Alan Blankstein on the Future of Education

OurBlook interview with Alan Blankstein, founder and president of the HOPE Foundation.

Many people in the United States are highly concerned about improving the quality of education. They believe schools are underfunded and students are underperforming, and some have shown their dismay by joining the voucher and charter school movements. What do you think is the state of education in America ... its strengths and weaknesses?

AB: There are almost 100,000 schools in the country and after years of private, parochial, charter and voucher school activities, fewer than 10 percent of our students are served by these alternatives. So my first concern is that we won’t have the capacity to accommodate millions of students through these venues, even after another decade.

When these alternative schools are able to attract our brightest and wealthiest students, they outperform the public schools. When they have like-students to their public counterparts, the outcomes are mixed at best. So my second concern is about data-based outcomes.

The third and most poignant challenge for me in these alternatives is the distraction they pose to what is really needed ... success in ALL schools. This is what we have been able to obtain through our Failure Is Not an Option system for organizing schools’ activities and building their leaders’ capacity – in public schools throughout the nation – and what should be our collective focus.

What are the goals of the educational system, and are they what you think they should be?

AB: There is no one “educational system” ... there are about 15,000 of them ... one per district. In general the stated mission of these 15,000 districts is that they assure all students learn. What is variable is the definition of what they should be learning, how we will assure engaging and relevant learning opportunities, how we will know if they are learning it, and what will we do if they don’t learn.

One thing I think most would agree to on principle is that we need to move away from HS graduation as the big goal for our students. It no longer assures any quality of life ... especially in some high schools where standards are low and focused on “basics.” What Failure Is Not an Option helps schools achieve is a post-H.S. success focus, in which no child may fall through the cracks.

How has the major school reform movement ... No Child Left Behind ... impacted either positively or negatively the educational system? Should it be continued or scrapped? Are there any improvements that could be made?

AB: This has put focus on children who once were “throwaways” due to their race or economics, and forced schools to deal with data on segments of the population once ignored. This is the best thing about NCLB, and it’s the main idea behind the success of the Failure is Not an Option methods of reform. NCLB has many problems, too ... more than I can substantively articulate here, so I am in favor of some revisions.

You were an at-risk child yourself, and you have written the book "Failure Is Not an Option." Please tell us about the reform methods you champion that stem from those experiences.

AB: Yes, I was myself an “at-risk youth” living in a group home for many years. I was one of the kids who fell through the cracks and even dropped out of school. Luckily I was saved by a caring mentor through an educational program, and ended up going to college. In essence, I have dedicated my career to finding increasingly more effective ways to reach and help ALL of our children, so none end up falling through the cracks.

I have put my stock on the power of building leadership focused on building cultures of success at all levels of the school and district. At Hope, we launched the professional learning community movement in education in the late 1980s. What we’ve learned since then is that leaders have the greatest enduring impact on schools, and cultures even outlast any given leader. So this is how we not only create but sustain success for students.

The key has to do with many elements ... especially that of breadth of capacity and depth of commitment.

On the breadth of capacity front, this means that we have decided to not only build district and administrator capacity, but also the entire leadership TEAM which generally includes many teachers as well as administrators. The leadership teams go through consistent, job-embedded professional development with us that includes meeting at least four times per year with us and all other leadership teams in the district.

In between meetings, these teams actually use the tools we provided them in the training to implement changes in their schools. They return with artifacts of their work to share with us, the district and all other leadership teams. The learning is therefore expedited by virtue of it being lateral and peer to peer, vs. only top down. Ownership of the process grows as the entire TEAM is responsible for outcomes ... not just the principal.

The depth of commitment is enhanced by the above process as well, as it starts to become driven by the leadership teams, with HOPE facilitating the direction and the conversations leading to in-depth learning by all. In addition, depth is enhanced by our initial preparation for the work. That is, we don’t come in on day one and “launch” the “new initiative.” Rather, we have many ways ... including book studies ... of orienting and building knowledge and READINESS for the development of existing and new leaders!

Educationally, how does the United States compare to other countries? What methods and conceptual concerns from other countries could the U.S. incorporate into its educational models?

AB: The U.S. is generally not faring well on TIMMS, PISA and other international exams. Finland tends to be No. 1 these days, and Taiwan is generally in the top three as well. I give the two examples as we have in our book, "Failure Is Not an Option," because these two nations have had similar success in very different ways.

Finland would concur with a more traditional “liberal arts” approach ... kids are generously exposed to multiple means of learning and engaged through the arts, music, project based learning, etc. Tests become a byproduct of a culture rich in active and authentic learning opportunities.

In Taiwan, there is a much more “practical” focus on the test itself with students studying day and night, taking test drills and feeling great anxiety over results that will affect their whole lives. While they get those results, there is also a high suicide rate among students, and one might question their levels of creativity ... much less joy in learning.

We draw some pretty clear lessons in "Failure is Not an Option," not only re: what “works” but how one gets “results” and at what cost.

How might social media and ever-changing technology improve classrooms and the learning environment for teachers and students? How might they be impeding the educational process?

AB: The short answer is that teachers can use any means appropriate to where the students’ interests lie as a hook to get their attention and enhance the learning. This would include having them do web-based projects, group projects via the Internet, etc.

Will education in the U.S. get better or worse?

AB: I am not fatalistic, and I believe the answer is in our own hands. We have seen great success in many schools across the nation using "Failure is Not an Option" methods. Schools, and entire districts in some cases, have transformed themselves.

For example, three schools in New York have gone from “D” ratings to “A” ratings, after using these methods for three years. An entire school district in Pottstown, Pa., has made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) for the first time in its history after following "Failure is Not an Option." One school there has increased its achievement nearly 30 percent. An elementary school in Oroville, Calif., increased its academic achievement by 35 points after following FNO for three years.

We are optimistic as these methods become more widespread, and we hope to see more schools using upcoming stimulus funds for similar transformations to improve education for all our children.

Is there anything else you'd like to say about any aspect of this topic?

AB: Thanks for the opportunity to discuss this important topic. I would encourage anyone wanting more information to visit our website, and read "Failure is Not an Option" to see what is working in education. Learn more at www.hopefoundation.org and www.corwin.com.

(A former music teacher, Alan is the founder and president of the HOPE Foundation, which stands for Harnessing Optimism and Potential through Education. His book, "Failure is Not an Option," was published by Corwin Press in 2004.)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)