Chapter 12
School Reform
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School Reform
 The
major theoretical strategies for
school reform efforts (See Chapter 7):
Empirical-rational
strategies.
Power-coercive strategies.
Organizational self-renewal strategies.
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Market-Based School Reform
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Supported by market-oriented theorists and private sector
investors.
John Chubb and Terry Moe wrote a popular book,
Politics, Markets, and America's Schools, published in
1990 by The Brookings Institution.
They argued that market-based schools would foster the
autonomy schools need to be effective.
To shift control of schools from government to the
marketplace, they recommended providing guardians of
every student with a voucher they could use in any
school, public or private.
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Economic Theory and School Reform
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Milton Friedman, an economist, designed the concept
of school vouchers.
Friedman’s views that favor public works in free
markets to stimulate the economy were in contrast to
John Maynard Keynes (Keynesian economics).
Keynes advocated public works and government
spending in free markets to stimulate employment
and the economy.
Friedman pioneered the idea of open markets without
government interference or control.
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Economic Theory and School Reform
(continued)
The scope of free markets taking control of
education would be enormous.
 The free market theory is based on the belief
that individuals will make a rational choice in
their own economic self interest. It does not
consider motivation, collaboration, conflict
management and other human issues in the
workplace.
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Economic Theory and School Reform
(continued)
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Supporters of market-based approaches
include:
 William Raspberry,
Washington Post syndicated
columnist.
 Thomas Sowell, economist and syndicated
columnist.
 Andrew Coulson, author of Market Education: The
Unknown History.
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School Reform as Investment
Opportunity
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Many individuals and businesses have invested for profit in
educational initiatives:
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Michael Milken—former junk bond king.
Paul Allen—founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates.
William Bennett—former Secretary of Education.
Advantage Schools.
Beacon Educational Management.
Edison Schools—one of the largest.
 Started by Christopher Whittle, who started Channel One.
 Benno Schmidt—CEO of Edison and former President of Yale.
Education Alternatives Incorporated (EAI).
University of Phoenix—Largest private university.
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Standards-Based School Reform
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Since the right to an education was not established by
the US Constitution, the states guaranteed public
education in their state Constitutions.
All states initially chose to decentralize public
schools putting them in the hands of local authorities.
Local Education Agencies (LEAs) had much control
of education until the 1990s.
The first summit on education in 1989 started the
movement toward more centralized control focusing
on state standards.
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Standards-Based School Reform
(continued)
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Two additional summit meetings continued pushing for
state control of education resulting in state “report cards”
comparing states on test scores across states, comparing
districts within states, and schools within districts.
States and districts also began using high-stakes testing
for students to qualify for promotion and/or graduating
high school.
Little attention has been paid to the effects of testing at
the school level, students daily lives, curriculum &
instruction, or student educational & career planning.
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Whole School Reform
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Whole school reform is predicated on:
 Top-down
methods have not been very successful.
 Demonstrated success of individual school renewal
efforts.
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Systemic reform efforts, orchestrated by state
or local district offices, that have attempted to
mandate individual school reform efforts have
not worked very well.
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Increasing School Autonomy
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One solution to the problems of systemic reform was
site-based management in which individual schools
have more authority in decision making.
This reform effort has had mixed results due to lack
of true decentralization of authority with freedom to
use budgets as needed in individual schools.
Nonetheless, school reform is recognized as having a
better chance of success when the local district offices
encourage individual school staff to collaborate in
problem solving, i.e., to create growth-enhancing
environments.
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Increasing School Autonomy (continued)
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This fusion of state and district control of standards
and empowerment of individual schools may be the
new amalgam that Giamatti had described.
This amalgam was suggested in 1999 by the
Education Commission of the States report,
Governing America's Schools: Changing the Rules,
that identified two approaches:
 Institutionalize site-based management
allowing schools to
prepare their own budgets and allocate resources as needed.
 Authorize publicly funded, but independently owned and
operated schools under charters granted by the school
district.
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Increasing School Autonomy (continued)
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Both approaches call for:
 Strengthening, not
discarding, the public school system.
 Allowing money to follow the child.
 Providing information on students, teachers, and school
performance to parents.
 Giving parents more choice.
 Granting schools control of personnel and budgets.
 Focusing accountability systems on achievement.
 Redefining the role of teachers’ unions.
 Strengthening the role of school boards.
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Increasing School Autonomy (continued)
These approaches provide greater opportunity
for school leaders to be more effective in
making a difference, while increasing their
responsibility for results.
 To be effective, school leaders need to reach
out, connect with people and use collaborative
methods in selecting problem-solving
strategies for schools.
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Increasing School Autonomy (continued)
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Three examples of whole school reforms that have
shown positive results:
 Coalition of
Essential Schools—Ted Sizer.
 Accelerated Schools—Stanford University.
 Comer School Development Program—James Comer.
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Additional whole school reform projects described at:
 http://www.aasa.org/issues_and_insights/district_organizati
on/Reform/approach.htm
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Teacher Education and School Reform
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There has also been increased focus on teacher
education to prepare for the looming shortage.
John Goodlad’s National Network for Educational
Renewal calls for the renewal of schools and teacher
education.
American Council on Education has called for the
strengthening of teacher education and research on
teacher education.
Goodlad and ACE’s proposals may be more potent in
the reform of US education than we suspect.
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