July 2007 — Features
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Curriculum-Based Reform :: An Eye on the Future
While we reform curriculum, we also need to reform our approach to accountability. Everyone understands the need for accountability, but no one is happy with the way it’s currently determined. “Business used to have one primary metric for success: profitability,” Kay says. “Now others, such as quality and customer service and satisfaction, also are important, and CEOs recognize the connections among quality, customer satisfaction, and long-term profitability.”
Likewise, we in education take the easy way to accountability— end-of-year, primarily multiple-choice assessments. Just as business developed additional metrics to augment their measurements of success, so too can education, with some leadership from states, a groundswell of demand from school districts, and a push from the business sector.
There are beacons of hope out there. New Technology High School in Napa, CA, measures students on eight different outcomes: content standards, collaboration, critical thinking, oral communication, written communication, career preparation, citizenship and ethics, and technological literacy. According to Bob Pearlman, director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation in Napa, the school has an online system that supports each of the eight skills, and most, if not all, lessons include evaluating how successfully students employ them.
Al Browne, the national program director for Verizon, with responsibility for education and technology, believes we don’t have time for gradual change. “Corporations need to scream, write, and talk about the need to change the curriculum,” he says. “The grassroots need to do the same, and we all need to work with policymakers to encourage them to put politics aside and make concrete changes.”
-Geoffrey H. Fletcher is editorial director of T.H.E. Journal and executive director of T.H.E. Institute.
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