April 2002
| Volume 59 | Number 7
Customizing Our Schools
Marge Scherer
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Scott Willis
In an interview with Educational Leadership, educator and historian Larry Cuban discusses the tension between two dominant trends in education: customization and standardization. According to Cuban, these two trends are in direct conflict. Public schools have historically served three major purposes: providing benefits to the individual, such as college degrees, as well as benefits to society, such as a supply of competent workers and responsible citizens. Cuban states that schools are currently placing the most emphasis on serving the common good by preparing students for the information-based workplace. This emphasis has been so strong that it has overshadowed another important social purpose, preparing students for citizenship. Cuban points to the need to restore a balance in the goals of schooling.
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Ron Brandt
The "one option for all" approach to public education leaves choices about curriculum and instruction in the hands of educational professionals and policy makers, and assumes that there is one program that will best serve the needs of all students. But this system often violates parents’ strong beliefs about what is best for their own children. The author calls for intentional diversification of programs within public school districts, combined with meaningful parent choice among these programs. To prevent parents from making bad choices, school districts need to limit the number and types of choices, taking into account factors such as parent and teacher preferences, evidence of program effectiveness, community characteristics, and local capabilities. Edmonton, Alberta, Natrona County, Wyoming, and Lincoln, Nebraska are examples of three districts that offer a wide range of programs from which families can choose.
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Kenneth Howe, Margaret Eisenhart and Damian Betebenner
In the Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, Colorado, the authors examined school data and the attitudes of the district’s parents and educators to assess the impact of the recent proliferation of "open enrollment" schools within a school choice program that allows students to attend schools outside of their neighborhoods. Most of the more than 700 respondents to the surveys and focus groups agreed that school choice was an effective means of responding to students' diverse interests and needs but that various inequities existed in the current system. Respondents were divided on the scope, seriousness, and cause of the perceived inequities. The authors examined the demand for schools with high test scores; the rise of skimming of high-scoring students into high-scoring schools; the increasing stratification by race, ethnicity, income, and fund-raising capacities; and the redistribution but lack of overall gain in student achievement. The authors recommend changes to the district’s open enrollment procedures and practices, but they conclude that although some parents found better schools for their children, the cost to the district—especially in terms of loss of equity—was too high.
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James A. Beane
The meaning of democracy seems to be evolving almost exclusively as a matter of personal choice, reflected in a public school curriculum customized to each student’s self-interest. At the same time, mandated standards and testing are pushing schools toward more standardized curriculum content and instruction. Both boutique and standardized curricular approaches lose sight of the ultimate purpose of schooling in a democratic society: the common good. By contrast, a democratic core curriculum encourages students and teachers to work together to create a curriculum that addresses students’ questions about themselves and the world. Students group their questions into themes that guide research and learning. They collaborate in small groups, engage in rigorous intellectual work, and build a learning community in the classroom.
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Eliot Levine
At the Met, a public high school in Providence, Rhode Island, powerful relationships between students, teachers, and students’ families and a program of personalized study help to engage students in their own learning. Students participate in "advisories," small groups of students and a teacher who meet every day and get to know each other well. Every Met student has a learning team—student, advisor, internship mentor, and parents—that meets quarterly to create a unique learning plan. The goal of student internships—required for each Met student—is to eliminate the artificial rift between knowing and doing that often exists in conventional schools. And the Met philosophy appears to pay off: Every Met graduate has been accepted to college, even though more than half of them will be the first in their families to attend college.
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Timothy McDonald
African American parents in communities where public schools have been failing for a long time are understandably tempted to turn their backs on public schools and support voucher programs. However, vouchers providing funds for parents to send their children to private schools are not the answer, writes the author. He discusses the following points: 1) Research evidence has not shown that vouchers improve student achievement. 2) Vouchers drain needed tax dollars away from public schools. 3) Private schools that participate in voucher programs frequently exclude students who have special education needs and disabilities. 4) Voucher funds go to many students who are not poor and who already attend private schools. 5) Voucher schools have not been held accountable for the same standards that are applied to public schools. The author advocates focusing funding and energy on improving public schools rather than diverting efforts to vouchers.
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Kaleem M. S. Caire
Opponents of school vouchers assert that voucher programs use selective admission practices siphon the best students from public schools; that voucher programs exclude students with special needs; that school vouchers do not improve achievement; that school choice increases racial segregation; and the voucher programs harm public schools. The author of this article counters each of these claims by citing experience from the five large-scale voucher programs currently operating in the United States—statewide programs in Vermont, Maine, and Florida, and local programs in Cleveland, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He explains that advocates of vouchers and other school choice models do not intend to destroy public education, but rather to redefine the way public education functions in the United States.
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Joseph P. Viteritti
School choice is a contentious issue. But over the last 50 years, the conversation around choice has evolved. Predictions of dire consequences—such as a mass exodus from public schools—have not materialized, and choice has gained advocates among a broad coalition of people who see it as a means for disadvantaged children to gain educational equity and opportunity. Public and private choice programs increasingly target poor urban populations, and although the evidence regarding the effectiveness of these programs is mixed, parents are generally pleased with the results. Choice programs would benefit from increased funding and improved accountability policies. But in the meantime, they alleviate the fundamental injustice that consigns poor children to schools that most middle-class parents would not consider for their own children.
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Brian D. Ray
The home offers a natural environment for customizing a child’s education. The author provides an overview of the phenomenon of homeschooling today and reasons that parents homeschool. He explains how educating a child at home is a natural environment for customizing a child’s education, including providing individualized instruction and opportunities for those who have learning disabilities or are gifted. The author provides several examples of homeschooled students who have taken advantage of their flexible schedules and academic requirements to move into internships, volunteer service, and college courses at an early age. He suggests that homeschoolers should thoroughly explore customization strategies and that educators should explore some of the simple pedagogical strategies natural to homeschooling that foster student success.
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Mark G. Eley
Homeschooled students in Arizona's Kyrene School District spend one day a week at CASA Vida, a center in a district public school that provides instruction by certified teachers in subjects identified by homeschooling parents as areas for which they welcome extra support, including science, Spanish, and oral communication. The students receive instruction in subjects that benefit from group instruction and study with homeschooling peers in a formal school environment. The parents, who helped design the program, benefit from access to the school’s resources, consultations with the teachers, and time to plan their home instruction. CASA Vida has facilitated a new cooperative partnership and sense of trust between the district and the homeschooling community. The public school is available to teach all children, and homeschooling parents recognize their public schools as a community resource.
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Rob Reich
An illegal activity in some states just 10 years ago, homeschooling has become legal and increasingly popular throughout the United States. Although homeschooling may satisfy parents’ desire to customize education for their children, such customization has its perils. The author argues that customizing a child’s education through homeschooling represents the victory of a consumer mentality within education, as if the purpose of education were to please and satisfy the preferences of the consumer. Also, customizing education through homeschooling compromises citizenship in several important ways, including potential lack of exposure to people with beliefs different from one’s own, sharing common experiences and values, and exercising freedom to choose among a range of possibilities. The author argues that we should not allow a new consumer mentality to become the driving metaphor for the education of children.
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David T. Conley
Many high school students are ready to begin the transition from high school well before they receive their high school diploma. Others have spent 12 years in schools that have made most of their decisions for them and are consequently unprepared for postsecondary academic learning environments and the world of work. Engaging both groups of students requires customizing learning for them in ways that cause them to extend and apply their knowledge and develop the skills and abilities they need to succeed in postsecondary study and a career. Programs to extend students’ learning include postsecondary academic options, middle college high school, K–16 partnerships, and career-related learning pathways. Educators seeking to implement programs to widen older high school students’ learning experiences can begin by examining student course enrollment patterns, developing partnerships with local postsecondary institutions and businesses, and helping younger students develop personal learning plans.
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Clifford B. Janey
Traditionally, high school students have been expected to complete requirements for their diploma within four years. Some students, however, finished their required credits after only three years, and many others required more time to complete their studies. The Rochester (New York) City School District decided to expand students’ high school completion options by implementing the Pathways to High School Success program, which allows students to finish their academic requirements in three, four, or five years. Pathways also enables three- and five-year students to participate in enrichment and career-related opportunities. Crucial to the success of Pathways is a change in the perception that students who take five years to complete high school have "failed."
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Margaret Weertz
In Dearborn, Michigan, the public schools have responded to needs of the community and competition from charter schools by developing theme schools. The author profiles several theme schools: an elementary school whose theme is creative arts, which complements the surrounding community of artists and musicians; an elementary school that chose science immersion as a theme in response to a lack of interest in science by teachers and students; and an engineering academy that provides nontraditional classrooms to high school students with an aptitude for science and math. One of the principal benefits of becoming a theme school is that it motivates teachers to innovate and often fosters staff cohesiveness. The school system’s success more than compensates for the challenges of paying for and working to provide enough spaces for those who want to participate in theme schools.
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Bob Pearlman
Two small, innovative high schools—New Technology High School in Napa, California, and High Tech High School in San Diego, California—have been established through partnerships of educators, business leaders, and parents, building on the model of the 21st century workplace. Learning in these schools is personalized and project-based—students take responsibility for their own learning, and have access to powerful technology to develop their learning goals, plan their projects, create products, and communicate with others. The partnerships supporting these schools have both received grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to replicate their models across the country.
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Thom Markham and Bob Lenz
An innovative high school program links the worlds of school and work through standards-based internships. Academy X, a leadership and humanities academy for 11th and 12th grade students at Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, California, emphasizes building a foundation of knowledge and skills through traditional classroom assignments and project-based work while also providing students with opportunities to put their classroom learning to work in 10- to 13-week internships. The four crucial elements of the internship—the meaningful project, the essential question, the on-site mentor, and the exhibition—ensure that students are both supported and challenged. The results of this program include greater enthusiasm for learning and improved scores on standardized tests.
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Lois R. Saboe, Julie Kantor and Jane Walsh
Effective preparation for employment—including self-employment, or entrepreneurship—is crucial for today’s low-income youth if they are to break the cycle of poverty. But motivating students to gain the knowledge and skills that they need to be successfully employed can be a challenge. One method that has been effective with at-risk youth is entrepreneurship education, which links learning to the goal of helping students establish their own businesses and gain financial security. When students discover that the knowledge and skills that they are learning in classes at school are actually tools for creating their own futures, they engage in authentic learning. In addition, infusing a sense of social responsibility into the notions of forming a business and creating wealth helps these students develop meaning and purpose for their lives.
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John H. Holloway
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Steven C. Schlozman
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Heather Voke
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Deborah Perkins-Gough
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