what's best for our children's education and future. This will require a strong commitment to reach out to persons, organizations, interests, and stakeholders who represent conflicting ideas about public education. Surely the combination of the best ideas and practices across opposing parties can be integrated in ways that signal a new era of cooperation in American public education.
Parents and persons representing many professions and sectors must recognize that their input and unique perspectives are integral if we are to successfully expand and transform how K-12 education is delivered. The synthesis of ideas and resources from those who routinely implement processes, structures, and systems that may be transferable to school operations is truly an opportunity to elevate schools. The depth and breadth of ingenuity, expertise and skills of persons working in nonprofit, private, public, and religious sector professions can not only enhance the academic experiences of students but can also help to mitigate many of the curricular as well as extracurricular challenges facing teaching professionals on a daily basis. Entrepreneurs, social service providers, communities of faith, and colleges and universities are examples of entities whose contributions to school age education can be transforming. So many of non-education disciplines, professions, industries, and sectors know exactly what skill sets and personal attributes will be needed as our youth progress as adults, citizens, leaders, and workers. To integrate the proficiencies of so many who function outside of the education industry, we must seize the opportunities before us to define solutions that are conducive to new forms of collaboration and partnerships.
The bureaucrats and educational elites should interpret the extensive school failures as a clarion call to move beyond tradition and the status quo (especially since so many of the old methods are no longer applicable and have failed our students) to a discovery and embracing of solutions that reflect innovation and fresh perspectives for educating our youth. The dire straits characterizing schools nationwide call for unusual partnerships among professionals and groups that historically have not been open to working with one another. State, local, and federal levels of government, teacher unions, liberals, and conservatives will need to find effective ways to cooperate and coordinate to achieve substantive and measurable progress toward comprehensive school reform. The conditions of our schools and the seemingly intractable academic challenges confronting our young people must move the education establishment in ways that cause them to dispel their usual agendas and interests. For once, we must all urgently focus on what's best for our children's education and future. This will require a strong commitment to reach out to persons, organizations, interests, and stakeholders who represent conflicting ideas about public education. Surely the combination of the best ideas and practices across opposing parties can be integrated in ways that signal a new era of cooperation in American public education.
Parents and persons representing many professions and sectors must recognize that their input and unique perspectives are integral if we are to successfully expand and transform how K-12 education is delivered. The synthesis of ideas and resources from those who routinely implement processes, structures, and systems that may be transferable to school operations is truly an opportunity to elevate schools. The depth and breadth of ingenuity, expertise and skills of persons working in nonprofit, private, public, and religious sector professions can not only enhance the academic experiences of students but can also help to mitigate many of the curricular as well as extracurricular challenges facing teaching professionals on a daily basis. Entrepreneurs, social service providers, communities of faith, and colleges and universities are examples of entities whose contributions to school age education can be transforming. So many of non-education disciplines, professions, industries, and sectors know exactly what skill sets and personal attributes will be needed as our youth progress as adults, citizens, leaders, and workers. To integrate the proficiencies of so many who function outside of the education industry, we must seize the opportunities before us to define solutions that are conducive to new forms of collaboration and partnerships.
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