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Schools and change: Sometimes it works
By DOROTHY PUCH
News-Gazette Staff Writer
From new math to year-round education, schools are always
trying something new.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.
One thing is for sure: Schools are going to continue to
try to improve themselves, whether it's by choice or because they will
be forced to be creative in response to more competition.
But will it make a difference in the education of children?
"It's a good question," said Gene Amberg,
superintendent of the Urbana school district. "Are we just swapping
the chairs around, or are we really effecting change?"
"We're
hopeful," Amberg said.
Ian Westbury, a professor of curriculum and instruction
at the University of Illinois, says many of the "trends" seen
throughout the history of education are examples of "symbolic change,"
the kind of change that the media likes to cover but that doesn't really
affect the way schools operate.
Real change in schools is usually not an outcome of some
reform movement or new fad.
"The change is much more slow," Westbury said.
A "real change" has been the increasing emphasis
put on secondary schools as a preparation for college.
"Somehow, education has become socially and culturally
very important. . . . That's a very fundamental change," Westbury
said.
"As everybody is in school, as everybody is expected
to go to college, that's posed huge problems for the schools."
As far as symbolic change, Westbury said that's a
reflection of different groups seeing themselves as needing different things
from the schools and getting themselves in constant conflict.
"And so you've got one set of demands from the
black community for equality. On the other hand, you've got people
who want in Champaign-Urbana a very clear and firm college preparation in
schools," Westbury said.
School officials and school boards, feeling pressured to show responsiveness, "do this symbolically by buying into everything," Westbury said.
To some degree, said Champaign Superintendent Mike Cain, that's true.
"Public education is reflective of the issues that are affecting society at the time," Cain said.
When the Russians put up Sputnik, it launched a national dilemma in America about how students are slipping in math and science. Today, Cain said, schools are responding to standards.
"There are state level standards, national standards, and that's all tied into accountability and performance," Cain said.
"Schools respond to the pressures that are exerted on them by local, state and national and global trends."
He says it may sound "corny," but Cain said he believes whether all the different initiatives in education are making any difference all comes down to the product the schools are producing.
"When our students leave us, are they prepared to be . . . productive citizens wherever it is they may land?"
Westbury says public schools have reached the point where they will need to fundamentally alter the way they do business.
And a "one size fits all" mentality isn't going to cut it, he said.
Increasingly, parents are mobilizing and finding the school they want. More and more, it's private or some sort of alternative school, such as a charter school.
In turn, Westbury said, schools will need to diversify and find their core competencies.
"The ordinary public school, specifically the high school, has to decide what it's trying to do," Westbury said. The general high school as we have now, he said, will cease to exist.
The News-Gazette welcomes comments from readers on the
issues raised in this article. Please send your comments to: Editor, The
News-Gazette, 15 Main St., P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677. Send
comments by e-mail to news@news-gazette.com.
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