COMMENTARY
For all of us, the work has just begun
By Shan W. Steinmark
Shan W. Steinmark, founder of Strategic Transitions Research, has been a classroom teacher, one-to-one coach and organization change facilitator — in education and business — for over 30 years.
There is good news and bad news about Hawai'i's recent efforts to reinvent its P-20 system of education.
First the bad news: Most dramatically, Democrats and Republicans are accusing each other of playing politics with the critical issue of education. Then there are reports that Board of Education members may be engaging in their own version of infighting.
Furthermore, many people remain concerned that the Department of Education may not be capable of transforming itself from part of the problem to part of the solution.
For months now, we have endured a litany of finger-pointing and blaming, with partisan politics, state bureaucracies, teachers unions and uninvolved parents all coming under rather unfriendly fire. More substantively, there is concern that the current set of proposed plans for change may not go far enough or fast enough in improve student achievement.
Now for the good news:
First and foremost, Gov. Linda Lingle has proven to be a truly heroic leader. Whether one agrees with her approach or not, she has courageously championed the cause of improving education and been a catalyst for revolutionary change.
University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle and Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto also are leading the way. They are challenging their respective components of the public education system to progress from mediocrity to greatness.
The best news, however, may be that there is initial evidence of step-by-step change. The governor and Legislature are working to develop more need-based formulas for allocation of education money and searching for a better balance of accountability and authority for school principals.
Primary and secondary teachers and university professors finally have received support for significant raises in pay. Government, education and business leaders are proposing experiments with governance, if not with local school boards, then with stronger community advisory groups or perhaps district management councils — all of which have the advantage of drawing more diverse citizen talent into the problem-solving and decision-making process.
Lest there be any doubt, these steps are all necessary, but not sufficient to improve student achievement dramatically.
Reinvention will be a marathon, not a sprint — and the next steps will be even more difficult than the first. We need Democrats and Republicans to keep the debate on education strategy not just alive, but front and center for all of Hawai'i for years to come. The stakeholders of the current system must prove that they are fully capable of "looking in the mirror" and engineering their own transformation, day in and day out for the rest of their careers.
Finally, those of us in the general public must steadily, relentlessly build support for the dedicated and hardworking principals, teachers and parents who are on the front lines of improving student achievement — and we must maintain our vigilance until Hawai'i is perceived by all as a model for quality public education.
The students of Hawai'i deserve the best from all of us. We must accelerate our efforts to study, carefully but quickly, the sources of our ineffectiveness and the options for solutions to our most stubborn educational dilemmas.
Therefore, we must get better at: 1. Debating imperfect ideas on their merits. 2. Compromising on preferences for next steps. 3. Testing our assumptions with pilot programs. 4. Doing whatever it takes to learn rapidly from our successes and our failures.
Stubbornly repeating arguments and resisting change because of ideological preferences or comfortable habits represent the most deadly threats to reinvention.
It is also quite possible that students are observing and judging our behavior. In other words, as adult role models, we must all challenge ourselves to learn as swiftly and efficiently as we are asking our students to master a more rigorous curriculum. The extent to which we can co-develop and co-own the solutions — while resisting the temptation to discredit people with opposing views — will determine to a large extent our level of success in reinventing education AND maybe set an example for our keiki.
As government, education, business and community leaders of the current generation, we are primarily responsible for preparing the next generation for the most critical challenges — foreseeable and unforeseeable — that they might face when they assume the leadership of Hawai'i. Every one of us has a full schedule of day-to-day crises to manage that can hinder our efforts to build a better future for our children.
Frankly, without good teachers we are lost — and without support from the rest of us, teachers must do the impossible. Therefore, we must work together to equip today's students with the knowledge and skills to compete in the global economy. We must each do our part to enable today's students to discover the wisdom and courage to maintain and even improve our democratic way of life.
Finally, we must all help prepare today's students to invest the necessary time, energy and money to ensure that their children receive a quality education.
Now that the legislative session has closed, we all have some real work to do.
