Reading Analysis: Looking toward the Future - Tyack & Cuban

Tyack and Cuban believe that school reform is necessary and should not be avoided; however, reform should be addressed from the “inside out rather than the top down.” I believe they are referring to teachers being involved with decision making and policy changes. Teachers are too often negative about change. They believe that the change will not last and there will soon be another change. Richard F. Elmore and Milbrey W. McLaughlin noted, “Policy can set the conditions for effective administration and practice, but it can’t predetermine how those decisions will be made.”

Tyack and Cuban share some of the obstacles teachers face when improving instruction from the inside out. The hierarchical command structure of administrative progressives undermines teacher autonomy. Many teachers are not given the time necessary for curricular planning. The time they are given is often taken up by frustrating meetings with vague or conflicting information. Funds for staff development and new curricular materials are few. Finally, many teachers become stuck in their own grammar of schooling and lack the confidence or support needed to carry out new instructional skills or ideas.

Some of the most effective instructional reform has involved teachers collaborating with each other to improve learning and to promote greater equality. This strategy requires great efforts to recruit talented teachers, restructure teacher education programs to be more challenging, give new teachers support and a chance to succeed, get rid of inadequate teachers, and retain the effective ones. Tyack and Cuban suggest asking teachers what bothers them the most and to begin reforms there.

Tyack and Cuban also touch on “school choice.” Although many Americans have lost faith in public schools, there are many who still strongly believe that a public education has a powerful force for advancing the common good. Deborah Meier says, “While public education may be useful as an industrial policy, it is essential to healthy life in a democracy.” As immigration and other societal changes have occurred within our country since Horace Mann’s original ideas of public school, we have continued to use education to reshape our society.