Fix Schools First - Review

School Administrator, Oct, 2001 by Cecelia W. Krill

As chief training officer for IBM Corp., Jack E. Bowsher has been active in school reform for years. His book, Fix Schools First: Blueprint for Achieving Learning Standards, summarizes his perspective on public education and offers his "learning systems model" as a solution to school failure.

The baseline for Bowsher's discussion is the 1983 publication of A Nation At Risk. He describes the failure of the reform movement despite an increase in funding and then reviews nearly 50 school programs that he sees having made little difference in student achievement.

Bowsher defines a successful school as one where 90 percent of the students are achieving on grade level. The psychometric designs of standardized tests to ensure specific patterns of results and the limitations of such tests and their various uses are not discussed. Testing is presented as the infallible means to evaluate school quality.

The author overlooks several important issues, such as determining the content validity of individual states' standards as part of a broad-based curriculum evaluation process or recognizing the self-serving political environment that often promotes increased high-stakes testing. Also overlooked in his work are changes in society and parenting patterns that significantly affect student learning. Any reasons for student achievement deficiencies are viewed as excuses from well-intentioned educators.

Bowsher's intent is to apply business principles and practices to public education and promote the role of business enterprise in school improvement. His book is built mostly on personal opinion and selected information, and it is written in a pejorative tone that includes assumptions and accusations about public schools and its educators. It is one corporate executive's perception of school improvement.

(Fix Schools First: Blueprint for Achieving Learning Standards, by Jack E. Bowsher, Aspen Publishers, 200 Orchard Ridge Drive, Suite 200, Gaithersburg, Md. 20878, 2001, 354 pp. with index, $59 softcover)