{"id":580,"date":"2010-10-16T21:58:27","date_gmt":"2010-10-17T01:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=580"},"modified":"2010-10-22T15:05:29","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T19:05:29","slug":"the-school-reform-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=580","title":{"rendered":"The School Reform Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
In a September 06, 2010 Newsweek article, \u201cWhy School \u2018Reform\u2019 Fails: Student motivation is the problem<\/a>\u201d Robert J. Samuelson brings his readers to the edge of understanding the problem, but then leaves them hopeless about its solution.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
In the tradition of this site, I\u2019ll fall back on another metaphor to suggest why it\u2019s not hopeless\u2026 and use the MCPS experience to illustrate how \u201cthe problem\u201d of \u201cstudent motivation\u201d can actually be the solution.<\/div>\n
T<\/span>he School Reform<\/em> game<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

\n<\/strong><\/div>\n
In the article, (which I hope you\u2019ve linked to and read by now) Samuelson accurately describes the playing field on which the \u201dschool reform\u201d game is being played.<\/div>\n
On it he has all the players involved \u00a0\u2013 adults and children \u2013 but seems to assume we know what \u201cgame\u201d is.<\/div>\n
He\u2019s a good observer though, and correctly notes that it\u2019s a game no one is winning.<\/div>\n
\u201cSince the 1960s, waves of \u201creform\u201d have failed to produce meaningful achievement gains\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
\u2026and we don\u2019t know why …<\/div>\n
\u201cStandard explanations of this meager progress fail.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
\u2026 but thinks there are two explanations\u2026<\/div>\n
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\u201cReforms\u201d have disappointed for two reasons. First, no one has yet discovered transformative changes in curriculum or pedagogy, especially for inner-city schools, that are (in business lingo) \u201cscalable\u201d\u2014that is, easily transferable to other schools, where they would predictably produce achievement gains.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If the students aren\u2019t motivated, even capable teachers may fail\u2026. The unstated assumption of much school \u201creform\u201d is that if students aren\u2019t motivated, it\u2019s mainly the fault of schools and teachers\u2026. Motivation has weakened because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don\u2019t like school, don\u2019t work hard, and don\u2019t do well<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And therefore he concludes that once more no one will “win” the game\u2026<\/div>\n
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\u201cAgainst these realities, school-\u201creform\u201d rhetoric is blissfully evasive. Duncan urges \u201ca great teacher\u201d in every classroom\u2014akin to having every football team composed of All-Americans\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But his game analysis is based on an assumption most people \u201cknow\u201d what the game is. \u00a0If Duncan wants \u201ca great teacher\u201d<\/em> in every classroom,\u201d then the game that brings everyone to the playing field must be \u201cTeaching<\/span>.\u201d<\/div>\n
But what if it\u2019s \u201cLearning?<\/span>\u201d And not learning as a \u201cproduct,\u201d but learning as a \u201cprocess\u201d — an individual capacity the school system is accountable for aligning all its resources to develop?\u00a0\u00a0 What do those exact same players on that playing field do, if the game they\u2019ve gathered to play is one in which \u201cwinning\u201d is based on continual positive changes in each child\u2019s capacity to learn?<\/div>\n
How do \u201cchanges in curriculum or pedagogy\u201d<\/em> become \u201ctransformative\u201d<\/em> when \u201cstudents, (who) after all, have to do the work\u201d<\/em> want to<\/span> because the teaching process has engaged them as co-managers of their own learning?<\/div>\n
If that\u2019s the \u201cgame plan,\u201d then the story this site documents of what\u2019s been happening on the MCPS playing field over the past 12 years becomes more understandable.\u00a0 Connecting the dots among the various players can make more sense when each can be seen as playing important roles in the same game<\/span>.\u00a0 And the work of the players on the\u00a0 field comes together as part of a coherent integrated learning management system.<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
At least that\u2019s the way it\u2019s looked to me in the observers box from which were developed many of the 20,000 ft Memos<\/em> included in this site’s Resource<\/a> section. If you\u2019d like more information about what it looks and feels like from the playing field, let me know and I\u2019ll connect you to some of the players.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a September 06, 2010 Newsweek article, \u201cWhy School \u2018Reform\u2019 Fails: Student motivation is the problem\u201d Robert J. Samuelson brings his readers to the edge of understanding the problem, but then leaves them hopeless about its solution. In the tradition of this site, I\u2019ll fall back on another metaphor to suggest why it\u2019s not hopeless\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}