Brian Stecher and Sheila Nataraj Kirby, editors
RAND Education
2004
In the face of NCLB's increased demands - and simply because our schools could be much better than they are - it would seem wise for public education to examine how other sectors develop processes, cultures, and accountability mechanisms that actually work. In that spirit, this report offers insight into the worlds of manufacturing, job training, law, and medicine. Each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of one of these sectors - for example, the clinical practice guidelines used in health care - to explain how it works and what lessons it offers schools. The authors acknowledge that education has unique challenges, so not all lessons are directly transferable. But school people would be wise to heed the central theme of this book, namely that, with some care and thought, they could indeed learn from other organizations. They also must be willing to focus on outputs, not inputs; to evaluate teaching on a "value-added" basis; to readily admit what we know and don't know about effective pedagogy; and, most importantly, to institutionalize what works and discard that which doesn't. There are many more specifics in this compilation, including interesting insights into how the legal and medical professions work. You can find it for free online, or order a copy for $25, at http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG136/.
