Public School Reform: Innovation, Not Renovation

- November 19, 1999

Public schools are in serious trouble: Standardized test scores have not increased while dropout rates, teacher turnover rates, and school violence rates have all increased. Students are more belligerent, curricula are less modern, and teachers are less skilled than ever before. Is there a cure?

From Columbia Spectator, Columbia University, NY, NY
by Michael Ricci, sophmore

Listen closely, and you just might be able to hear it. The cracks are starting to form in the walls of an American monolith; public education. As we approach a new century, our schools are in peril.

Make no mistake about it, our public schools are in serious trouble. Despite more money being funneled into public education in the last decade, standardized test scores have not increased while dropout rates, teacher turnover rates, and school violence rates have all increased. Students are more belligerent, curricula are less modern, and teachers are less skilled than ever before.

Public education has always been considered a bedrock of the American system. Any challenge to public education is said to threaten the base of democracy. The commitment to public education, and the use of government funds to pay for it, has always been considered the most "sacred commitment" the public makes to each other.

This strong commitment, coupled with an entrenched bureaucracy and polling data that show many Americans concerned with educational quality in schools besides their own, has traditionally left the system unchallenged. Suffice it to say, the time for a challenge has come.

To Scrap It or Rebuild It?

The question, then, becomes that of whether you make changes within the system or scrap it make up an entirely new system altogether. New ideas, like vouchers and charter schools, while growing in popularity, are not ready for the public's acceptance yet. In reality, radical change is not necessary because the system is not inherently flawed. It is a system stuck in a time warp, not prepared for a more diverse student body burdened with higher standards and tougher tests. Innovation, not renovation, is the right word for public school reform.

Let us first discuss what will not work, what will not bring innovation to public schools. First we do not need more discipline. Clearly, school administrators, in the wake of the Columbine shooting , are quite fearful of their students turning against them. Fear does not, however mean that you try to scare the students into following rules. When students are expelled for two years for having a fight in the bleachers, as in the case in Decatur, Illinois, we know something is wrong.

Zero tolerance is for criminal, not students. Students are as imperfect as their schools are. Thinking that harsher punishment will help is wrong. Taking them away from their only opportunity to get ahead, a high school diploma, is ridiculous.

Second, we do not need a wax poetic on this issue of local or national control of education. Whether or not the Department of Education (DOE) exists is not going to change the problems within our schools. If there is going to be a thriving DOE, however, it should be more active. Get tough with superintendents. Get tough with boards of education. Give them money and whip them into shape. Either that or just get rid of DOE.

Eliminate Tenure

What do we need then? Well, we need to talk about tenure in terms of eliminating it from the vocabulary of unionized teachers. This idea of protecting teachers who have become burned-out and ineffective is self-defeating. Teaching is about what is right for the student, not what is best for the people collecting the paychecks.

This means no more tenure for administrators, either. Everyone should be on their heels.

While everyone is on their heels, they can work on their material. Our curriculums need serious overhaul. Students should be learning more about current affairs, more about how today's world works; enough of these history classes that stop abruptly at World War II. Students should be challenged to read more, write more, and talk more. Oral reports should be demanded by every teacher. Too many students graduate high school not having given a single oral presentation to a group of their peers.

Perhaps it sounds easier to implement than it is. The problem is complacency. Tenure makes people much more comfortable. Old curriculums are comfort zones for bureaucrats too lazy to spend money and time updating them.

If you are looking for someone to step up and take the rap on all of this, blame is nonexistent. Superintendents shift blame to principals, who then go on to blame teachers, who then blame unresponsive students or negligent teachers.

Every member of the community should be held accountable for the success of the school district. Not just the board of education, not just the teachers. Sixteen years ago, a national commission on educational excellence appointed by President Reagan released a report entitled A Nation At Risk. The report that said our schools were "being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.

We have to be forewarned; schools must prepare to change, or just die by attrition. In the meantime, the sheetrock continues to fall through the ceiling.

Reprinted with permission of The Columbia Spectator