From Spin to Win

Douglas B. Reeves

Although the theme of this issue is "countering the negative spin"—a worthy objective for educators caught in the cyclone of negative press—my approach differs significantly. Rather than responding to the negative comments of others, I suggest that educators and school leaders set a new agenda. Rather than engaging in counter-punch rhetoric suggesting that we're not quite as bad as our critics suggest, we must engage in the proactive presentation of the facts.

Consider the following six essential strategies for education advocates who wish to emerge from the mire of point-counterpoint argumentation to a more fruitful level of public engagement.

1. Embrace Accountability

For the past decade, education accountability has been reduced to the sum of reading and math scores in 3rd through 8th grades. In the parlance of education policy, this is adequate yearly progress, or AYP.

Although reading and math scores certainly have a place in education accountability, many parents, teachers, and leaders are left wondering about other crucial elements of education. Where is kindergarten? Where are the arts? Where is service and leadership?

Rather than complaining about the absence of these and many other essential elements of accountability, wise leaders will say, "We will not only provide accountability for what is required, but we will also tell our constituents about all the other things we do in our schools." The essential message is that we do not fear accountability but embrace it—provided that accountability is a concept that includes more than test scores.

2. Demand 21st Century Skills Assessments

Politicians talk a good game about 21st century skills, but there is an enormous gap between rhetoric and reality. Although there is general agreement that students must demonstrate competence in collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication, a persistent gap remains between advocating for these skills and the willingness of nations, states, and school systems to assess them.

After all, what do state tests call "collaboration" on their tests? They call it "cheating." What do state tests call "creativity and critical thinking," particularly when expressed by students who challenge the premise of a question or insist that the prescribed answer set is wrong? They call it "an answer sheet that cannot be scored."

Not a single state in the United States or a single nation's national exams in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assesses leadership, service, collaboration, creativity, or critical thinking. If we aspire to 21st century skills for students, then we must stop relying on external tests to reinforce them. Rather, the innovation associated with 21st century skills will occur at the school and district level—not at the state, provincial, or national level.

Fortunately, great models exist of school systems that demand communication (including the use of technology), critical thinking, service, leadership, and creativity. However, in every case I have studied, these depend on locally generated assessments.

3. Reclaim the Arts

One of the great slanders on Asian schools is that they succeed because they force their students to focus on math and science and forsake the arts. I taught in a poor, rural area in China's Anhui Province, and every student was required to engage in art, music, and physical education every day. More recently, I visited a school in Singapore in which every elementary and middle school student was required to engage in drama class, and the high school was considering a similar requirement.

The idea that the fine arts are in competition with academic performance is a distinctly Western notion. Students can and must do both.

4. Affirm Leadership, Service, and Citizenship

Students in Cairo, Egypt, are protecting depleted species of desert tortoises. Students in China are helping Vietnamese orphans. Students in Massachusetts are helping preserve endangered bats in Brazil. When we trust students and teachers to engage their imaginations and intellects, they are willing to think far beyond the traditional recycling drives or awareness assemblies that only make their peers cynical.

Student leadership, service, and citizenship will engage every member of the community and enliven the interests of students, parents, and community members who might have otherwise given up on schools as agents of change for the world.

5. Get the Budget Right

Most education budgets are presented as expenses: teaching, administration, buildings, and so forth. But this is only a partial conception of any education budget. If we were considering a family budget, we would consider not only expenses but also income. Similarly, in education we should consider the costs of education but also the revenue that effective education provides.

For example, reducing the dropout rate directly affects increasing revenues for city, state, and national budgets. Reducing the dropout rate helps avoid the costs of nondiscretionary Medicaid expenses, as well as medical costs associated with emergency care and unreimbursed medical care. Reducing the dropout rate, moreover, directly correlates with the investment a state makes in kindergarten and prekindergarten.

In brief, any education budget that considers only costs is incomplete. We must also consider revenues and avoided costs. That is what makes education a revenue source, not merely an expense, for cities, states, and national governments.

6. Admit Mistakes

For a researcher, the test isn't whether he can validate every hypothesis; instead, the real test is whether he can admit his mistakes.

As a researcher, I've certainly made some big mistakes and have had the opportunity (thanks to ASCD and other national conferences) to confess those mistakes to about 1,000 of my friends. That is how science advances: not by certainty in our hypotheses, but by our recognition and admission of error. Similarly, education leaders today will fare much better in the public eye if we simply admit that some of our previous hypotheses were wrong.

Admitting mistakes? This hardly seems congruent with the typically strident strategy to engage education critics, challenging them at every turn and asserting the superiority of the U.S. education system. But I think candor and honesty is our best shot.

We continue to cling to multiple programs and theories that have long been discredited, but only a few education leaders will stand up and say, "We tried this, tested it, and were wrong." The world of education is infested with labels—professional learning communities, learning styles, differentiated instruction, and many more—that must stand up to more rigorous examination. Some, such as professional learning communities, will survive that test if and only if they are implemented deeply.

The confession of error is the essential test of leaders and educators. Ask yourself if you can say, "I used to believe this . . . but now I have come to a different conclusion." If not, I want to respectfully suggest that you need to reexamine your assumptions and beliefs.

Let us assert our best evidence when we can, and let us be modest when it is appropriate. If we have more support from the public for education, it will be not from scoring debating points, but through candid and humble engagement with our stakeholders and our critics.

Douglas B. Reeves is founder of the Leadership and Learning Center in Salem, Mass., and author of ASCD books on educational leadership.

ASCD Express, Vol. 7, No. 8. Copyright 2012 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.