Making Education Flexible

Across the country, the education debate rages. The problem is it rages over the wrong things. Instead of the conversation being dominated by what is going on in the classroom, we are arguing the merits of unions and collective bargaining rights; the costs of pensions and health insurance premiums.

Meanwhile, the children of America slip further into the educational abyss, sinking into a muck that slows their entry into college and the job market. I have already written about how Michigan found that many of its graduates in the Class of 2010 were ill prepared to begin college level courses, or lacked the job readiness skills needed to enter the workforce. (The Not-So-Proficient Graduate, Feb. 22, 2011). In that post, I also mentioned the graduation rates for four-year and two-year institutions across the country, as well as the percentage of students who needed remediation on entry to the state of Washington’s community colleges and technical schools.

The statistics mentioned in that article speak to the fact that students across the country are not being properly prepared for adult life. It is not an urban problem or a suburban problem. Yet, we make the argument an urban versus suburban; union versus non-union; inexperienced teacher versus experienced teacher; charter school versus public school; tenure versus non-tenure. The list goes on and on.

Luckily, not everyone is distracted by the noise. Instead, many are seeking solutions to the problems that plague education. While those educators use different programs and different ideas to lift students from the educational morass, they share some common traits -- flexibility and freedom in the classroom.

In western Massachusetts, for example, a high school allowed eight students to create their own school within a school. The students, two of whom were at-risk of dropping out, decided to split their September-to-January term into two halves, according to a March 14 Op-ed piece by Susan Engel in the New York Times (Let Kids Rule the School).

The students, aged 15 to 17, developed their own curriculum under the watchful eyes of their guidance counselor and several teachers who provided advice. The students were responsible for monitoring one another's work and giving feedback. They also wrote evaluations for each other.

According to Engel, the students became not only learners, but teachers. And they excelled, with one of the students who had considered dropping out changing his mind. Another student who had failed all of his previous math courses ended up spending three weeks teaching his fellow students about probability.

The upshot, Engel concluded, was that the students were more engaged and invested in their educations.

Other schools that have given teachers -- and even students -- greater flexibility have also seen transformative results.

In Oakland, Calif., a third-grade teacher at a public school there began writing a children's novel. Each time the teacher finished a new chapter, he shared it with his students, who offered critiques.

"It really has gotten them excited about writing," the teacher, Joe Imwalle, told Grace Rubenstein of The New York Times. "Seeing their teacher try to do it brings writing closer to home. It bridges the gap between published novels they see in the library and the idea that they come from a person and a process."

How important is flexibility in the classroom?

So much so that flexibility in developing academic plans is a major concern for operators who may want to help Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager in Detroit, convert 41 failing public schools into charter schools.

Todd Ziebarth, vice president of state advocacy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington, told the Detroit News that charter school operators will want to know if "they have the flexibility to innovate."

Too often teachers are micro-managed by principals, who are micro-managed by school board officials, so much so that every last minute of the school day is directed from somewhere up high with little deviation to accommodate student needs.

During a recent conversation with a friend who operates two private schools for special needs students, my friend detailed a promotional film his school was making. According to that friend, a teacher with decades of experience in the classroom was asked why he continued to teach at the school.

"Because I have the freedom to do what I think is necessary," the teacher said.

And that is the rub. Teachers often find themselves victim to what Engel says has dogged public school reform efforts.

"We have tried making the school day longer and blanketing students with standardized tests," she wrote in that March 14 Op-ed piece. "But perhaps children don't need another reform imposed on them. Instead, they need to be the authors of their own education."

The only way students can become authors of their own educations is to give teachers -- and them -- flexibility and freedom in the classroom.