Public Education Needs A New Direction

In this short presentation to the South of Dayton Democratic Club, I analyze the Dayton Daily News opinion article written by Kevin Kelly, the Dean of the University of Dayton’s School of Education and Frank DePalma, the retired Superintendent of Centerville Schools, and I repeat most of what I wrote in my post: Put Away The Duct Tape, Public Education Needs To Be Rebuilt — Guided By New Principles. My point is that public education needs to transformed so that it changes direction.

In their DDN article, Drs. Kelly and DePalma defend the current system and essentially argue that we need more of the same, only with harder tests and requirements. They defend the key principles guiding the current system: 1) purpose of the current system is to transmit an established curriculum, 2) the merit of schools and teachers can be determined via the results of objective tests, and 3) to improve schools means to improve the scores on these objective tests. My point is that an education founded on such principles ignores many of the aims for education that traditionally a democratic nation has agreed is important to pursue and that reform leading to higher test scores ignores the fact that our current system is built on principles that in the big picture are inadequate. Rather than reforming schools, we need to transform them.

To reform, means to be more efficient in accomplishing the aims of the system. But if the aim of the system is wrong, then reform is not the answer. The problem is, regardless of how much the test scores improve, public education will still be failing to accomplish what it needs to accomplish. To transform, means to create a new system that will be focused on accomplishing a purpose very different from the old system.

The difference between “reforming” and “transforming” is a powerful insight. To plan for the future — Public Education In 2030 is the book I keep talking about writing— would require a compelling vision of what is possible. In my previous article, I took a stab at defining the principles of a new system, but in this short speech I didn’t develop these principles but instead simply tried to show a way of thinking that will encourage discussion about what new directions public education should be considering.

Share
This entry was posted in Special Reports. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Public Education Needs A New Direction

  1. Andy says:

    It sounds like Bock’s idea of transforming public education is to produce more activists instead of students who are prepared for college or who enter the workforce with marketable skills. Transforming education would best be served by getting the government out of it altogether. But if people insist that we keep paying ridiculously high taxes to employ sub-par educators then at least look at what is clear for the future: online education. Colleges are doing this with tremendous success. Of course, this means the schools can’t be babysitters or create high performing athletic programs, which may be what most people really want. But it does mean that online delivery of education at the local level will reduce the need to build new schools and employ dozens of useless teachers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *