School change: If we reach our goals will society be satisfied?
With the opening of schools I’ve had the opportunity to speak to several faculties about school change. I especially enjoy the dialogue that I get to have with the teachers even though we never have enough time to really dig in to the most important topics.
One of the questions that I ask of any audience I speak to is, “If all of our students were proficient on state standardized tests, and we had no dropouts, would society be satisfied with our graduates?” In the last week I’ve had the opportunity to ask this question of several hundred teachers. Not one, zero, nada, teacher said that society would be satisfied.
My point is this, we are working harder than we’ve ever worked in education, and getting better results than we’ve ever gotten, focusing on standardized tests, and more recently reducing the dropout rate. Yet there is a sense that even if we reach our goals, they are the wrong goals.
Nobody wants to talk about it but there’s a real sense that we are not focusing on preparing kids for their future in the 21st century, but rather the pursuit of higher test scores to please politicians and bureaucrats. I don’t think that’s the kind of school change we were looking for. – Steve Wyckoff
School change: connecting the dots
Perhaps it’s a change in leadership or the level of dissatisfaction with public education within the ranks or educators and policy makers may indeed be reaching the tipping point of school change. Our commissioner of education, Dr. Diane DeBacker, is either demonstrating a level of leadership not seen for over two decades, or all of the stars are beginning to line up.
I personally believe she is the right person, at the right time in history. But regardless over the last two months there have been three events that have caught my attention. The first occurred in April when the KSBE voting unanimously to not pursue the next round of Race To The Top, or as I like to call it the march to mediocrity, funds.
The second occurred at the May KSBE meeting where the state Board of Education voted unanimously to create an educational commission to:
On May 13, 2010, the Kansas State Board of Education authorized the formation of the Kansas Education Commission to examine the framework for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Reauthorization of ESEA, as outlined in the Blueprint for Reform released in March 2010, will set the direction for education in the United States for years to come. The Kansas Education Commission is the state’s strategic approach to reauthorization and educational change.
The third event occurred in early June when the governor of Kansas signed an executive order creating a panel called The Kansas Commission On Graduation And Droppedout Prevention And Recovery. Interestingly, the governor took this action without knowledge of the Kansas State Board of Education.
So if you’re connecting the dots it appears that policymakers and political leaders may be serious about school change. In the spirit of open disclosure I have been appointed to KSBEs Education Commission. I am truly excited about the opportunity. I will be very disappointed if this is an exercise, as the politicians say, in putting lipstick on a pig. – Steve Wyckoff
