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Illinois School Board Journal
March/April 2004

What's hot ... what's not
Let's stop complying, start leading in '04

by William J. Banach

William J. Banach is CEO of Banach, Banach & Cassidy in Ray Township, Michigan, and has compiled a list of critical issues facing education for a quarter of a century.

Author's note: This is my annual list of critical issues facing education. Like the lists that have preceded it for each of the last 24 years, this year's collection is intended to help you reflect on what is and to anticipate what might be - to help you think about change and seize the opportunities that it always presents.

To get the most from this annual list, you'll need to step away from the urgencies of the moment - those little potholes that we all face every day. You'll have to sit back and think about the implications of societal trends and issues that will shape the educational agenda during 2004 and beyond.

Hot # 1: Complianceship

"But in many cases it is impossible to comply ....."

Good people aren't leading because they are too busy complying. Why, then, are schools spending so much money on leadership seminars, assessments, and briefings?

Investing in "complianceship" might make more sense. Participants could study the latest state and federal requirements. Then they could hold retreats to figure out the best way to jump through all the hoops and check off the tasks that must be done. Advanced students - the really effective compliers - could study creative complianceship and design ways to "beat the system."

Too many school administrators go home at the end of the day relieved that they have "made it" through another day. Soon making it through the day becomes surviving the day. The tailspin ends when administrators cash out because they're frustrated by spending too many hours complying with too many things that really don't matter.

Step one in beating complianceship (and reestablishing leadership) is to figure out what requirements make sense. Step two is to let everyone know what requirements have to be done but warrant as little energy as possible. Step three is to develop strategies and plans for giving priority attention to the requirements that make sense. And, step four is to make sure that no one is busy working on things that aren't worth anyone's time and energy.

For all its good intentions, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is political, unrealistic, punitive and frequently irrational. While it is a noble goal to have all students proficient and performing at grade level by 2014, the probability that the goal can be attained is nil.

In fact, many dictates of NCLB make complianceship futile. If, for example, every student in a school scores 100 percent on the state's assessment test and the next year every student again scores 100 percent, the school will not have made adequate yearly progress (AYP) and will be classified as needing improvement. Similarly, if students do make adequate yearly progress but not enough of them take the test, the school fails.

Such schools shouldn't be called "failing," insist NCLB proponents. But people aren't getting the message. In fact, reporters, editors and headline writers routinely label schools that don't make adequate yearly progress as failures. As a consequence, attempting to comply with an initiative intended to improve schools frequently results in headlines and sound bites that focus on "failure."

To see how silly some requirements are, apply NCLB to baseball. To make adequate yearly progress, this year the Florida Marlins will have to win the World Series in four games. And, in 2005, they'll have to win it in three games or again be labeled as not making adequate yearly progress; that is, a failure. (NCLB would encourage the Marlins to focus on improving their average and poor players while ignoring their stars. In schools the parallel is good-bye to gifted and talented programs.)

When administrators are consumed complying with a host of state and federal initiatives that are not attainable, even the best complianceship is destined to fall short. When that happens, we'll start looking for leaders again.

Hot # 2: Boredom

"In schools, too many youngsters labor with worksheets and uninspiring texts."

One-third of students - elementary, secondary, urban, suburban, rural, rich, poor, public, private, parochial and charter - say that they don't like going to school. Is it because expectations are too high? No. Is it because they don't like their teachers? No. Is it because there are not enough computers? No. It's because they're bored.

Today's students have grown up with video games and computers, television and high-speed graphics, action games and joysticks. These technological tools are exciting to use and provide immediate feedback - a powerful reinforcer.

In schools, too many youngsters don't have access to their familiar technological tools. Worse, they frequently labor alone in a paper and pencil world characterized by worksheets and uninspiring texts. In both cases, they have less interaction than they should with their teachers and classmates.

Delayed feedback also contributes to boredom. Educators forget that today's students aren't used to waiting for feedback. They have grown up in a world of "instant on," "drive thru" and "fast." The common denominator is no waiting.

Waiting bores students. And, when boredom sets in, students - like us - shift their attention elsewhere. That's why it is unfortunate that educational feedback almost always takes longer than it should.

While parents understand that being bored is often little more than a phase that children go through, if the phase stretches from kindergarten to grade 12, it warrants serious attention.

In years past, students could find some refuge from boredom at school. This doesn't always hold today. Now, many kids yearn to be home with their technologies. That's where they have fun, interact, get feedback, and learn ... just like they supposed to do in schools.

Hot # 3: Productivity without people

"Clearly, we are nearing the end of manufacturing as we have known it."

We are in denial. We don't like to hear that technology is replacing human labor. We don't like to hear that more companies are shipping both skilled and unskilled work overseas. And, it seems, that we are almost embarrassed to admit that quality jobs continue going to educated people. Yet, there is no denying that these are key forces that are causing U.S. productivity to go up while U.S. labor costs go down. These are also the forces that are widening the income gap between workers who do and don't have an education.

A major U.S. corporation lurched into 2004 by announcing that it is sending several thousand high-end jobs to India and China. Engineering and software development will be done there while manufacturing remains in America. The media treat this as news, but, in fact, this is a story that has been rerun for the past decade or so. What's interesting this time around is that the assembly work will be done in a U.S. plant where employees won't go near the real work. Quite literally, the work will be done by various technologies in a place that has taken the "man" out of manufacturing. In plants such as these, all the work is computerized and the heavy lifting is done by machines. In fact, because the assembly process is so finely programmed and there are no people involved, the work can be done in the dark (which is why it's commonly called "lights out" manufacturing).

Clearly, we are nearing the end of manufacturing as we have known it. This time around, as productivity goes up you can bet that there will be fewer (smart) people involved.

Richard Florida chronicles an interesting look at the workforce in The Rise of the Creative Class. He maintains - quite convincingly - that members of the new "creative class" are congregating across America in regions that generate high-end jobs and are complementary to "creative class" lifestyles. These knowledge-based workers are changing not only the communities in which they live but the nature of the workforce.

Before students head off to some worksite for a day of job shadowing and "career exploration," they should be aware of the macro changes taking place in the world of work. It will force them to think differently about their working future and where it will likely take place.

At least four workforce changes dictate rethinking the value of educational exercises such as Take Your Child To Work Day: 1. Creative people are settling in various regions of the country, influencing what is built and bought. 2. More of our intellectual capacity is going overseas to design and develop processes. 3. More of the "real work" is being done offshore or by machines that are never absent and don't require dental plans. 4. The quality jobs of the future are going - as they always have - to workers who have education, thinking capacity, and problem-solving skills on their resumes.

Hot # 4: Slipping status quo

"Last year's level of funding is a cut."

Forget change. Educators are having trouble maintaining the status quo. And soon they will start to lie about it.

When governors report that times are financially rugged and school aid will be maintained at last year's level, school people frequently react to the news with gratitude and a sense of relief. They concede that last year's level of funding "might be workable," and they promise their constituents that they will be able to continue their school district's "tradition of excellence."

The problem is that last year's level of funding is a cut.

Costs in both the public and private sectors go up every year. When income doesn't keep pace with costs, school people have three options: tap the "rainy day" fund (which assumes that there is such a fund), deficit spend (which is illegal in most places) or adjust the budget to balance income and expenditures (which is another way of saying, "Make cuts!").

Tapping a rainy day fund is a temporary solution, at best. Unless revenue quickly and dramatically increases, withdrawals from rainy day funds tend to grow geometrically until the funds are gone. Then the funding problem becomes at least twice as big as it was in the first place.

Given that rainy day funding is often ill-advised and that deficit funding is illegal, most schools are forced to make cuts to balance their budgets. This means that status quo funding is, in fact, a cut.

And when status quo funding is cut - that is, when the cut is cut - many educators make matters worse by not facing reality. For example, some administrators have been known to react to a reduction in status quo funding by telling parents that, "Cuts will be necessary and painful but our dedicated staff will give 110 percent and things should be okay." This is a lie.

When funding is reduced and people and programs are cut, things will not be okay. Even if a staff gives 110 percent, this level of energy cannot be sustained and students eventually will find themselves shortchanged.

School people would be wise to tell their constituents exactly what status quo funding and financial reductions mean to the educational program. And, they should explain that rainy day funds can dry up pretty fast.

Honesty should be the first response to status quo funding and cuts. It is, quite simply, the best policy.

Hot # 5: Paperwork

"Paperwork consumes our most precious non-renewable resource."

The percentage of time teachers spend completing reports and sundry assessments is increasing. This takes time away from the work that needs to be done and has virtually eliminated time for thinking.

When asked what they do and don't like about their jobs, most teachers put "paperwork" near the top of their "don't like" list.

One has to wonder how much preparation time is lost to paperwork. If, as we expect, paperwork is consuming prep time, then one has to wonder if tomorrow's lesson can be as good as today's.

Technology has converted some paperwork to "digitwork." While this usually makes the job go faster, it almost always results in people taking on even more paperwork. As a result, digitwork burns up even more of our most precious non-renewable resource - time. (In fact, sometimes the only benefit of replacing paperwork with digitwork is that digitwork doesn't consume renewable resources, like trees.)

Perhaps someone should inventory what forces are generating what paperwork for what purpose. Next someone should ask how all of this paperwork is enhancing the educational process and contributing to student success. Then we should decide what paperwork to eliminate so that we have a chance to make better use of our time.

Not Hot # 1: Collaboration

"Teachers are in search of ideas."

Question: What professional development opportunity do teachers want most? Answer: To spend time interacting with their colleagues who teach the same subjects or grade levels.

Given this, why do administrators labor so long trying to figure out what professional development opportunities would be interesting and useful to teachers? Simply ask teachers and they will tell you.

Teachers are in search of ideas. They want to know what works in their subject area at their grade level. And, they want to know what is being taught and how it is being taught in their subject area at all grade levels.

Sharing lessons and techniques that work improves education in every classroom. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education reports that 82 percent of teachers say weekly collaboration with other teachers improves their teaching.

Sharing lessons and techniques also may help address the continuing challenge of curriculum alignment by allowing all teachers to discover who is delivering what, how, and when. Individual teachers, in turn, will get even better when they understand the scheme of things and where the instruction that they provide fits in.

A National Board of Certified Teachers leadership survey indicates that just 40 percent of teachers are satisfied with the quality and quantity of on-going professional development opportunities in their schools. Let's allow teachers to fix this problem by structuring the professional development that they need and want. It may be more effective than what we are doing now. Odds are it will be cheaper, too.

Not Hot #2: Social Skills

"... youngsters are caught in the same trap that we are."

Why do so many students seem to lack social skills? Many have difficulty conversing. Some exhibit uneasiness in the presence of their peers. And more students are saying that they don't respect one another, let alone adults.

One explanation for the lack of social skills is that our youngsters are caught in the same trap that we are.

In Bowling Alone, Harvard professor Robert Putnam signaled that Americans were becoming increasingly disengaged from one another. His landmark book also alerted us to forces that can help us understand why some students lack social skills, why they have difficulty communicating face-to-face, why they are uncomfortable in social situations, and why some of their behaviors are difficult to understand.

Today, more Americans get up alone, travel to work alone, spend their workday alone, eat dinner alone, watch television alone and go to bed alone.

Their isolation is amplified by technology. People play video games alone and go online alone.

Isolation has changed our concept of neighborhood and, it follows, our concept of community. People congregate for community purposes less frequently, if at all. Gone are the neighborhood grocery, the family restaurant and "downtown." Even modern day coffee shops fall short of providing social interaction. Instead of using them as places for socializing, people read the newspaper (alone) or use their wireless connections to check e-mail, do work, surf the Internet or whatever (alone).

It is no wonder that social skills are deteriorating. The places where we can learn them and practice them are disappearing.

Communication professor John Locke says that e-mail, voice mail, fax machines, beepers and Internet chat rooms are robbing us of opportunities to talk. Locke says that only intimate conversation enables us to know others well enough to trust them and work with them effectively.

Sociologist D. Stanley Eitzen adds: "Most face-to-face communication is nonverbal. Phone communication reduces the nonverbal clues, and e-mail eliminates them entirely. So the new information technologies only create the illusion of communication and intimacy." According to Eitzen, "... the breakdown in social connections shows up in everyday sociability, with pernicious effects for social relations as people are less and less civil in schools, at work, in traffic and in public places."

Perhaps some students lack social skills because they are like us, only more so. If that's the case, we have a challenge that can be addressed by a series of small steps. These steps include engaging in more dialogue, conducting more discussions, sharing opinions, helping one another, and seizing opportunities that will help us become less isolated.

Students are asking for more discussion in class, more small group dialogue with teachers, and expanded after-school programming. Maybe what they really want is help taking the first step to becoming more social.

Not Hot #3: Fun

Purging fun destroys things that make memories.

Edward de Bono says that a sense of humor is the highest form of intelligence. If that's the case, how can we be opposed to laughter in the classroom and lessons that are fun?

When people recall their school days, they talk about being with friends, pranks that they played, going to the dance, and the times that they joked with their teachers. The common denominator of their most vivid memories is fun.

It recent years it seems that we have been conducting a campaign to purge fun from the educational system. Too bad. Purging fun destroys things that make memories. Purging fun inhibits creativity and innovation by dampening the enthusiasm to explore, to daydream, to tinker, to try and fail and try again, and to ask questions that begin with "I wonder why ...?"

While achieving results and attaining goals are an important part of the educational process, so too is providing an environment where kids do more than drone through exercises designed to increase their odds of scoring well on a test.

Unfortunately, many schools are now cutting back on subjects that help youngsters develop into well-rounded individuals. Any subject matter that is not tested is a candidate for elimination. That's why art and music and field trips are so vulnerable.

Every once in a while, we need to hear kids talk about the really fun things they did in school: "In art class today we taped paper to the bottom of our desks, and laid on the floor painting above our heads ... and Jill had paint all over her face ... and most of us had more paint running down our arms than on our paper ... and the drawings weren't very good ... but it was a great way to celebrate Michelangelo's birthday. It was a blast!"

We all remember the teacher who dressed up to better explain life in colonial times ... or the citizen volunteer who had actually been to the place that we were studying ... or the staff member with a sense of humor. These things made school fun, and they created a climate that enhanced the learning process.

The fact that people remember having fun with classmates and laughing while learning should remind us that all work and no play can result in a dull education and disconnected students.

When youngsters in the early elementary grades can't get to sleep because they're worried about how well they'll do on the state assessment test, education may be dangling over the edge. We should help our kids laugh a little more and hang on to their childhoods a little longer. Life will provide plenty of time to address the serious side of things.

Not Hot #4: Clear obfuscation

"Parents want to know how well their child is doing."

Various assessment initiatives - including NCLB - purport to enhance public understanding of educational progress (or the lack thereof). Much of the data that is collected is disaggregated by district, school, classroom and student.

However, information doesn't always get to teachers in a timely manner and useable form. The situation is worse for parents.

With all of our technology, the results of some assessments aren't returned for six months or more. That's ridiculous. Common sense tells us that teachers and parents can do more with the test results if they have them before youngsters move on to the next grade level and new teachers.

The market-based economy can solve the timeliness problem. Because tests are typically scored by private sector vendors, all schools have to do is specify when the results must be returned.

Some standardized assessments are scored as students complete them. The results are available in "real time." Given this, a turn-around time of two or three weeks shouldn't be too much to ask of a test-scoring vendor given the power of today's computing technology (and the handsome fees that schools pay for test-scoring services!).

The second challenge - reporting student progress in a clear and useable form - is more difficult to address.

To start, testing folks must realize that most educators and parents don't understand statistics and graphs, nor do they find them useful. How should instruction change, for example, when "the bottom quartile of the class is one standard deviation below the mean"?

Clarity deteriorates as information about student progress makes its way from teachers to parents.

Parental confusion begins with report cards that ditch As and Bs and Cs in favor of Ns and Ss and Os. However creative, re-lettering how well children are doing deprives parents of a fundamental referent - the ABCs.

To compound the problem, some report card committees try to enhance parent understanding by "telling them everything." And, so, too many schools have pillowcase-size report cards indicating that a child "recognizes diphthongs," "uses syntactic and semantic cues," and other such educational landmarks that are important to the learning process but useless gobbledygook when it comes to creating parent understanding.

Parents want more information about their child's educational program than they're getting, and they want it from their child's teachers. Parents want teachers to explain the course objectives, the lesson plans, and their expectations. Then - in language that they can understand - they want teachers to tell them how well their child is doing.

While reporting student progress may be the next best use of technology, teachers will have to lay the groundwork using the most effective form of communication - one-on-one, face-to-face. This is powerful medicine that makes every other form of communication better. Clearly, it is the most effective way to help parents understand how well their children are doing in school.

Not Hot #5: Asking questions

"Questions define the future."

If it is true that answers describe the present while questions define the future, perhaps we should be more inquisitive.

When we ask questions, we begin shaping our future. When we invite people to join us, we gain ideas that we can use to build consensus for a preferred tomorrow. That, in turn, will make it easier to form coalitions that can turn community visions into realities.

Psychologists, it seems, always answer a question with a question. (Q: "Is it okay to feel this way?" A: "What do you think?") Maybe psychologists have discovered something that we should adapt for our use. (Q: "What should our schools look like in the future?" A: "What would you like them to look like?")

Why not present citizens with a variety of educational scenarios? Then, why not conduct a series of "Future Forums" in environments that are conducive to thinking?

Start your Future Forums with some facts and forecasts. Present your take on the opportunities and challenges that change presents. Then ask people to raise questions about what they have heard and what they are thinking.

Here are a dozen questions to get things started:

1. What kind of education do we want for our children?

2. Why is school less fun than it used to be?

3. How can technology leverage the capacity of teachers?

4. What would spur staff creativity, innovation and risk-taking?

5. Is anyone in the public or private sectors delivering education more effectively than we are?

6. Why does school have to start so early in the morning?

7. Why can't our school offer some classes online?

8. Is the time that we invest in professional development making a difference?

9. What would be a desirable addition to the educational program?

10. What educational program or service should be phased out?

11. What are our educational priorities?

12. Do we have a vision for our school?

Answer these questions and you'll be defining your future. Best of all, you won't be doing it alone.