FES makes a difference

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 1998

Though it might not seem so to outsiders, the public school classroom can be a lonely place for a teacher. Coping with attendance, lesson plans, individualized instruction plans and class behavior can leave little time for the sort of stocktaking and reassessment that leads to changes in the routine.

William Mathis, the Rutland Northeast superintendent who has been in the running for several out-of-state commissioner of education posts, is a strong critic of most efforts to "reform" education. His message has been that top-down restructuring rarely goes further than buzzwords and shelf plans, because they don't change anything at the classroom level.

But there is a Vermont organization that in the past seven years has been working effectively to facilitate positive educational change: the Foundation for Excellent Schools in Cornwall. Founded and led by president Rick Dalton, FES has gained little attention in its own back yard because its most notable successes to date have taken place out of state.

That has changed in the past year, as FES has taken its first steps toward becoming an in-state presence. But public recognition is not one of their goals. Their fundamental approach has been to catalyze change rather than direct it, helping to stimulate a school's or a district's own energy for change.

To elaborate on the metaphor, a catalyst in a chemical reaction is a substance that participates in the reaction process but is not itself affected by it. Usually a particular molecule displays the ability to attach to two other types in such a way that the other two are brought into proximity and react. Enzymes (including the ones we know as vitamins) are critically important to the energy exchanges.

"Vitamins for change" is one way of looking at what FES does. But another would be to say that they are making good on the oft-heard suggestion that schools ought to be run more like businesses.

Schools have a culture all their own, Dalton says, and the schools-as-business concept, usually invoked over issues of efficiency, rewards for quality and "the bottom line," can only be pushed so far. But corporations have been more likely than schools to bring in outside facilitators and management consultants of various kinds, whose quiet but significant role has been to create spaces and circumstances for redirecting business practices.

BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS

"The Foundation for Excellent Schools: Building Partnerships to Improve American Education," is the title of one summary of their activities. "Since 1991, FES has helped about 100 public schools in the US set educational goals, amass financial and in- kind support, and achieve dramatic, measurable improvement in student performance." Rick Dalton, the founder of the organization, had been at Middlebury College for a dozen years, and was Director of Enrollment Planning when he left. During the time he was there, he began one of the college's most celebrated outreaches: a program that brought students from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx to Middlebury, and vice-versa, for educational enrichment in both directions.

Begun in 1988, the improbable alliance not only helped Middlebury achieve its goal of increasing enrollment by students of color, it served as a prototype for other schools. The Consortium For Educational Excellence through Partnerships (CEEP) now involves 110 schools, colleges and businesses.

Dalton said recently that he gave up his job (which many would have considered an adequate career end-point) out of a conviction that collaboration was a key to needed improvements in American education. "Schools are isolated places," he said. "They need to share successful practices. One of the key partners with them is schools themselves. Schools have to work with each other."

The idea was not to dictate what a school should do to improve. Each situation would be different, and those involved knew best where the shoe hurt. But as long as there was a motivation to change, FES could help the participants clarify their vision and goals, keep track of how they set up ways of making progress, make sure. there was follow through, show that other schools were making similar efforts, and not least of all, celebrate achievements.

"Our goal is to bring a process into schools." Dalton said at one point. "They learn to create change, and they become part of a national team, which is a tremendously empowering thing." Whether the foremost obstacle was a lack of parental support, an inadequate budget, geographic isolation, or some other issue, FES would bring a variety of participants to a two-day retreat, help form strategic planning groups, and at appropriate points make suggestions about concepts and resources based on experience with urban, suburban and rural schools.

The school puts together a two-year plan, and for those two years, FES stays in close touch. Their program directors visit regularly, there are in-service training sessions and workshops, FES reviews monthly reports. they try to help the school make contact with additional partners such as businesses and area colleges, and they do PR work with the relevant media.