As you, no doubt, already know, I saw a presentation on Wednesday from Tim Magner, ed tech guy from the U.S. Department of Education. I’ve already written a good bit about that presentation and the even better showcase from classrooms across North Carolina. I’ve even commented on some comments that I received, including one expressing disappointment that Tim was not offering some “grand idea” for bringing classrooms and school into the current century.
I wasn’t disappointed, because I think that’d be asking too much, especially with our current administration’s blah blah blah!
But since then, I’ve been asking myself what sort of grand idea might actually come from a U.S. Department of Education that was devoted to bringing schools into the 21st century with the patriotic will and courage to say, “We’re going to do it, and here’s how, and we’re going to commit this nation’s resources to making it happen!”
So here’s what I came up with!
A royal charter to schools for planting their flag into the ground of the 21st century: granting rights, privileges, and responsibilities, and holding the school accountable to its community. To apply for a charter, schools must devise and write a constitution, defining and describing various aspects of how they will do the business of preparing their community’s children for their future — both from a local and a global perspective.
There would be a set of aspects of the schools functions to be addressed in the constitution, including, but not limited to, 21c learning standards, 21c curriculum, 21c infrastructure, 21c assessment, 21c teacher practices, 21c learner practices, 21c implementation structures, etc. The constitution would also require an implementation plan including plant and staff development.
After being signed by the entire staff of the school, a designated representation of the community, and signed off by local and state governments, the school would receive the funding and support necessary to achieve their constitution and earn their charter.
I’ve thrown a lot into this, much of it I’ve not entirely thought through. It’s just a worm on a hook.
But nothing new is going to be happening five years from now, unless we are talking about it today.
Dave,
Here’s an interesting article on both public and charter schools…something to consider.
http://www.nea.org/newsreleases/2006/nr060822b.html
Also, I would contend there needs to be greater accountability with regard to software at schools. Too much software is collecting dust while still in packages. If teachers have greater autonomy to choose the software, I think there would be more usage in the schools. Therefore, we would be able to make better usage of the limited resources we have.
Kind Regards,
Mechelle : )
We have a patients “Bill of Rights”. After jetbluue situation in NYC this winter we talked about law for passengers bill of rights.
Do we have a students bill of rights? That would be a cool project.
Wouldn’t it be fabulous if the flatter leadership structure that is taking hold in business was applied to education? We could get rid of many layers of bureaucracy and use a much larger share of finances to actually educate students. I have no problem being personally accountable to a reasonable plan devised by educators, as opposed to having things rammed down my throat from on high which are of dubious value in the classroom.
Bravo Cynthia! I totally concur!
David, help me understand understand how your proposal is different from charter schools. This idea goes all the way back to 1988 with Albert Shanker of AFT. The “charter” establishing such a school is a performance license (or constitution in your terms) that details the school’s mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. The school is held accountable to the community for these results. Unlike traditional public schools, parents, teachers, community organizations, and even museums and universities can open and operate public charter schools.
Democrats like Bill Clinton support charters (http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/c/99_clinton.htm) as well as the republicans you seem so keen on maligning (http://www.nysun.com/article/53195). Think on both sides support them as well – http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=110&subsecID=134&contentID=251463
I know you’re very much against NCLB but even that law embraces the vision you just laid out. If a school misses AYP for 5-6 years one of the options available to the school is to convert to the very model you just described.
Just taking the NC – charters have been in place since 1996 but there is an imposed cap of just 100 of these schools. http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/charterschools/resources/charterschoolqa.ppt
Mr. Magner has been an employee of Microsoft and President George W. Bush.
Should we not at least trust his personal judgement if not his insights into education?
What I hear you asking is: what can a large, top-down, bureaucratic organization do to voluntarily change itself?
One answer is that it can’t, and so fringe elements make changes that are so compelling that they ultimately force the large organization to change, or the large organization falls to uprising competitors.
Another answer is that it can, but there has to be a visionary with enough power and authority to call for sweeping change. And this has a lot of risk, since the vision can be wrong.
What I like about you idea is involving the schools in helping understand and create change. Just as the read/write web is about transparency and collaboration, maybe this is the larger path also. If there were a broad, collaborative effort to find, identify, and discuss successful models for education, this could be a very exciting time for our country. Wouldn’t it be great to ignite the passions of those who care so much about our children?
Now, my two cents: Part of the difficulty will be remembering that there are different answers, and being supportive of that. We have to understand that there is value in diversity of opinion. Just as I am wearied by political debate that is unwilling to understand that we need different perspectives and healthy dialog, I worry that discussions of education to often try to find “one size fits all” models. I believe that there will be successful strategies in education that don’t look like each other.