Common sense school reform

Abstract

School re f o rm is the province of utopians, apologists, and wellintentioned practitioners who inhabit a cloistered world where conviction long ago displaced competence. For too long we have permitted this phalanx of thinkers and advocates to trample common sense beneath jarg o n , grandiose schemes, and earnest aspirations. The result is schools where success is often a happy accident, the notion of professional responsibility is attacked as anti-education, and the doors of opportunity are slammed on tens of millions of America’s childre n . Those eager to advance their intere s t s and ideologies have seized the banner of “public education” and used it to repeatedly knock aside calls for serious re f o rm. Meanwhile, those who question school perf o rmance or the pro m i s e of new educational recipes are skewe red as enemies of public education. S o m e h o w, the public nature of schooling and its centrality to our democratic way of life have fostered the notion that re f o rms must pass muster with utopian education theorists. It is time, indeed, it is long past time, to re c a pt u re our nation’s schools from the wide-eyed dreamers and to imbue education re f o rm with the simple discipline of common sense. The United States boasts the w o r l d ’s highest per capita income and one of the best-funded school systems, yet our children fall below intern a t i o nal norms in graduation rates and test p e rf o rmance. Though born with significant advantages, U.S. students lose g round during their years in school. Common Sense School Reform

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