Building Stronger Schools: Excuse Me While I Yawn

Here’s an excerpt from the latest “we can change schools for the better” pitch. It’s written by Dr. Tyler Thigpen, Academic Director of the Leading School Transformation program at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, and head of The Forest School: An Acton Academy and Institute for Self Directed Learning.

Thigpen writes,

…

“We haven’t arrived at our current state haphazardly. In her book Schooling America, former Harvard Graduate School of Education dean Patricia Graham divides a century’s worth of educational history into four distinct eras, which she labels as the four A’s: Assimilation, Adjustment, Access, and Achievement. We’ve been in the latter focus of Achievement, she contends, since the 1980’s and the publication of A Nation At Risk. The focus in this phase has been on shepherding students toward academic achievement and gainful employment. We’ve stiffened school structures to hit this bullseye.”

“Five-ish decades in, the Achievement era has been a mixed bag. Some upsides of an achievement focus are increased accountability, measurable progress, and student preparation for success (in some arenas). But there are plenty of downsides, including an overemphasis on grades, fear of failure, a sense of competition over collaboration, and an overreliance on adults for both instruction and validation. With an achievement focus, students are incentivized to seek satisfaction and assess their self-worth through accomplishment and others’ opinions.”

“The most insidious downside of the Achievement epoch is that all students are guided to learn the same or similar skills, knowledge, and mindsets (i.e., one size fits all) instead of being guided toward their own personal growth. When children are pushed to achieve goals that are set by others, they lack self-direction. That is a tragedy. Like adults, every young person has thoughts, feelings, and plans. Unfortunately, the design of the industrial-age school model – a batch processing approach – usually shuts them down in children. People become dependent when they lack awareness of their thoughts, feelings, and plans (Goldman, 1995).”

“But what if the opposite were true? What if schools empowered children to flourish? What if schools were the places where they could explore, identify, express, and develop their thoughts, feelings, and goals? There’s power in the uniqueness of every child. It’s time that school designs honor students’ unique calling, preferences, and goals, and encourage them to pursue those. It’s time to move fully into a new era for learning where learners can develop greater self-leadership than ever before.”

“Thankfully, the work of building a future-ready system full of excellent schools is already underway. Many leaders in the public and private school sectors are redesigning learning models to help children learn what they need in order to live the lives they want. Though their styles vary, these leaders are generally making five key moves when leading school transformation.”

“Articulate a bold new vision.”

“Clarify the knowledge, skills and craft that teachers need to bring the new vision to life…”

“Leaders design signature learning experiences for educators…”

“Leaders work tirelessly to gain buy-in for the new vision…”

“Leaders establish systems for continuous improvement…”

…

Courageous school leadership can help make this vision a reality. Let’s applaud and support visionary educators helping shape our children’s future. In fact, the next time you see or meet one of them, give them a hug, high five, or an encouraging word because this work is far from easy. And it’s vital for the next generation.”

Based on our current K-12 system’s success with black, brown, and poor kids over the past 50 years, I don’t know if we should be hugging, high fiving, or offering an encouraging word. Even though Thigpen thinks we have schools making the change to learner-centered education, the fact of the matter is too few have done it and those serving our neediest populations have done it the least.

In part, I blame the educational media for spending time and energy on articles like Thigpen’s, that try to convince us that schools can and will improve themselves by becoming learner-centered places. Media outlets like The 74 and EducationWeek need to spend more time discussing how we create a new system of learning, one that takes care of black, brown, and poor learners across our country.

Til tomorrow. SVB