We Have Lost the Battle for Excellence

School Administrator, March, 1994 by William J. Banach

We've been walking around a dying horse, hesitant to pull the trigger, unwilling to admit that selling the public on educational excellence is a lost cause.

A multitude of voices now charge that our once-revered system of public education has become comatose and incapable of change.

As educators, we have not responded to this criticism by defending ourselves or advocating change. Rather, we have responded by proclaiming excellence. In fact, we have made "excellence" the most over-used word in education.

And while many of our educational programs and many of our schools are excellent, it really doesn't matter. The public just isn't buying the notion that our nation has a high quality school system.

Nobody's Buying

Excellence isn't selling because:

* The news media have outgunned the education establishment.

By producing a flood of reports underlining the shortcomings of education and the lack of quality in our schools, the news media have put educators on the defensive while creating perceptions that are incompatible with the excellence message.

When the nightly news regularly features the downside of education, good schools have an extremely difficult time communicating their pluses.

* Educators advocate every new program as the way "to turn things around."

This message has created dissonance in the public mindset. After all, if we are installing programs "to turn things around," then we currently must have something less than excellence.

We need to stop making confessions for what we've been doing. What we did in the past wasn't bad. Over time we just discovered new ways of producing better results and so we changed. Such mid-course directional changes are not unusual. In fact, they are the norm in high performing organizations.

Most schools in America should systematically abandon outdated programs while encouraging new approaches that promise to make good schools even better.

* Business leaders and their organizations have proclaimed loudly that schools have failed.

Many have issued reports and sponsored advertisements that tell Americans that failed schools are the reason our country has a poor quality workforce, the reason America produces inferior products, the reason America can't compete internationally, the reason America can't ...

It's evident many American businesses have experienced difficulties since the 1980s, yet it seems unrealistic and simplistic to lay blame for all these problems at the doorstep of the public schools.

Nor does it appear realistic to believe that business people have all the answers for the ills of public education. Indeed, American business has been a model schools should think twice about emulating.

A New Niche

So what's the bottom line? It's that educators have lost the battle for excellence. Superior forces mustered by the news media and business--with inadvertent support from some educators--have defeated us in the most strategic of locations, the public mind. People simply don't believe our nation has excellence in education.

It's time, quite simply, to admit the public hasn't bought into excellence in education, and probably they never will.

I am not arguing we should give up on our efforts to improve teaching and learning. Rather I am suggesting we abandon proclamations of excellence and explore other options for advancing the quality of education.

Instead of proclaiming excellence, we should be championing children. Many school districts are beginning to do exactly that, and here are three reasons why you should consider joining them.

First, the battle for excellence is over. It would be a positive demonstration of our intelligence if we stopped wasting resources trying to convince people that public schools are excellent.

Second, educators, perhaps more than anyone else, are champions for children. We ought to capitalize on this position in the public mind and orchestrate it to the fullest benefit of children.

Finally, championing the cause of young people is a crusade that belongs to communities, business, parents, retired folks, educators--everyone. Only by engaging others in the support of children, only by forming child-centered coalitions, and only by sharing responsibility for related successes and setbacks can we join hands to enrich our society's most valuable asset and march together toward a preferred future.

It's time to shoot the horse and get in front of the parade!

William Banach also serves as executive director of The Institute for Future Studies at Macomb Community College.