Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 5, 1995 TAG: 9509050026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The management buzzwords go on and on.
Many of us - from assembly-line workers to newspaper reporters - hear the terms every day. It means different things to different companies, but the philosophy boils down to one point: serving the customer better.
For some, the changes hit as major upheavals where middle management duties are re-assigned to "empowered" employees. Other companies make subtle changes, like adding a suggestion box or encouraging management to interact more with workers.
My company is big on teams. We have interdepartmental teams - news and circulation, circulation and advertising, advertising and transportation. Interoffice teams meet weekly, reporting teams meet daily.
Those teams collect data on just about everything they do. Then they analyze it. Then, and only then, they decide what, if anything, to change.
I've watched many problems - the kind that years ago would have been shrugged off as that's-the-way-it's-always-been hassles - get solved by the people directly affected by them.
I've also seen resistance. Employees - mostly from the news department - argue that creativity can't be quantified; human interest can't be measured.
Now, the change in workplace philosophy is hitting education.
In the past month, teachers in the New River Valley have been hearing words like accountability and assessment.
Two weeks ago, Wayne Worner, acting Dean of Virginia Tech's College of Education, welcomed Montgomery County School teachers to a new year with a warning. Public education is under fire, he said. Programs like vouchers and charter schools threaten the future of what had been a cornerstone of American democracy.
In response to low test score results in Giles County, administrators there developed "student achievement plans." They hope to involve families, teachers and the rest of the community in improving success rates for children. By using test scores as one measure of success, Giles County will be able to prove to parents how well their children are being educated.
Montgomery County is in the process of redesigning its curriculum to meet state Standards of Learning criteria and their own 2006 goals. The most crucial part of the change, says Superintendent Herman Bartlett, will be the assessment component.
Parents will receive a list of what skills their kids will learn in a year. It also will probably include ways to assess whether a child has learned those skills. (Can Mary find Texas on a map, for example.) Parents might even get examples of their child's work - once again proving to parents that schools are doing their job.
Clearly, schools are beginning to address their number one customers: parents and their children.
It remains to be seen whether the tools that businesses use to produce more efficiently can be transferred to human learning. For schools and newspapers alike.
Lisa Applegate covers education for The Roanoke Times' New River Valley bureau.
by CNB