Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993 TAG: 9302080256
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: N. WAYNE TRIPP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
BUSINESS PROFITS FROM GOOD SCHOOLS
TEN YEARS ago, if a school superintendent or businessman got up before a group to say he had a vision, it wouldn't be long before the men in white coats would come to get him. Now, all of us have visions for our organizations, and we never miss an opportunity to share them with others.This is my vision for education in Salem.
I believe that in schools of the future, young people will attend school for 220 days. We already know that the United States is behind most developed countries in the amount of time that young people attend school. While it is imperative that we give attention to how we can better use the time already available to us, it is also imperative that we give our young people more time.
While at school, young people will be housed in facilities that are safe, comfortable and technologically advanced. All these schools will be air-conditioned. They will be linked electronically within the building as well as with other buildings throughout the world. We in the Roanoke Valley have a thriving fiber-optics industry. Perhaps there is a natural area of cooperation between the schools and business.
Students in our schools who are in grades K-5 will attend classes with 15 or fewer students. Students will attend no class with more than twenty members at any grade level.
All students will be provided the benefit of a preschool experience.
My son will enter school in the near future. He is 4 now. When he does go to school, it will be with the benefit of three years of preschool experience. While I am pleased that I am able to provide him with that advantage, it is my responsibility to advocate for the children of parents who do not have the resources to provide their children with a similar advantage.
Ironically, many of those are the very children who most need a preschool experience.
Young people of the future who attend school will also be supported by parents who care and who know how to parent. We will enhance their skills by offering classes at work within the workday. We will offer them the opportunity to improve their literacy skills through adult basic education. As employers, we must begin to see the outlay for such services and released time as an investment, not as a drain on our resources.
These young people will be further bolstered by a quality health-care network including both private and public health-care providers. School nurses will be available in greater numbers and the services of programs such as the Comprehensive Health Investment Project will be made more generally available.
These young people will participate in a rigorous curriculum that is output-based and driven by international standards. We as educators must assure the public and the business community that their dollars are being spent wisely.
Today, in Virginia, we spend $5.3 billion on public education - twice as much as 10 years ago. For that investment, some argue, the taxpayer is getting little if any improvement in learning. I do not accept that premise. I do believe, however, that we must demonstrate a greater degree of accountability than we have in the past.
Further, we educators must learn to better document the results of our efforts. We do produce quality results, but we don't do a good job of documenting those results to others.
In this rigorous curriculum, there will be room for a diversity of interests and needs. Vocational education will play an important role. Many of our young people do not go to college. Of those who do, nearly half do not complete a four-year degree. Apprenticeships, tech-prep programs and business partnerships are models that promise economic opportunity for both the student and the employer of the future.
The young people who attend school in the future will be taught by teachers who are employed 12 months each year. The most important resource we can give teachers to do their job is time. If we believe that teachers are to behave as professionals and that they should participate as full partners in planning and making other important decisions about the education of young people, then we must provide them the time to do so. And we must compensate them appropriately for their time.
These teachers will believe that all young people can learn and are of worth. They will reflect these beliefs in their daily behaviors and teaching.
There will be differential pay for differential effort by teachers. Educators must find a way to identify quality teachers and to reward them for their efforts. I believe it can be done, although it will be a daunting task.
Schools will invest in their employees. They will spend 5 percent or more of their operating budget on staff development. Staff development is a school system's research and development. In my school division, that would amount to about $1 million. We actually spend about $65,000, a pitifully low figure.
The teachers I have described will work with principals who are leaders, not managers. They will have a clear vision of their schools' mission.
They will employ transformational leadership methods such as shared governance or site-based management to accomplish their missions. These principals will remind all staff that young people, their parents, and the community at large are our customers.
These are goals that could change the face of education in America, the commonwealth and the valley. They are within reach. We can accomplish most if not all of them by the year 2000.
The question becomes whether we have the energy, the wisdom and the resolute will to make the vision a reality. I would submit to you that we must. We cannot allow ourselves to fail. For young people and for ourselves, we must invest in human capital. Business has come to realize how important that concept is to economic development.
Too often, we as educators have depended upon and appealed to business's altruism. I suggest that business has a direct proprietary interest in the success of education. Without a quality educational system, business will fail to consistently make a profit, and to grow and survive in the global economy. As professional educators, we stand ready to offer our hand in partnership in this most critical of endeavors.
N. Wayne Tripp is superintendent of the Salem schools. This is excerpted from his remarks Jan. 15 to the Roanoke Business Council, composed of the CEOs of the Roanoke Valley's largest employers.