Where is the resistance, and why? Is it inertia — leave well enough alone, or are employee groups actively obstructing? There are tons of books and Google (and other search engines) that point to teacher union obstructionism.

Or are consumers not well enough informed and equipped to command responsiveness and timely application of good practice? Here in British Columbia we have had mandated parent advisory councils in the schools since 1989 but they have not had the voice required to bring things up to speed.

I see there is a growing movement called “No Excuses” and wonder how far that will go in applying Effective Schools Principles.

Evaluations and achievement scores do help in showing where schools stand as far as standards (provincial, state, federal, international, whatever) go, but do they really equip people to obtain accountability and commitment to improve?

What I do find hopeful is the new move to have value-added assessment of students and schools. Please see the recent news report from Cleveland, Ohio.

http://www.cleveland.com/education/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isedu/1197624649112340.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

This approach equips parents and teachers with a child’s growth potential at the start of a period, and shows how much benefit is accrued through the school and teaching experience.

I as a parent and grandparent, aware of how very different children are, like this approach, which really brings us back to Ron Edmonds and his famous 1978 quote:

“We can whenever, and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need, in order to do this. Whether we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.”

RB