Tony Wagner
2002
In Making the Grade, Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard School of Education, argues that America's public schools have become obsolete. In his view, the world around them has changed so much-a "new" economy, a world of information overload, a world where knowledge is constantly changing and becoming obsolete-that century-old institutions designed for an agrarian society are no longer up to the task of preparing today's youngsters for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Wagner believes we need to reinvent education for a post-industrial world. To him, this means moving beyond archaic notions of school accountability, standardized exams, and a one-size model of education for everyone. He asserts that most of today's education reformers simply want to return to the past because they lack the imagination to create a better today. For those open to full-fledged reinvention, Wagner urges study of the work of Deborah Meier, formerly with Central Park East in New York City, and Ted Sizer, founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Making the Grade offers many suggestions for reinventing education, but the idea Wagner spends most of his time developing is the creation of small schools, which might be termed a step back in time. He asserts that the "data are overwhelming: small schools significantly outperform larger schools with comparable student populations on nearly every indicator of 'effectiveness.' " For Wagner, for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which Wagner advises), and for other small-school boosters, this idea is as close as we're apt to get to a panacea for America's educational ills. Hence the grand rush by public and private funders and reformers to climb on the small-school bandwagon. The lingering question is whether this faith in smallness per se is warranted. From reviewing the available research, we can say that students in high schools with fewer than 500 students tend to have lower dropout rates, higher attendance rates, fewer course failures and fewer incidents of violence than do vast institutions. Well and good. Students, parents and teachers also say that small schools provide more of a sense of community. Also good. But let's recognize that today there's precious little evidence that small schools also boost academic performance. What the evidence does show is that academic achievement in small schools is at least equal to student achievement in large schools. Not worse. But maybe not much better. Certainly not enough better to warrant everyone jumping onto a bandwagon in the belief that making schools small will make achievement big. Small schools can be bad schools, too, if they have low standards, frivolous curricula, ineffectual teachers and misguided priorities. It is also important to add that, while Wagner's book claims to represent the voices of parents and teachers, we have evidence from other sources that reducing school size is not at the top of either group's agenda for education reform. Wagner supports many of his statements with evidence culled from Public Agenda surveys. Yet, according to Public Agenda, "when asked to choose what they thought was the best way to improve schools, 27 percent of parents and 29 percent of teachers picked reducing class sizes, 26 percent of the parents and 32 percent of the teachers chose improving discipline. By comparison, 20 percent of the parents and only 14 percent of the teachers picked making schools smaller." Small schools is certainly an idea worth exploring, particularly at the secondary level, and those experiments should be carefully evaluated. But let's take pains to ask "what, besides smallness, is needed for a school to boost student achievement?" and "what are the downsides of smallness in schools?" (Possibilities include higher per-pupil costs, fewer options within the school, and-in the absence of school choice-greater likelihood of a youngster being trapped in a school where he cannot find his niche, friends, subjects that interest him and teachers that he can relate to.) Published by RoutledgeFalmer, the book's ISBN is 0415927692. You can find ordering information at http://www.routledge-ny.com/books.cfm?isbn=0415927692.
