The Best Idea For Fixing Public Schools

Always been a big Tom Peters fan.  While he's drifted off the 'A' list of management authors, there's one line of his which has stuck with me all these years:
 
"It is easier to replace than reform"
 
One of my current favorite writers on K-12 education is Jay Greene, who today posted an provocative piece; “Fix Schools by Not Fixing Schools.”   While the title may be at first perplexing, the thrust of his argument meshes with Peters' theorem of it being easier to replace than reform.
 
For Greene, we must first understand the forces defending the Status Quo:

The main reason we should stop focusing on fixing traditional public schools is that, for the most part, they don’t want to be fixed.  The people who make their living off of those schools have reasons for wanting schools to be as they are and have enormous political resources to fend off efforts to fundamentally change things.  Trying to impose reforms...is largely a futile exercise.

Greene's solution is to embrace diversity by the process of creating alternatives:

We can fix schools...by going around them.  We can expand access to other educational options, including charter schools, voucher schools, tax-credit schools. ESAs, digital schooling, home-schooling, and hybrid schools.  Reformers should concentrate their energy on all of these non-traditional-school efforts and stop trying so hard to fix traditional public schools.

Like water, we should be seeking the path of least resistance.  After decades of encountering entrenched interests willing to go to war to defend an ossified system, let us take our energies to work around them, to offer true alternatives, and to empower parents to decide which ones work best for their children

The Rise of Alternative K-12 Schools and Alternative Teachers

Perhaps we're nearing the Tipping Point where the Berlin Wall of public K-12 finally comes crashing down.  As entrepreneurs on the internet find new and exciting ways to engage children, parents awaken to the possibilities of steering their children to an education which will help them be economically self-sufficent.  This is especially true of low-income and minority children, who get screwed in our current moribund system.

Alternative schools are booming. And now we see the rise of alternative teacher credentialing programs such as Teach For America. And like most entrepreneurial activities, Texas leads the way.  While some claim standards are low, what's really happening is the opening up of their teacher corps to professionals coming to the professional without having to spend 4 years and thousands of dollars in mind-numbing Colleges of Education.  In other words, real life subject expertise and a knowledge of how to transmit that expertise.

This nation has so many highly qualified people who could do great things in our classrooms, but the bureaucratic hoops created by government in conjunction with powerful special interests create a wasting asset.  Our kids need better.  Let's open up the teaching profession to the large pool of American talent.

Our children are grossly unprepared...

President Obama calls for more kids going to college.  While education is a great thing, perhaps we should put more energy into replacing our K-12 system.  With 1/3rd of our kids needing remedial work when they ge tot college, no sense pushing more into higher education.

The truly sad part is that over half the kids in college needing at least one remedial class wind up never getting a degree....so they have the worst of both worlds: lots of student loan debt to be paid off with high school level wages.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

If you haven't heard Ken Robinson, listen to this piece on revamping education

Yes, the challenges we face are large. Many take comfort that America has always responded to large problems with waves of creative people who chart new and unexpected paths to revitalization.

However, others note we're trying to solve 21st century problems with a workforce that is educated in a 20th century fashion. Our K-12 system is set up to crush innovative and creative thinking....which bodes ill for our future economy. Sir Ken Robinson has a fascinating 20 minute talk looking at the American education system and prompting ideas for change.