Education reform reform

Expect to hear a lot about education reform for awhile.
Every time a batch of alarming statistics are made public, there
is a wave talking and writing about problem.

I pay close attention.

I look in particular for the changes that I know from my experience, would really make a difference. I never see them.

The one thing that I look for in particular, is a reformer who says, let's ask teachers what they think they need to succeed. I taught for 25 years and I was never once asked that question.

Teachers are not politically powerful enough to sit at the table where the decisions are made. Apparently, they never will be. It is perhaps the worst mistake of all, and it is made in one reform after another, after another, and after another.

Take for example; social promotion. In the Journal this morning, I read that the folks at the top of the educational decision making pyramid are encouraged by the fact that (because of all day kindergarten), 53% of third graders are proficient in math, up 9% over the year before. 62% are proficient readers, up four points.

Ask one of the pyramid top sitters what to do with the kids who are not proficient, and they will tell you to pass them along to the fourth grade where they will catch up.

The truth is that they will not "catch up". The truth is that they will fall further and further behind until they finally drop out.

If the decision making power were at the bottom of the pyramid, where the education, experience, and expertise are, you would be told to hold them at the third grade (in reading, or in math) until they have mastered the skill set that they need to succeed in the fourth grade.

APS spends a million dollars a year gathering and crunching data in its Research, Development and Accountability division. They have never once, not once, surveyed the 70,000 years of current teaching experience in the district, and asked those teachers what they thought was wrong, and what they thought they needed to succeed.

This is typical of good ol' boy oligarchies; if the answer might reflect badly on one or more of the good ol' boys, don't ask the question, and don't allow the question to be asked by anyone else.

Hiding the truth, for no reason other than to cover each others asses, is why good ol' boy oligarchies are ultimately dysfunctional and unsuccessful.


If you ask APS School Board President Marty Esquivel, to point to a time, a day, and a place where he (or someone in his stead) will sit still and answer legitimate questions about the public interests in the public schools, he will not.






If you ask APS Superintendent Winston Brooks, to point to a time, a day, and a place where he (or someone in his stead) will sit still and answer legitimate questions about the public interests in the public schools, he will not.





Ask APS Executive Director of Communications to point to a time, a day, and a place where she (or someone in his stead) will sit still and answer legitimate questions (communicate) about the public interests in the public schools,
she will not.





Ask APS Communications Director, Rigo Chavez to point to a time, a day, and a place where he (or someone in his stead) will sit still and answer legitimate questions about the public interests in the public schools, he will not.






Which illustrates to the single most important reform of all, and the reform that we will never see; being candid, forthright, and honest about the problem.

There is no problem which can be simultaneously hidden from stakeholders and successfully solved.

There will never be meaningful reform in education for as long as those who are most immediately responsible for the failure, are allowed to continue to hide their failures in order to except themselves from the consequences of their failures.




photos Mark Bralley