Some Bricolage on School Reform

At his blog Larry Cuban on School Reform and Practice, Larry Cuban discuss Americans love for change and how that relationship affects education.  (I think that Cuban can put his name on his blog because he no longer teaches, but that's a post for a different time. He can also put his name on his blog because he has more letters after his name that I do.)

Cuban makes two astute observations about how Americans view change and schools.  First, Americans think change is good.  More importantly, change and improvement have become synonyms. 

To put it bluntly: Americans believe that change is good. We need look no further than commonplace patterns that pervade our daily lives. Car models change every year. Elections move public officials in and out of office every few years. And Americans love to move from where they were reared to other places. Change, then, is common; it is no big deal.

Not only is change seen as worthwhile, many Americans also confuse change with improvement. They are different concepts. When a married couple divorces, one spouse sees it as joyful emancipation and the other as a tragedy. The divorce qualifies as a change but each spouse views it dramatically different. Change is not necessarily improvement; improvement is in the head of the beholder. [Larry Cuban 4/3/10]

Cuban illustrates that this confusion detrimentally affects education; ". . . teachers are blamed for being opposed to reform when their fellow Americans see it as a prized 'good,' one that automatically leads to improvement"  [Larry Cuban 4/3/10].  He then goes on to parse the differences between "incremental change" and "fundamental change."

Education seems to face a deeper problem than Secretary of Education Duncan who wants change that goes beyond tinkering or a public confused about the difference between change and reform.  Joshua Hammand's and James Morrison's The Stuff Americans Are Made of:  The Seven Cultural Forces That Define Americans, A New Framework for Quality. Productivity and Profitability indicates that teachers may increasingly be labeled obstructionists.  Hammond and Morrison claim that the seven forces are

1. Americans demand choices
2. Americans believe impossible dreams are possible.  (Insert your own windmill joke here.)
3. Americas love both big and more.
4. Americans want everything NOW!!!
5. Americans are willing to forgive mistakes and move on.
6. Americans like to improvise.
7. Americans love the NEW!!!

If Hammond and Morrison are correct, public schools face a daunting task and will receive little or no sympathy from either the general public or policy makers.

Schools can't compete with McDonald's or Walmart when it comes to offering choice or being big.  Further, the idea that 100% of students should be proficient in reading and math can be spun as an impossible dream that schools should attempt to achieve.  It's a small step from trying an impossible dream to firing people who can't make the impossible happen.  In addition, educators concentrate on each student's present circumstances, but the main focus is always the student's future.  Finally, no institution supported by local property taxes and politicians' whims can expect to keep up with all that's new.

Lest I appear too negative, Hammond and Morrison also offer hope. For example, standardized tests make improvisation impossible.  These tests also demonstrably limit the choices in each school's curriculum.  However, education leaders at the national, state, and local level need to use the paradigms that these researchers have identified to teachers' and students' advantage.  I'll try to use a few future posts to offer the views of a teacher and blogger from South Dakota about how that little impossible dream can happen.