Lots of folks think I no longer appreciate public schools. That might be true. Public schools, at scale, are mediocre at best. Public schools have produced flat line National Assessment of Educational Progress (the nation’s report card) results over the past 40 years. Out nation’s public schools have been rated a “C” by EdWeek, a leading educational media outlet, for the past several years.
But if public schools are failing, the concept of “public schooling” holds a lot of promise. Schools denote a place of learning. Schooling, on the other hand, suggests that learning can occur anytime, anywhere. If I’m cynical about the future of public schools, I’m very optimistic on the future of public schooling.
In 1996, David Mathews, past secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Gerald Ford administration, former president of The University of Alabama, and president of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, wrote a book entitled Is There a Public for Public Schools? Mathews reported on troublesome trends in public education, which suggested that the historical compact between Americans and their public schools was rapidly eroding. According to Mathews, school reform efforts often failed because they assumed a public commitment that might have no longer existed. “Real improvement of the schools can only be achieved when citizens reclaim ownership of them as part of an effort to build community,” concludes Mathews.
But what if today’s public doesn’t want to reclaim schools? What if today’s public wants and needs a new type of public education? Public schooling suggests that we use our money to spend on learning anywhere and not just at these places we call school. Public schooling opens the educational landscape to include other learning providers beyond public school districts, including non-profits, after school providers, and other out of school options. What if kids learn better at other places than schools? Isn’t learning the ultimate goal, and not just showing up at these places we call schools?
The concept of public schooling opens the educational market beyond school choice. Public schooling allows us to offer our young people “learner choice.”
Most of today’s learning is still bound by school and school district boundaries. School districts think they are progressive when they promise “school choice” to their zoned families. “School choice” is so 20th century. What the 21st century demands is not “school choice,” but “learner choice.” We now have the ability to design individualized learning for each young learner, no matter whether they attend traditional school or not. Our young learners no longer need to report to these places called schools in order to receive a quality education.
“Learner choice” begins with a simple question to each young learner, “What would you like to spend time learning?” That answer is the beginning of an individual’s “learning plan,” a plan that is a mixture of wants and needs when it comes to an individual’s learning. “Learner choice” includes the selection of a “learning coach” that matches the learning needs of the young learner. We need to end the practice of randomly assigning students to teachers through computerized schedules and class lists. The relationship between the young learner and their learning coach is paramount, if learning is going to happen at deep levels and in authentic ways.
A lot of work needs to be done to shift our present learning system from “public schools” and “school choice” to “public schooling” and “learner choice.” What if Dave Mathews was right when he wrote “School reform efforts often fail because they assume a public commitment that might no longer exist?” What if the modern public wants to commit to something different than public schools? What if the modern public wants to commit to “public schooling” and “learner choice?”
To change Mathews words a bit, “Real [learning improvement] can only be achieved when citizens reclaim ownership of [that learning] as part of an effort to build community.”
Our public schools, even our best ones, need help. They are failing more and more kids every year. There are excellent “out of school” options available. “Public schooling” and “learner choice” allows us to support all types of learning, anytime and anywhere, no matter if it occurs at a place called school or not.
Friday News Roundup tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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