Communication
To fix the education system, we need to improve communication. There must be a clear line of communication between the Superintendent and the principals. Without one, the vision and directives get muddled. It’s no wonder that no one seems to know what’s going on, and no one is held accountable. Too many middlemen relay the message from the superintendent to the principals, changing it on the way down. By the time it reaches the schools, it makes little educational sense and takes away from the Superintendent’s original goal. Improved vertical communication will improve our schools.
Have you heard the one about the school that increased their math scores by 5% and their reading scores by 10%? Have you heard how they managed to do so well? Of course not! No one has. We need to start sharing our own success stories. Teachers need to communicate laterally to teach others how they managed to raise scores, how they dealt with problems and issues, and how they have learned from their own experiences. It’s a successful model in the classroom, in sports and in business, but we don’t use that model with teachers. Success should not be a secret. Let’s get those achieving schools to share their stories, and maybe your child’s school can have similar results. Improved lateral communication will improve our schools.
Have you heard the one about the school that increased their math scores by 5% and their reading scores by 10%? Have you heard how they managed to do so well? Of course not! No one has. We need to start sharing our own success stories. Teachers need to communicate laterally to teach others how they managed to raise scores, how they dealt with problems and issues, and how they have learned from their own experiences. It’s a successful model in the classroom, in sports and in business, but we don’t use that model with teachers. Success should not be a secret. Let’s get those achieving schools to share their stories, and maybe your child’s school can have similar results. Improved lateral communication will improve our schools.
Focus
Has your boss ever given you too many tasks to do in one day, and then asked you to stop what you were doing and do something different? It was probably a difficult day without much being accomplished. That’s what’s happening in our schools. Too many goals and changing focuses make education a mission impossible. We need to focus our efforts on a few attainable and measurable goals, and give the schools the resources to succeed. We also need to give each goal an adequate amount of time to be addressed. Teachers can’t teach successfully if the requirements and goals change every time the wind shifts. Give teachers and students the chance to succeed. Give clear, attainable and measure goals, and give them a chance to show us what they can do. Focusing on specific goals will improve our schools.
Fiscal Responsibility
If I spent $2,431,612,005 in one year and had little to show for it, my family would be irritated. They would demand to know where the money went. Well, that was the Department of Education’s operating budget for the 2010 Fiscal Year. Why aren’t we demanding to know exactly where the money went? The Department of Education needs to have an independent audit each year to make sure that as much money as possible is actually being spent on our kids. Too many resources are being wasted on positions and programs that do not directly affect the growth of our students. We need to spend money wisely and make sure it is actually getting to the schools. If an education position is not directly affecting the growth and improvement of our children’s education, then we need to put those people into the schools where they can actually make a difference. And when schools or resource personnel are shopping for programs, they need to better research the product. Will it really benefit the students and will it be used more than 1 or 2 school years? If not, the program or resource isn’t worth the expenditure. Making the system more fiscally accountable will improve our schools.
