COMMENTARY
Education reform cannot risk failure

By Beatrice DeRego

I had followed the coverage and editorials on school reform long before Gov. Linda Lingle surreptitiously announced the creation of her CARE reform team, a subtle suggestion that those involved with our public-educational system do not care.

Can Hawai'i's archaic school system, built on an agrarian society, lift itself into the information age? Advertiser library photo

Since then, nebulous statistics have been rolled out by both sides of the issue, each employing a search-and-seize method of using only the numbers that suit their purposes. I am reminded of the Capulets and the Montagues in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," when the prince declares: "All are punished!"

It seems everyone is clamoring for immediate change. Such change only causes more confusion and error. Perhaps one gift from the Native Americans that should be remembered is we must consider the outcome of our decisions on the next seven generations, because inevitably those will be affected by our choices now. This will take time. The main instigator behind rapid change is the No Child Left Behind act, the recent federal law that most experts, state governments and members of the public now regard as seriously flawed. Our children's future — and thus our own — is at stake. We must take whatever time necessary to get this right.

Advances in brain and learning research have demonstrated what every child must have in order to succeed.

Foremost is a parent who cares enough about the child's education to be personally involved in the school's processes, even when it requires sacrifices.

Second is a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, with knowledge of both the subject area and current educational research, to reach every child.

Then come the necessary time and resources to ensure that all students receive the opportunities they need to advance to a level of mastery in the skills required for success in a career of their interest, and to participate as a member of society.

Parents have numerous opportunities to be involved in their schools, from volunteering to assist with programs during school hours and after, to participation in parent-teacher and school/community-based management organizations. It is essential they make sure their child has had a good night's sleep, a healthy breakfast and a place to complete homework in a quiet environment.

The current SCBM structure is not working to meet these goals, but they can be standardized and improved to provide each parent with an avenue to voice concerns and to garner feedback on school processes. Individual school surveys of parent participation show this is one of the weakest links, especially as students reach higher grade levels.

In a random sampling of parents who participated in the DOE School Quality Survey for 2003, only 23.3 percent felt compelled to return their survey; approximately one-quarter of our parents are currently involved. Giving parents the option of sending their student to any public school that meets their needs is imperative for bringing them back to the table.

Designing public schools that are not second to private schools is essential to prevent tax dollars from funding private interests and agendas.

Several things must occur before there is a guarantee of a highly qualified teacher in every classroom.

First, the teaching field must become competitive to attract the best and brightest high-school graduates to pursue the career. This will happen only if teachers' salaries are raised significantly and they are provided annual reviews tied to incentives or increases in pay.

Second, the PEP-T evaluations must be implemented to standardize the requirements for achieving excellence in the classroom, coupled with rewards for achieving these goals. Principals must be given the authority to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom and provide them with the training necessary to improve. If a teacher cannot or will not change, principals should be given the power to fire them.

No organization can function effectively if management is required to accommodate dead weight. Principals must also be provided the power to hire those individuals who best fit the needs of their community.

In order to address the requirements of the 21st-century school, a new class of educational employee must be created within the school to accomplish the middle-management tasks of technology coordination, standards and curriculum coordination, teacher training, data manipulation and student systems direction.

These resource positions must be created in the schools, not at the district, with flexible year-round scheduling, and the compensation commensurate with those performing similar skills in the corporate industry.

The current dysfunctional licensing system must be directly tied to the PEP-T evaluation rather than become a separate hoop each teacher must jump through with no relationship to their day-to-day existence in the classroom. Adequate time and money for training and collaboration must also be ensured to keep teachers informed of advances in practices and tools best suited for addressing different student needs.

This will require more teachers in the system so that some of them can be involved in training while others are in the classroom.

Finally, there is the need for adequate resources and time, the most significant flaw of No Child Left Behind. In all the world, the American public-education system is the only one that has dared to proclaim that every child has the capacity to succeed to a level that they become a significant contributing member of their society.

This is a radical paradigm shift from the past view of education. If it succeeds, it will change every nuance of society as we know it, because successful people need no social handouts and are provided employment that guarantees their family's needs are met. This would revolutionize our current system of economics, which requires there is a percentage who fail.

Such a hefty goal will entail a considerable influx of resources, because failure no longer will be an option. Current resources must be fully audited to determine if they are meeting the goal of higher student achievement. Inefficient programs and practices must be either revised or eliminated and their resources redirected. In order to reach every child we must secure smaller learning communities.

Large schools must be broken into academies that are provided the environment and tools imperative to learning in an information age. Rather than arbitrarily dividing students into classes based on age, standards for each necessary skill must be devised, with a continuum of learning in which every student must complete at a pace inherent to individual talent and maturity level. Common assessments that require students to demonstrate they have adequately met each level must be provided before they move to the next level.

What Hawai'i is attempting to do is to transform an archaic system built on an agrarian society into one that will lift our state into the information age.

This is a daunting goal, and one that has to be addressed with all the resources, time and cooperation required to succeed. Not doing so is to admit that the goal is a fiction, a lie we don't believe, that all students are equal. It is deciding that we will allow some students to fail.

Will your student be among them?

Beatrice DeRego, a public-school teacher, lives in Kane'ohe.