Imagination. Statesmanship. Courage. Adaptation. This is the call of Checker Finn, and it is directed right at the United States Department of Education. In his recent piece "A constitutional moment for American education?" (August 6, 2009), Finn argues that now is the moment in our history when we need something more than reform. The public education system of the country is in some fairly dire straits: Drop-out rates are high, our test scores are mediocre compared to our international peers, and teachers are fleeing the ranks in much greater numbers than we can afford. It is a scary but exciting moment to work in education, though, because we can ask questions like this: "Can we muster the imagination, leadership, and persistence to devise a different and better arrangement?"
Learning Point Associates offers an alternative to "business as usual" in how we think and talk about maximizing the talent that currently inheres in our schools but so rarely is allowed to flourish. In our recently released Thought Paper, "Toward the Structural Transformation of Schools: Innovations in Staffing," we present a new model of differentiated school staffing, one that allows teachers to specialize in the work of teaching in ways that will best serve each individual student so that every student succeeds. Grounded in the idea that transformation in American schooling is occurring whether we embrace it or not, moving toward differentiated staffing is one key to ensure an intelligent redesign.
We understand that taking steps to solve the teacher issue alone is no silver bullet, but we strongly believe that this is an important and necessary first step on the road to a new system that really works for all learners. And we'd like to ask others to step with us.
Jane Coggshall
Molly Lasagna
Learning Point Associates