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 Common Sense School Reform
Frederick M. Hess
Palgrave Macmillan, April 2004
Review by CG Director of Policy Nancy Udell:
Rick Hess's new book is a must read. Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan
2004) makes a simple and elegant point:
"[G]reat schools are not legislated into existence. Great schools, like any great
enterprise, are the product of genius, hard work, commitment, and skill. They
require nuanced leadership that forges a sense of shared purpose, rewards creative
thinking, and inspires excellence. Public policy cannot mandate great schools
any more than it can mandate great leadership or great teaching; it can only make
it easier or harder for great schools to exist."
For those who think there is no common ground between the various school reform
camps, take note: Hess's point is vital to the health of our public schools. Unlike
private schools and some charters, public schools struggle under a growing burden
of law and regulation:
"Rules, procedures, and collective bargaining agreements have rendered public
school systems heavy-footed and sluggish. Federal laws and court decisions governing
special education, student discipline, and disadvantaged students have resulted
in paper-heavy bureaucracies. State regulations on a litany of issues such as
teacher hiring, class size, administrative qualifications, funding, school construction,
and textbook acquisition have tied the hands of school and district leaders. Collective
bargaining agreements adopt seniority-based pay scales, make it hard to fire or
even reassign employees, minutely govern the workday, and wind up issuing rules
on almost everything that state or federal authorities have not already regulated."
Rather than micromanage public schools through endless cycles of legislated reforms,
Hess argues, let them figure out the right way to achieve by untying their hands
and holding them accountable for results. Hess's basic prescription – freedom
to use judgment, transparency of results, and accountability for real learning
– is breathtakingly simple and, well, makes common sense. Hess's vision includes
a healthy charter and voucher movement as one component of a vital system, not
as a substitute for public schools. Hess would eliminate the overload of laws,
rules and legal mandates that are now stifling public schools, not eliminate public
schools.
Hess anticipates resistance to this common sense vision from the education establishment.
Invoking Jimmy Carter, Hess calls the education establishment " 'a giant Washington
marshmallow' that absorbed change without really changing." While Hess is probably
right to some extent about the resistance, we'd like to hope that the people who
are committed to public education – parents, students, teachers, principals, superintendent,
school board members – are beginning to understand that structural reform must
happen. Because Hess is right – sticking to the status quo does not protect public
schools. It dooms them.
* * *
Frederick M. Hess is Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies
at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the Executive Editor of Education Next. Click here to learn more about Mr. Hess.
Book Description:
Forget everything you think you know about school reform. Cutting through the
cant, sentiment, and obfuscation characterizing the current school reform debate,
Frederick M. Hess lacerates the conventional "status quo" reform efforts and exposes
the naivete underlying reform strategies that rest on solutions like class size
reduction, small schools, and enhanced professional development. He explains that
real improvement requires a bracing regime of common sense reforms that create
a culture of competence by rewarding excellence, punishing failure, and giving
educators the freedom and flexibility to do their work. He documents the scope
of the challenges we face and then provides concrete recommendations for addressing
them through reforms to promote accountability, competition, a 21st-century workforce,
effective school leadership, and sensible reinvention. Engagingly written and
drawing on real world experiences and examples, Common Sense School Reform will generate debate and help set the agenda for the future.
When you buy Common Sense School Reform using the Amazon.com link above, a portion of the profits will go to support
Common Good. | |
