The Road Ahead: Education Reform, part II

Last week, I outlined the first half of a set of ideas to improve education in the United States.  Today, I'm wrapping up those thoughts with the rest of my desired reforms.

More teaching, less administration.  Our resources must be used to put more teachers into more classrooms.  Principals can set the tone for a school and work to get resources where they are most needed, but the administrative overhead in public schools goes well beyond that.  We need less administration and those who remain  must also be regular classroom teachers.  If they teach, they will understand what students need.  And student needs must drive our eduction system. 

Teacher autonomy.  Most teachers are effective classroom planners and they value autonomy in getting the job done.  Successful learning requires flexible teachers who adapt their lessons to their students.  I know this first-hand.  On a year to year basis, I may focus on different elements of the subjects I teach.  That's not to say there is no goal; no endpoint.  In fact, all of my courses have objectives, but my school is flexible enough to permit me to map my course to student interests while working toward that goal.  This means greater engagement for everyone in my classroom.  We all win.

Eliminate tenure.  Though experience is valuable and should be rewarded, we must acknowledge that the "job for life" model of teaching in no longer useful.  Job security is important, of course, and elimination of tenure should not serve as a license for schools to get rid of experienced teachers.  But the current tenure system is not serving our students well and we must acknowledge that fact.

Let the state run the show.  I'm not always a fan of state government, but local control of our schools has proven a disaster, especially in terms of funding.  Local control means that local taxes are used to pay for the schools.  And where the tax base isn't up to the job, local schools (and the children enrolled in them) suffer mightily.  Our haphazard system of local control rewards well-off children while leaving the rest of our youth to muddle through. If the state collected the money and then doled it out to districts, we'd have much greater equality in the system.  And if the state is footing the bill, then they should set the standards.  Then we could quit pretending that the petty fiefdoms that we call school boards are a good idea. 

I am convinced that this is the recipe for educational success.  Innovative, successful programs like the Harlem's Children's Zone and KIPP are getting the job done.  But, for all their success, they are still rare bright lights.  I fear that we lack the national commitment to provide a system that will succeed for all of our children.   The price of this neglect is steep, and that it is paid by the most vulnerable among us is deeply shameful.   We can do better.