Building Engaged Schools

By Gary Gordon, with Steve Crabtree
(Hardcover, October 2006)

Can America's public schools meet the many challenges they face today? Not by simply working harder at what we're doing now. Based on faulty assumptions, most of the current reform ideas focus on process concerns -- such as standards, curriculum, and testing.

If we test those assumptions, we find that educational excellence relies more on the talent and engagement levels of people within a school than on any other factor. Identifying and leveraging the underutilized talent of students, teachers, support staff, and principals should be the first consideration in improving outcomes for students.

America's youth are growing up in a world in which they will compete with individuals around the globe, not just with the young people in the school district next door. The success of America's students depends upon being part of the best educated workforce in the world. Is the current system providing the education our students need to complete?

By nearly every international comparison, the answer is "No." Whether comparing young adult literacy, high school graduation, or international test performance in math and science, young adults and students from most of the industrialized countries of the world out-perform America's students.

The current reform ideas will not substantially reverse this trend because they are built upon several faulty assumptions:

• Assumption 1: Higher expectations and accountability testing are the keys to helping students learn at higher levels.
• Assumption 2: Identifying and improving weaknesses makes students and teachers more successful.
• Assumption 3: Selecting and developing teachers and principals on the basis of skills and knowledge leads to student success.
• Assumption 4: A perfect curriculum exists that works for all teachers and students.
• Assumption 5: Differences in school cultures are largely irrelevant.
• Assumption 6: Schools can do little to improve parents' support at home.
• Assumption 7: If students receive "good" grades, seem happy, have friends, feel safe, the school must be doing a good job.

Building Engaged Schools challenges each assumption and provides positive alternatives that lead to more productive results.