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Hernando Today

Teachers Must Make The Difference If Schools Are To Succeed

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By JOHN REINIERS, More Than Words

Hernando Today

Published: August 19, 2008

School-based management, also known in educational circles as "site-based" management (SBM), has gotten much more currency and scholarship of late. Hernando Today published a piece on this topic in February 2007, and another related analysis of Department of Defense Schools (DoDEA) shortly thereafter; at which time I frankly didn't sense that a groundswell of interest in site-management was already in progress.
Simply stated, this concept is really political reform empowering school sites by transferring power over budgeting, staffing and curriculum to an individual school. Educators who endorse this concept would like this decentralization of power to rest with a "council" of people – somewhat like the student advisory councils – with which we are familiar. But studies indicate that a strong principal is the key to successful site management.
Educators see the principal as a facilitator, whereas experience has shown that the principal must play the fundamentally critical role of a leader. Nevertheless, the principal has to be joined at the hip with the school staff, the parents and the community. The desired end result must be a more empowered teaching staff with the "leader" leading and sharing power, and the teachers taking professional ownership of "their" school.
As most educators know, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is cited as the genesis of this adventure in education which started more than 25 years ago. According to Dr. Emery Dosdall, superintendent, Edmonton has gone from 80 percent of available funding being planned by individual schools to "92 percent of available dollars ... planned directly by the schools with input from staff, students, parents and the community." Each school plans "numbers of staff, supplies, equipment and services the staff needs ... The remaining 8 percent of the district's budget relates to board and central services ..."
Let me gloss over the obvious: The training necessary is incredibly time-consuming, the process difficult to implement and parental buy-in critical. On top of this, this paradigm shift needs the leadership skills of the school board and total cooperation from unions and the teachers. SBM is simply an adaptation of the successful business "quality" model that was designed to empower individual employees working as teams in the trenches; rather than the top-down management style of the early 20th century.
Anyone with management or military experience understands this.
Now consider Department of Defense schools (DoDEA), which are operated worldwide and are a model for our public school system. Its students continually outscore public schools. The results of the 2007 Terra Nova tests: DoDEA students in the third through 11th grades scored 10 to 26 percentile points above the national average in all subtest areas. Some time ago, this responsibility was transferred from the military branches to civilian management.
Since they have schools all over the globe, DoDEA realized SBM was a necessity. And consider this: The overwhelming number of military parents have no more than a high school education. Half the students qualify for free lunch. Military parents are transferred often, which causes obvious stress with higher than average alcoholism and domestic abuse.
Staying on the topic of SBM, but broadening the analysis, look at school choice – Swedish, Dutch and Danish style. In 1992 Sweden instituted school choice reforms. Teachers went from being employed by their national government to being employees of a municipality that must fund friskolor, or "free schools." Supported by vouchers, they are independently owned and managed, able to hire their own teaching staff, choose their own curriculum and are cost-free to parents who choose to send their kids there. (They cannot "cherry-pick" students.) They come in many "varieties," and above all, offer equality of opportunity.
What an astonishing sea change for a supposedly stodgy socialist democracy! A complete unbundling of authority at the national level and passed along to the lowest political tiers in Sweden, which in turn licenses "Knowledge schools" (Kunskapsskolan.) Of the 1,500 independent schools in Sweden two thirds are for-profit. They have organized as the Swedish Association of Independent Schools (Check their Web site.) These charter schools have 17 percent of students enrolled in secondary schools and perform better (national testing) than state-managed schools. They offer a broad range of schools, including school chains, with a "large mix of pedagogical methods." Parenting skills in Sweden must be superb compared to ours. Parents are required to serve on "Parent Councils" in all schools. Teachers appreciate the greater autonomy they have, but express some concerns over job security.
Sweden is actually a "Johnny-come-lately" with school choice. The Netherlands has had "independent" schools for more than 80 years (1917) by constitutional amendment with 70 percent of its students enrolled in these schools. Denmark made education compulsory in 1849 and guaranteed parents school choice. Parents have to pick up 25 percent of the cost.
If the Edmonton SBM model were to be effective at the public school level in the U.S. perhaps parents might be dissuaded from sending their kids to private charter schools. There are many pilot programs in place nationally, but decentralized SBM schools as the norm are far off. It would seem that SBMs are the only way of empowering teachers; and – this is critical – seriously getting all parents involved.
Unlike Europe, we have too many parents disconnected from their child's education. (Many are low-skilled non-achievers, single parents, high school drop outs or struggling to make ends meet, working two jobs with little time to parent effectively.) Somehow, our school systems need to connect with parents who are either disinterested or unhappy with the quality of their child's education.
This is why our high school dropout rate is unacceptable and killing our global competitiveness. These are the parents needed on the parent councils – not the parents of the high GPA kids. New laws and enforcement techniques may be needed. Parents cannot keep dumping on our educators to teach their children discipline, respect for authority, manners, moral values and, above all, the absolute necessity to learn marketable skills.
No matter what, when the rubber hits the road, the teachers – as usual – will have to make the difference.

John Reiniers, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill.

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