Reposted with permission from the American Federation of Teachers
http://www.aft.org
Where We Stand
by Albert Shanker
Squeaky Wheels
Americans know what they want in education and have known for some time: 
schools that are safe and orderly and have a strong focus on academic 
achievement. These demands have been voiced clearly and strongly in 
numerous polls and surveys, and they cut across political, racial, ethnic, 
and socioeconomic lines. We are as close to a consensus on the kind of 
schools we want as on anything I can remember.
So you'd think that, by now, nearly all of our schools would be safe, 
orderly, and focused on academics. It's not as though you have to get 
action for this on a federal level; schools are local, democratically 
controlled institutions. But despite some progress, the pace is not fast 
enough. What's the problem?
Many critics say that the people who run the public schools are 
unresponsive. I don't think that's it. If anything, school boards and 
administrators are *too* responsive, but they can only respond to the 
people they hear from--and ordinary Americans are not telling the people 
who run the schools what they want. You can be sure, however, that school 
board members and administrators are constantly hearing from the noisy and 
insistent few. As a result, these squeaky wheels are having a 
disproportionate influence on school policy.
Say a student breaks a major school rule--perhaps he threatens another 
student with a knife--and he is severely disciplined. His parents go 
ballistic, and they raise whatever hell is necessary until the punishment 
is relaxed or withdrawn. They get what they lobbied for, but what about the 
rest of the parents?
The same thing can happen when a small group pushes for a new program or 
some other project or policy. If they make a lot of noise, they will 
probably get what they want; and Helping Children Cope With Divorce or 
Stages in Grieving, for example, will be added to the curriculum, even 
though most of the public, parents, and teachers think programs like that 
take time away from academics. Those who run the schools are responsive, 
all right, but they are responding to a small handful of people who 
understand that being noisy means they'll be heard.
But what if the majority of parents and other members of the community got 
together to let school officials know what *they* want:  schools where 
tough disciplinary codes are consistently and fairly enforced and where 
promotion and graduation stand for a certain level of achievement? That 
kind of popular movement is exactly what AFT intended to foster when we 
launched a nationwide campaign, Responsibility, Respect, Results: Lessons 
for Life, last September. The campaign is organized around a Bill of Rights 
and Responsibilities for Learning that outlines what we need to create 
orderly and high-achieving schools. Is it working? So far, so good.
State legislatures and school boards across the nation have adopted the 
Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for Learning. In many cases, they have 
also made changes that move us towards the ideal of safe, orderly, and 
high-performing schools. Here are just a few examples of the results 
achieved by bringing democratic pressure to bear:
* In Philadelphia, the school board agreed to create alternative placements 
for habitually disruptive students in every elementary school; in Corpus 
Christi, Texas, there are now alternative schools for these students.
* The Bill has gotten students in Peoria, Illinois, working on how they can 
make their schools--and themselves--more orderly and focused on academics.
* In Dade County, Florida, a joint committee of teachers, administrators, 
and parents, inspired by Lessons for Life, proposed new and tougher 
promotion and graduation standards and additional help for students who are 
performing below grade level. The school board approved the proposal on 
first reading.
Lessons for Life is primarily a grass-roots movement, but improving public 
education also requires top-level support. Prominent endorsers of the Bill 
range from the heads of Xerox and IBM to the president of the 
Communications Workers of America, from Colin Powell to George McGovern, 
from musician Ellis Marsalis to author Bette Bao Lord, from athlete Jackie 
Joyner-Kersee to the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches 
of Christ in the USA--and the list grows every day.
Many Americans are disappointed with the schools; they feel powerless and 
cynical. That is why you hear talk of vouchers. But during the first year 
of Lessons for Life, we heard another story. Over and over again, people 
said, "Finally somebody is talking common sense. This is a reform we can 
make happen."
We are about to begin the second year of Lessons for Life. We will 
concentrate on encouraging more people to take part in the campaign. And 
that will mean more pressure to make common sense the common practice in 
every school district in the nation. A majority of Americans want higher 
standards of discipline and achievement. When they unite, we can turn 
public education around.
Chuck Beams
cbeams@dreamscape.com
http://www.dreamscape.com/cbeams
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* UniQWK #5290* A clean desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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