This afternoon on MSNBC, there was a
continuation of the Education Nation series.
Today’s topic was teacher evaluations. The town hall style meeting was
held in New York
The broadcast did not shed any new
ideas that would get our educational system back on track to producing world
class students. The reason for this that
everyone views education through a narrow lens.
This lens is based on the educational experience of the individual and
whatever personal, social or political agenda he/she have. When all these individuals come together,
their competing agendas take precedence over what is best for the
children.
Most
people believe our educational system is not broke; it just needs to be “fixed”
or “reformed.” The band-aid approach of
reform that has done to our education system is not sustainable and “wears off”
after a couple of years. More
importantly, the band-aid approach has discouraged any meaningful discussion by
inhibiting the voices of parents, students, and in many cases teachers from
having their concerns and or ideas heard over the noise of senseless banter of
the competing agendas. This is evident
in many of the discussions on educational reform by those who postulate positions
on how to improve education that are out of touch with the realities in the
field. Until the narrow lens on
education is widened, the language and ideology that dominates education will
remain the same. Thus, the problems plaguing
education will continue and our children will fall further behind.
It is time to widen the lens, end
the band-aid approach and change the language of fix and reform to
transformation. Our educational system
continues to fail because the ideas that have been implemented are based on fix
and reform. Utilizing a transformation
approach will dramatically change the direction of the discussion and the language
used to create effective and sustainable change of our educational system.
A
transformative approach seeks to establish a continuum of learning that assists
struggling learners, supports advanced learners, prepares students to compete
in a global economy and ensures our country remains an economic superpower. By establishing a continuum of learning, the
achievement gap should be greatly diminished because struggling students would
have the academic support needed to get back on grade level. Additionally, a transformative approach would
also greatly diminish the engagement gap that affects teachers, parents, and students.
A transformative approach would invest
in teacher trainings, provide multiple opportunities for parents to become actively
involved in the education of their child and create enthusiasm for learning
among students. Lastly, a transformative
approach would build a genuine parent/school partnership.
Finally, a transformative approach
will attract partnerships with institutions that habitually do not involve
themselves with our educational system. Being skeptical about the commitment to
education and the preparation for the global workforce have inhibited our students
from benefiting from the expertise and resources partnerships have to offer. A transformative approach will allow
potential partners to view a partnership as mutually beneficial to their institution
and the country.
If we truly want to provide our
children with a world-class education we must change the approach. The fix and reform ideology that dominates
our current approach to education must be replaced with the ideology of
transformation. A transformation ideology
changes the direction and discussion of our approach to education. A transformation ideology will end the
competing agendas by being inclusive of many voices to create effective and
sustainable change of our educational system.
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