CER Commentary

RESOLUTIONS 2000: Education Reform For an Educated Citizenry
By Jeanne Allen

        As America moves in to the new millennium, our schools lag behind, dragged down by weak academics and outmoded operations.

• Most children are assigned to their school based on where they live, not what they need.
• Most teachers hired in the last fifteen years are probably not teaching a subject in which they majored.
• Most principals are being paid a pre-determined salary that has no correlation to whether or not they run a well managed, academically sound school.
• Most superintendents are spending ninety-percent of their time grappling with government paper work and regulations.
• And most school board members are caught up in discussions about bricks and mortar or zero tolerance and sex education - not about how best to deliver math and reading programs or make average students excel.

        Not surprisingly, American school children -- suburban and urban, black and white -- are not faring well in the classroom. Less than 40 percent of American 4th, 8th and 12th graders are proficient writing, reading and math. And they know even less history, civics and geography.

        We need a new vision of public schools. Below are ten developments that are already bringing dramatic change to schooling, and will be the measure of where education goes in the new millennium.

1) Families will have more choices

        Public schools, charter schools, quasi-private partnerships and private schools will serve increasing numbers of children. These schools will be accountable to the public, offer programs focused on children, and live or die by the students, and funding, they can successfully attract and serve.

2) Curriculum will be based on proven research

        Dozens of long-proven programs are finally making their way to the classroom. Rigorous curricula will thrive while picture-laden but substance-free textbooks will lose favor. Educational programs will survive only if achievement results.

3) Teachers will have more choice

        Teachers will be able to select whether they want to be a full time or contract employee, a lead teacher or a department head. And they'll have choices of representation beyond the two unions that currently dictate much of the employment opportunities and conditions of today's schools.

4) Principals will have real control over school decisions and in return be held accountable for the education their school delivers.

        The first principals of public education in this country were responsible for all matters of the school - from personnel to curriculum to community relations -- and in return were well paid and well regarded. The decade to come will find more public school principals -- as those in charter public schools already are -- steering their own ship and responsible directly to the parents and children their school serves.

5) Rigorous standard and high stakes tests that demand academic proficiency will be the norm.

        State-based standards tests will stress academics and eschew the warm-fuzzy self-esteem measures that have failed our children. Schools will be required to meet these high standards in order to receive funding and accreditation, and those that fail will be forced to let children choose other schools, and, if they cannot improve and regain students, shut down.

6) Diverse community and civic groups will play a larger role in the delivery of education.

        These groups have long spent time on early childhood or after-school and summer programs making up for deficiencies of local schools. Now, they're becoming partners in the delivery of education or setting up schools themselves, to make sure there are good schools in their neighborhoods.

7) As schools fail to manage themselves academically or operationally, local officials will be given more control over local schools.

        Local elected leaders are the ones who hear from their constituents about the quality of schools, but typically have little real control over schools. Some states have passed legislation allowing a mayor to over the school board and all affairs of K-12 schooling. Others have seen town councilmen petition legislators for the ability to make policy changes in their schools.

8) State mandates regarding teacher licensing and administrator certification will be based on demonstrated expertise, not the numbers of years spent in higher education.

        Right now the United States president, a Governor, a university president, or a top industry scientist cannot teach in your average public school without getting a waiver or jumping through other emergency certification hoops. Meanwhile, the literacy level of far too many teacher candidates in even the best teacher education colleges is inadequate. Opening up of the teacher ranks to industry and academic professionals will improve teacher quality, and raise the standards in teacher hiring, evaluation and advancement.

9) Universities will begin to run public schools.

        Currently seventy-five percent of all colleges and universities in this country offer remedial education in order to attract enough students to sustain themselves and see them through to graduation. Taking matters into their own hands, universities are beginning partnership charter schools or starting their own schools to serve as a laboratory for their education schools. Others are severely reducing their remedial offerings, putting pressure back on K-12 schools to get the job done.

10) More money will be spent on more success.

        Money is the most talked about issue education. Is it enough? Going to the right place? Being spent ethically, efficiently, accountably? But until schools are the direct repository of public funds, and held accountable for the academic and operational results of those funds, the education system will continue to pour good money into unqualified staff and curricula and books that don't offer our children what they need. Where schools, teachers and students are going the extra mile and achieving measurable academic success, is where the money, and more of it, should go.

        If we all resolve to usher in these reforms with speed and purpose, the United States will reap the benefits of a literate, intelligent, empowered 21st Century citizenry.

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Jeanne Allen is president of The Center for Education Reform, a national, independent, nonprofit advocacy organization. Founded in 1993, the Center provides support and guidance to individuals, community and civic groups, policy-makers and others who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools.

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