WEAC Research Paper

Improving Wisconsin's Schools

There is an emerging consensus in Wisconsin and across the nation that public schools must improve. According to a 1992 Harris Poll, 95% of the adult public believes that it is urgent that our public schools be improved, and 75% of the Harris sample believe that teachers should be empowered to lead the improvement efforts.

The strong public consensus around the need to improve public education reflects the degree to which schools are entangled with other social and economic issues. For example, the nation's sagging economic fortunes in the international marketplace have produced sharp criticism of American workers and the schools they attended. The deteriorating social circumstances of the nation's children in both urban and rural America have created new challenges for teachers at a time when more is being expected of our public schools.

The property tax, as a central funding mechanism for public education, has produced a raging debate about school costs and quality. The entire school reform movement has become politicized as advocates of privatization and deregulation have exploited popular distrust of public institutions. Finally, the drive to improve public education will not subside because there is a kernel of truth in the charge that schools are not as effective as they could be and that students are not as competent as they should be.

These tensions between educational quality and social conditions are reflected in a report of a 1994 survey conducted by Public Agenda, First Things First: What Americans Expect from the Public Schools.

A large majority of adults questioned in the survey believe that public schools are not providing the minimum prerequisites for a successful education: a safe environment, a disciplined environment in which learning can occur, and effective teaching of the basics.

These perceptions of public education are created by a variety of personal experiences, by a sense that school life and teaching practices are not "what they were when I went to school," and by the recognition that current social conditions have altered school life in some very fundamental ways. So although the Public Agenda survey found support for higher educational standards, higher standards alone did not appear adequate for a public concerned with safety, order, and the basics.

Given the historic role of public education within the American democracy and given the current social climate, WEAC supports three broad goals which can guide efforts to improve the quality of Wisconsin's public schools:

1. to improve the level of student competence,
2. to improve the quality of worklife in the schools, and
3. to create schools that are capable of self-renewal as a matter of routine institutional behavior.

These goals do not articulate specific school reforms, instructional practices, curricular changes, or institutional structures. They do affirm the need to reexamine an educational structure which was created to serve distinct social needs in the nineteenth century.

1. Improving the Level of Student Competence

It is useful to remind ourselves that as recently as 1950, it was acceptable in this nation to have only half of the population complete a high school education, to ignore the education of exceptional needs children, to maintain separate and unequal school systems in order to isolate racial minorities, and to permit adults who had two years of higher education to teach children.

Public schools have experienced far-reaching changes in recent decades as compulsory public education has become a reality for all of the nation's children. As the nation reaches for the twenty-first century, embraces a global economy, and participates in the technological communications revolution, new questions are being raised about what constitutes adult competence. These questions are at the core of the school reform movement.

It is clear that not all Wisconsin students are competent in the basic skills, nor do they all have a basic understanding of core subject matter. Various test data confirm this reality. Wisconsin's Third Grade Reading Test indicates that not all third graders read at even a minimal level. The National Assessment of Educational Progress data report that achievement levels over the past twenty years are flat in such areas as mathematics, reading, science and writing. The data also indicate that while many students are reasonably competent in the area of basic skills, far fewer exhibit the capacity to apply their knowledge in new circumstances.

There is unanimous agreement that competence in the basic skills and mastery of core subject matter should be a primary goal of Wisconsin schools. However, there is also an emerging consensus that the educational goals of 1960, 1975 or 1990, are no longer adequate. Schools and students are being held to higher standards. Remembering, as the primary educational goal, has been rendered obsolete by the explosion of information and the capacity of technology to process and recover it.

There is a growing public expectation that students should not only possess knowledge, but that they should be able to do something with what they know. They should be able to apply knowledge and solve real world problems, communicate clearly and effectively, collaborate with others, be committed to the tasks at hand, and possess habits of thoughtfulness. These expectations are reflected in Wisconsin's Tech Prep programs, in apprenticeship opportunities, and in assessments of student performance. They also are held by the majority of Wisconsin's citizens and employers.

2. Improving the Quality of Worklife in Schools

As suggested by the recent Public Agenda survey, the quality of the learning environment in our schools is of major concern to the public. Issues of student safety and student discipline are priority matters with the American public. These issues reveal the tension between social conditions and effective schooling. While Americans do not blame schools for the problems they face, the public does expect the school to adopt strategies which will achieve results with all students. Schools no longer have the option of excluding large numbers of troubled children from public school classrooms.

It is unlikely that schools and teachers can create a school environment which is supportive of learning without vigorous support from parents and other adults in the community. School violence is frequently an extension of external or community conflict to the educational setting. Inappropriate student behavior in the school is often a manifestation of unresolved personal problems. Strategies to cope with such behavior must be developed in cooperation with the entire school community.

Public schools are institutional learning and teaching environments which assumed their current structures almost 100 years ago. It was a time of booming industrialization, interchangeable parts and assembly line production, burgeoning immigration, and a time when few students completed the educational cycle. The structures of that time continue to dominate school life-- the Carnegie unit, the five day school week, the nine month school year, the fifty minute teaching unit, the age-graded classroom, the egg crate school, the bell shaped curve, and ability-segregated classrooms. These structures and practices emerged in a time when there were places for the uneducated and undereducated in the society.

In 1995, students and teachers live, learn, and work in institutions created for another time. The inherited structures and practices of school life, though they may be fondly remembered by adults, must be reexamined in light of the aspirations held for Wisconsin's students.

3. Creating Schools Capable of Self-Renewal

Healthy institutions have the ability to look at themselves in changing social environments to determine whether their existing structures and practices are serving their clients. Such institutions have the capacity to initiate change from within in a thoughtful manner. Such change is not the product of crisis but, rather, a part of organizational culture. The capacity of public schools to engage in self-renewing behavior is fundamental to the American democracy, particularly in time of rapid social change and heightened expectations.

Some observers of the current impulse to improve public schools have expressed cynicism regarding the recurrent historic efforts to accomplish change. Educators are well aware of these cyclical efforts. What is new in the current school environment is an awareness that previous improvement efforts were narrowly focused, thereby preserving existing decision-making structures and power relationships. The recent experiences of the business sector in seeking a competitive edge through the pursuit of quality reveals that institutional structures can inhibit change.

Mechanism of institutional control in schools have reduced the capacity of schools to engage in continuing reflective assessment and improvement. Hierarchical decision making structures, a culture of professional isolation, and an absence of time for professional reflection have prevented schools from becoming vital institutions capable of self-renewal. As in the business sector, those who are closest to the fundamental work of the institution must have the capacity to exercise judgment, to innovate, to collaborate, and must also have the time to reflect on the quality of their work. The pursuit of quality in Wisconsin's public schools can become routine only if these preconditions exist.

Looking to the Future

The course of school improvement in Wisconsin remains unsettled as the formula for past success contends with new expectations for the future. The primacy of the role of public education in Wisconsin communities, the memories of those who participated in the rich experiences of public school life, the cumulative personal successes of previous generations, the power of tradition, the emergence of a teaching profession supported by clearer knowledge of best practice -- all of these forces are in tension as this state looks into the future and asks, "What will our children need to know and be able to do?"

The answers to this question will be found only through the thoughtful participation of parents, citizens and educators in the community. Each will bring something unique to the dialogue. Parents will bring a basic concern for a safe and orderly learning environment and will seek assurances that their children will be competent in the core subjects. Citizens will seek assurances that the school will reinforce the traditions and values of the society and that students will be prepared to be productive and effective citizens. Educators will bring an expectation that the community will respect and support those educational practices which have been demonstrated to achieve the educational goals of the community.

The goals of school improvement which WEAC supports provide a framework for addressing the task. The principles are inclusive. They will require that all who value public education in Wisconsin participate in the task of strengthening its purpose and preserving its future.

References

Harris, Louis. "The Public Takes Reform to Heart." Agenda (Winter 1992): 15-21.

Johnson, Jean and Immerwahr, John. First Things First: What Americans Expect from the Public Schools. New York: Public Agenda, 1994.

This document was prepared by the WEAC Professional Development & Training Division.