1. What’s the time frame for evaluation of change effects?
How long do you give a change that has been implemented before evaluating to see if it is effective? Tyack and Cuban said that the effectiveness of change is in the schools and reference the Eight Year Plan. Every evaluation is done against a particular concept of schools and the grammar of schools. The concept arises when one realizes the difference between what one would like to see and what is actually happening in schools. However, deep meaningful change doesn’t happen often because it goes against the grammar of schooling. Change is applied to the grammar of schooling typically to areas that are easy to adapt to. Change can be easily adapted into schools. It can take a generation or more to see the full effects of the changes. We need to see the children grow up and go out into the real world before we can evaluate the true effectiveness of the changes made. However, some parents are reluctant to have their children as guinea pigs, making the implementation of change even harder to be successful.
2. What makes education different from private sector industry?
Tyack and Cuban say that in the beginning schools were viewed as a factory. The idea was to make schools more like factories because they operated efficiently and cheaply. However, if the business metaphor is applied to schools several problems arise. The question that’s raised is, are children raw material that we can shape and mold or are they clients? We cannot treat every school or every child the exact same way like a business. Businesses create a product and clone the product to produce for the public. Children that are coming into the classroom are like raw material and you don’t know what you are going to get so how are we to make a mold of children? This is not something that we can do in schools with children who need individualized, specialized care. The individuals making decisions for schools need to be less business minded in making decisions. Schools are not an industry; children are not all the same and cannot be clones of each other. All children are individuals.
3. What is necessary at the “classroom level” for successful reform?
At the classroom level to promote successful reform we need to motivate teachers to want change, we need parent support, teacher support, and it is essential teachers believe in the change implemented. Realistic goals need to be set in order for change to be evaluated by both the schools and the parents. We also need to introduce change at an earlier age for a smoother transition. Tyack and Cuban said successful reforms are ones that teachers understand and fit into what they already do, how they fit into the existing grammar of schooling.
4. How do we resolve the tension between local control and national concerns?
First and foremost we need to have officials elected who understand the schools and the education system. School boards are all about politics and not necessarily about what is best for the students and the teachers. Teachers also need to be able to make executive decisions for their classrooms. As teachers they know what’s best for their students. Their ideas and suggestions need to be listened to and regarded in making schools better. We also need to learn how to ease tension between local and national boards when physiologically they are not the same. The role of government must be defined to determine how involved or uninvolved they should be.
5. How (is it possible) for technology to change schools?
Tyack and Cuban say that technology is being used as an aid and not a tool. Dr. Jones states that we need to use technology appropriately and when it fits a need. Problems arise with technology in the classroom such as middle or higher class children may be at some advantage with the technologies used in the classroom. These students may have the technologies available at home and for their personal use, whereas children in the lower class may have no idea what the technology is and how to use it creating a technology underclass. Also, technology is not used consistently from classroom to classroom. Teachers use technology when it is easy to adapt to their classroom. However in today’s society students are stimulus learners and are constantly using technology daily. Some teachers may use technology in a manner that makes it easy for their students to learn and then these students move on to another classroom where the teacher uses it in a completely different way. This can make it hard for children to transition. Some generations have no desire to incorporate technology into their lives. Older generation teachers may feel that the method of teaching they have been using for years is working so why implement change or change things when they have been successful.
6. Why are policy decision seemingly made by non-educators and what can be done to change that fact?
The public elects the politicians and should hold them accountable and responsible for their actions. However, why don’t the people we elect as a public know anything about public education? It is starting to become more policy orientated in the schools and less classroom oriented. Educators don’t know how to sale what works for them in the classroom therefore leading to a problem with having what works for them implemented by policy change. If we as teachers cannot get our point across to the politicians then we cannot expect them to understand what needs to be done for our students. We need to educate the public more about the problems and the people they have been electing and then maybe we can elect the correct people to office to who know about the education system, how it works, and what’s best for the classrooms and the students.
Vouchers as addressed by Curren:
Where we have gone is nationalization of schools which is necessary and unwarranted. Intermediate steps can be taken to serve this purpose. Vouchers should be given to the individual family and student so they are allowed to choose how to use and where to go. Public schools however do not operate like that and offer no choice in the matter. This absence of choice infringes on individual freedom, decreases equal opportunity and decreases teacher quality. Vouchers will equalize the schooling system because it becomes open to a variety of people and gives them an opportunity to attend a school suited to them. It allows for choice infringing on individual freedom, allowing equal opportunity and increasing teacher quality.
Posted By: Stacy Woods and Janna Martin
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