Why Aren't Needed Changes in Education Implemented? - school improvement planning - Brief Article

College Student Journal, March, 2000 by Marlow Ediger

Berliner and Biddle (1995) contend that teachers are a "relatively passive group from working- or middle class backgrounds, who have an embattled professional status and who are likely to be women -- a traditionally unpowered group."

Pertaining to school reform. Bunting 1999) wrote:

   One wave of school reform hardly seems completed before a new one appears.
   The flow of new thought and priorities into and out of schools has been
   continuous and of such mixed results that the reform concept evokes
   cynicism and weariness, especially among teachers and principals, who bear
   the direct responsibility for making reform work.

Yet school reform continues, driven not necessarily by those who best understand teaching and culture of the school but rather by events and circumstances of the larger society. Today's headlines become tomorrow's agenda for school reform.

School reform may always find its models in institutions outside itself. Those on the inside may simply be too close to it and too consumed by the problems to form the necessary vision for change. The important concern is that schools carefully consider ideas defining each reform, using these ideas in ways that carry forward over time. Reforms will come and go, and objectivity indices--like test scores--will continue to vary for reasons often unrelated to reform. But when schools think beyond objective evidence to the most enduring benefits of change, then reform becomes a worthwhile investment of resources.

Problems of Teachers

Having supervised and conversed with student teachers and cooperating teachers for thirty years in the public schools, the writer has kept a record of difficult situations observed as well as expressed by numerous teachers. Experienced teachers in his graduate classes in elementary education also expressed difficulties faced in the instructional arenas, The following were experienced as serious problems in teaching in the school setting:

1. a teacher had thirty-two pupils in a small classroom whereby it was impossible to walk between the rows of seats. Needless to say, there were many discipline problems within the crowded classroom.

2. a sixth grade teacher had a school water fountain located directly across from her classroom. During class changes, junior and senior high school students came for a drink of water and wrapped loudly on her classroom door. It took much time to get pupils back on task. The teacher reported this to the principal, but he took no action.

3. a classroom teacher was located next to the band room. During band rehearsal time, the noise was overbearing, making it very difficult for the teacher and her pupils to pay attention and listen to each other.

4. several teachers vowed they would never call in again to a hot line to report suspected home child abuse. The parents of the reported child would soon know who did the calling and become very abusive verbally with threats made against the classroom teacher. The school principal seemingly provided no backing for the teacher. I felt for the teachers who experienced the verbal abuse from the parent(s), but mentioned they had no choice but to call the hotline in cases of suspected child abuse.