ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080027
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A21 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LARRY HOWDYSHELL
JUST GO down the hall and turn left - the office is the first door on your right. Yes, our new east wing really does allow for increased educational opportunity! If you follow the blue line up the stairs, you can't miss our wonderful media center. It's state of the art!
Up, down, in and around, schools often look all too familiar, no matter which way you turn. The more you try to get a new perspective, the more you wind up "at the office" again. Like the puzzle of the three rows of three dots in which you try to connect the dots with the least number of straight lines, you find yourself confined within the system of the dots. Only when you bolt outside the dot system can you free yourself enough to solve the puzzle.
So, here we go, bolting outside the school dots - but, staying inside the system. Recently, Republican politicians have been fighting for results-based schools founded on competition for students and controlled more by parents and communities and less by state regulations. Democratic politicians have been guarding the schoolhouse door against private-school intruders who would siphon off money from the system and eventually cripple the public school.
What if we came up with a school with all the right stuff: full of community-approved items and educator-endorsed innovations, no charters, no private schools, no busing, and both brands of politicians sanctioning our people's-choice school? The only thing is, to stay within the "dots" we would need one tiny concession. We would have to have some elbow room among all those state regulations.
Here's what I think is the people's choice for a new school. It's got a lot of new stuff in it, but it's not radical and it's fully public. For example, all public-school divisions presently develop multi-year plans. Within this context, it may turn out that a school community may have come up with a school plan with innovations much like our people's-choice design. That school's leadership would present its design to its local school board. The local school board would request of the Virginia Board of Education relief from certain regulations pertaining to this specific design.
Now, suppose the state board grants this community freedom from some of these "dots" everyone has grown so comfortable with. Let's let our minds explore beyond those "dots" a little. Maybe some of the following secondary-school designs might actually work! Maybe all of them would work:
A school that operates on present-level, public-funding formulas just to show our school remains truly public;
A school that saves parents money toward college financing;
A school that helps students gain up to two years of community-college credit while in secondary school;
A school that potentially empowers students with a high school diploma and associate degree at the end of four years of high school;
A school that pays teachers professional salaries, $5,000 to $7,000 above Virginia's average;
A school that uses associate-degree and undergraduate teacher candidates to assist teachers;
A school that hires teachers based primarily upon instructionally illustrated portfolios;
A school that offers teachers nontraditional roles with nontraditional pay;
A school that fully uses the building year-round;
A school that may offer one year's credit during a semester;
A school that offers primarily academic courses (huge change here);
A school that plans and develops fully the use of electronic instruction;
A school that fully utilizes teacher teaming; and,
A school that rewards and motivates teachers beyond performing their traditional roles by providing teachers with ongoing opportunities to systematically develop local curricula; carry out a professional, community-oriented project of choice; interview prospective teachers based on community needs; conduct student studies on student problem-solving techniques; work more closely with local school funding; help parents become familiar with school programs; and exert more influence on student morality.
This kind of school of at least moderate vision and creativity is not that bizarre. But it would never get beyond the planning stages presently. The concepts above may not suit everyone's tastes. But the point is, if we want a new perspective on educational possibilities within our community, we are going to have to get outside our present structure a little bit. We are going to have to change the way our politicians react to new ideas. We are going to have to petition the state to modify regulations reasonably to accommodate our school changes.
I am proposing an innovative school design here that borrows from the deregulating aspect presented in the charter-schools concept. Just this one aspect, nothing more. This school design would guard the public schoolhouse door against private-school intrusion. The design would apply only to public schools. No money would go elsewhere.
The above people's-choice designs could be incorporated into a public school mostly within present funding.
I love the public school. I've been in it a long time. I think it's still the best. But I do believe that it is bogged down. Stability is good, but community-structured, innovative change has to have some way of sprouting.
The school roots are fine, but perhaps some of the bureaucratic leaves need a bit of pruning.
Larry Howdyshell, of Salem, an adjunct professor with the University of Virginia, is a former secondary-school teacher and supervisor.
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