Grassroots School Reform: A Community Guide to Developing Globally Competitive Students PDF
Preview Grassroots School Reform: A Community Guide to Developing Globally Competitive Students
Grassroots School Reform Previous Publications by the Author: A Fieldbook for Community College Online Instructors (2007). Leadership as Service: A New Model for Higher Education in a New Century (2007). Grassroots School Reform A Community Guide to Developing Globally Competitive Students Kent A. Farnsworth Palgrave macmillan GRASSROOTS SCHOOL REFORM Copyright © Kent A. Farnsworth, 2010. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10832-5 All rights reserved. Cover Photo by Sandra Cunningham, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-10833-2 ISBN 978-0-230-11466-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230114661 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Farnsworth, Kent Allen. Grassroots school reform : a community guide to developing globally competitive students / Kent A. Farnsworth. p. cm. (alk. paper) 1. School improvement programs—United States. 2. Charter schools—United States. 3. Schools—Decentralization—United States. 4. Education and globalization—United States. I. Title. LB2822.82.F37 2010 371.2(cid:2)070973—dc22 2010014273 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: November 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2012 To my wife, Holly, whose commitment to great teaching and to her students’ success always give me hope C O N T E N T S Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 One We Need School Reform—and Soon! 3 Two Where Are We Doing It Right? 13 Three Where Reform Won’t Happen 27 Four Getting Someone to be Responsible 39 Five Finding and Supporting Great Leadership 49 Six Developing a World Class Curriculum 59 Seven Math as the Language of Science and Technology 73 Eight Second Language from the Start 85 Nine “Let Me Show You The World” 93 Ten Hiring, Developing, and Evaluating for Excellence 107 Eleven K eeping Teachers Current, Enthusiastic, and Energized 119 Twelve Reinterpreting “Least Restrictive Environment” 131 Thirteen Providing Choice in the Public Arena 137 Fourteen Legislating for Change 143 Fifteen Managing with Data 151 Sixteen Building Successful Partnerships 167 Seventeen Sustaining and Enhancing Reform 175 Eighteen The Rescuer’s 12-Step-Guide to School Reform 183 Notes 193 Index 205 A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S In several places in this book I mention Mirra Anson who assisted through- out its development as a research and editorial assistant, idea generator, and cheerleader. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for her tireless work and constant good humor. Thank you, Mirra. I am eternally grate- ful. A number of people also offered personal experiences, observations, and practices that served as inspiration and example: Derek Urhahn and the faculty and staff at Leopold R-III Schools, Scott Shirey and the faculty and staff at KIPP’s Delta College Prep, Steve Baugh, E. Allen Bateman, Richard Clement, Brian Croone, Jennifer Cuevas, Rudy Farber, David Farnsworth, Dean Farnsworth, Gib Garrow, Holly Jacobs, Beth Janssen, Barbara Lontz, Charles McClain, Ken Owen, Juliet Scherer, Terry Suarez, and Jim Tatum. Thanks to each of you for your invaluable assistance. My youngest son Paul generously allowed me to use some of our travel expe- riences as examples, and his wife Jillian assisted with an attractive and appealing cover design. I am very grateful to you both. My special thanks to Mary Ann Lee whose generous support to the University of Missouri-St. Louis endowed the faculty position that enabled me to do this work, and to Burke Gerstenschlager and Samantha Hasey at Palgrave Macmillan for their helpful advice, advocacy, and editorial assistance. This was truly a collaborative endeavor. Introduction Like many parents, mine thought that I would benefit from playing a musical instrument and arranged for me to take both piano and violin les- sons when I was young. I didn’t particularly care for either and remember complaining about the burdens of both practice and recitals to a trusted leader of a church youth group, confiding that what I wanted more than anything in the world was to be able to play the guitar like some of the pop music greats of that time. “Do you have a guitar,” he asked? I told him that my parents had given me one for Christmas—a very nice acoustic guitar that I really liked. “Do you practice much?” “Yeah, I get it out sometimes and practice some chords. But when the weather’s good, I’d rather be out shooting baskets.” “Then I would guess that it’s not what you want more than anything else in the world,” he said. “I think that what we really want the most in the world are the things we spend our time and energy trying to get.” If we were to ask parents what they want more than anything else for their children, most would probably say that they would like them to be happy, healthy, and financially secure, with satisfying personal and per- haps spiritual relationships in their lives. But, for many, these “greatest wants” are a bit like my wish to be an accomplished guitarist—something they commit time and effort to only when a myriad of other distractions don’t pull them away. They do own the guitar—the instrument that could provide a number of these greatest wishes—but they choose not to com- mit the time and energy needed to make the wishes a reality. In an Op-Ed article in the New York Times, columnist and futurist Tom Friedman recounted a conversation with Todd Martin, a prominent business executive-turned international investor, during which Martin explained why the recession of 2008–2009 was about much more than a collapse of Wall Street and the housing market. “Our education failure is the largest contributing factor to the decline of the American worker’s global competitiveness, particularly at the middle and bottom ranges,” Martin argued, then explained that our loss of competitiveness has compro- mised our own productivity at the exact time technology has heightened international competition. Our standard of living in the United States has 2 Grassroots School Reform been based on borrowing and consuming beyond our incomes, so when the recession wiped out credit and devalued our major assets, many of us found ourselves unemployed or underemployed and lacking the skills to get back into the new globally competitive marketplace.1 Friedman goes on to explain that the “New Untouchables” in the post- recession job market will be those who have not only a solid secondary and college education, but training that assists the student in developing a sense of “entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.” The bottom line, he argues, is that there will be no complete postrecession recovery “with- out fixing our schools as well as our banks.”2 And therein lies the ability held by all parents to give their children the gift of a promising future— their schools. While parents working collectively within their communi- ties cannot fix Wall Street, they can fix their schools. And if what they want more than anything for their children is economic success, health, and personal well-being, this is where they will focus their attention. They may dream of Junior becoming a running back in the NFL or of Missy starring on the pro tennis circuit and prefer to dedicate all of their extra time and attention to supporting local high school athletics or the youth tennis and football programs in their communities. But the chances of a high school athlete becoming a player in the NFL are nearly a million to one, while the odds are even for the likelihood of financial success for a student with a strong secondary and college education who has developed a spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity. Add fluency in Arabic, Farsi, or Mandarin Chinese, and the future is virtually assured. And while no parent can guarantee that spot in pro athletics to her child, with the right degree of commitment and the right relationship with the community’s schools, most parents can assure their children a good education. But to provide our children with a great education—with the globally competitive education Todd Martin was discussing with Tom Friedman— our schools need to be fixed. And, here again, parents who want a bright future for their children more than anything else in the world can make that happen. This book is about how it can be done. It explains that great schools are products of their communities—of the families who live within the districts and select the school leadership. It demonstrates that great schools are not a product of huge financial investment, but of huge commitment— commitment to good and courageous leadership, to strong curriculum, and to high expectations. If we wish more than anything else in the world to create a bright future for our children, the power is in our hands, and we can reform America’s schools by rescuing the one in our own community.
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