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REFORMING AMERICAN SCHOOLS

23 not-so-easy pieces

When politicians and educators talk about improving education, the first question to ask is "How?" It's not good enough to use platitudes and cliches about "improving." We must get down to the details. What, specifically, is the plan to reverse failure? Here are some suggestions:

SUMMARY

1. It does no good to discuss school reform if the school has nothing new to offer, no real curriculum, no tested methodology, no new ways to handle discipline or interventions, no new ways to measure progress and improvement.
   
2. Stand for academic quality. Begin by stating a clear, practical, mission that lets people know who you are and what you do: Our school is a safe, diverse, public school for girls and boy in grade K ­ 8. We teach all students their basic academic skills and behaviors to mastery, preparing them to continue their educations and hold jobs with a future. Adopt a simple motto, "Be Safe and Read." If you are a religious school, something like: At our school we serve two kings: The King of Kings, Jesus, and the King of Skills, Reading.
   
3. How are you going to realize this mission? No matter what else is taught, the emphasis should be on real life-long skills and behaviors: reading, writing, listening, speaking, information organization, study skills and math; how to start on time, stay on task, complete assignments. These are the essential skills and behaviors, no matter where one chooses to go in life.
   
4. Your curriculum and methodology must be a real, field-tested and well researched. It should be posted on line for everyone to read and review. Show me a school with a curriculum and I'll show you a school intent on improving.
   
5. Your curriculum and methodology needs to work with 95% of all students, regardless of learning style, emotional intelligence or special learning challenge.
   
6. Staff needs to be hired, trained and supervised to instruct a variety of skill groupings. Teach all staff the Direct Instruction format to mastery.
   
7. Teachers and staff must be held accountable to safety, achievement, and the use of the curriculum and methodology.
   
8. Teachers, instructors, aides and volunteers require training in explicit instruction, classroom management and supervision.
   
9. Use appropriate tests to establish beginning baselines and skill-level groupings. Students need to be placed with students who have similar skill levels (not intelligence).
   
10. Create a variety of small "breakout" rooms or areas to accommodate the many skill groupings you will require. Employ a well-trained staff to instruct these groups.
    
11. Teach to well-designed tests. Ongoing testing tracks improvement. Publish the results. Tests not only test what the students have learned, they test how well the teachers have taught. As Zig Engelmann, the developer of Direct Instruction, reminds us, "If the student hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught."
    
12. Test five or more times every hour. Once learned the skill of "ongoing and continuous testing" monitors and tracks what all students are accomplishing.
    
13. Commit your school to a moral environment. Students responsible for habitual disruption cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the progress of other students. Your moral code might be something like, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
    
14. The discipline and intervention program should be based on a positive-discipline model.
    
15. Make it clear to all the parents that the school is not a parent-run school. Your school needs to be run by a strong governing board and the senior administration. Staff, parents and the community must be asked for input, but the board and senior administration are responsible for the hard choices.
    
16. Don't be afraid to ask teachers, parents and students to choose another school. Not all schools are appropriate for everyone. People must make choices. They should either choose your school, and stand behind your program, or find a school with a mission and behavior more suitable.
    
17. The governing board must hire two senior managers: a principal in charge of the academic life of the school; a business manager responsible for day-to-day operations.
    
18. Homework should be assigned only to drill to mastery, not to introduce new material. Students will have had a full day by the time they leave school. Requiring a significant amount work at home is a recipe for frustration and family failure.
    
19. Attend a Direct Instruction Conference.
    
20. Class size is not as important as many people think.
    
21. Hold your Special Education people accountable to your curriculum and methodology.
    
22. Realize that most schools (private or public, religious or secular), at any level of instruction (including corporate training and graduate schools), all need to improve their curriculums and methods of instruction.
    
23. No matter what else is taught, make sure your school accelerates the fundamental academic skills and behaviors required for students to continue their educations and hold jobs with a future.
    
    

DISCUSSION: HOW TO REFORM AMERICAN SCHOOLS

I often ask myself, "Is there really is a crisis in American education, or am I just making a mountain out of a molehill?" Consistently I come up with the same answer, "Yes. There is a crisis, and it's far greater than I can imagine."

The crisis is this:

• Too many students are experiencing far too much academic failure, depression and boredom.
• Too many students do not have the academic skills required to succeed in college.
• An enormous percentage of every classroom hour is wasted on non-productive activity.
• Parents are often frightened and frustrated.
• Too many of our best teachers quit out of frustration.
• Administrators spend far too much time with discipline instead of improving instruction.
• Too many students exhibit very poor reading, writing, listening, speaking, information organization, study and math skills.
• Too few students are able to start on time, stay on task, and complete their assignments on time.
• When tested against students from other industrialized countries, American students consistently score towards the bottom.
• Far too many college graduates can neither read, nor write, with much confidence or competency.

Of course, this litany is less true for the top ten to twenty percent. The "top" students have the genetic ability and good fortune to master their skills and behaviors no matter how they are taught. This top group does very well, but the future cannot be limited to the top twenty percent, relegating everyone else to low-paying, frustrating employment. This is not a recipe for a democratic, productive, self-reliant society.

Why all this failure and frustration? The short answer is this: Most teachers do not posses an explicit curriculum and method of instruction. Too many have not been exposed to Direct Instruction, teaching to mastery, continuous and ongoing testing, proximity management, positive discipline, student supervision, classroom management, study skills, or the fundamental behaviors of academic success.

Yes! Be it public or private, religious or secular, the twenty-three steps included here are pivotal.

A final comment: Am I trying to suggest that reform is necessary in order that everyone become a college graduate? Far from it. College works well for some people, but college bound or not, all people benefit from mastering how to read. Most of what educated people learn they learn from reading. This is true for electricians as well as college graduates, and the world needs literate and well-informed electricians as well as doctors and lawyers.

With all that is against it, real school reform does have a fighting chance. However, reformers must stop talking in cliches. Politicians must stop posturing for re-election and voting in more money for more of the same. Parents must stop accepting platitudes. The time must be taken to ask, "Where's the data to support what really works?" The effort must be made to establish some real schools of "education." The time must be taken to look at the few examples across the nation that are really working. It can be done. I've seen it. My boys have seen it. You can too. There are no more acceptable excuses. Our children deserve to be taught, and to learn, the hard skills that are required to solve the enormous challenges confronting the world today.

Thank you.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: REFORMING AMERICAN SCHOOLS © June, 2001 by Rory Donaldson. All rights reserved. In order to help reverse the tide of academic failure and optimize school success, parents and teachers may copy articles, tools and software for individual, non-commercial use at no charge. Contents may not be sold or repackaged in any manner without the written permission of Rory Donaldson. Since all material is copyrighted, please ensure that this entire copyright notice and contact information continues to be attached to each article you download. Mr. Donaldson appreciates the feedback. Additional academic-success articles and tools may be viewed and downloaded at no charge by logging on to brainsarefun.com. New titles are being released regularly. Suggestions and comments encouraged, email: roryd@brainsarefun.com.

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