“Toss the PR playbook and embrace community engagement,” Deborah Wadsworth told LEAP attendees.
Meeting the challenges schools face today requires authentic public engagement. Instead of presenting ready-made answers to community members, educators need to invite them to wrestle with the problems. “Only then will the right message emerge,” said Wadsworth, a senior advisor at Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research organization. She enumerated several challenges schools face, including the need to revamp high schools, close the achievement gap, and maintain the momentum of school reform.
Getting in the way of solving these difficult challenges are divergent assumptions about how well schools are doing and how much change must happen. For example, 7 in 10 parents think that the current status of math education is acceptable, yet statistics show a serious need for more highly educated mathematicians. At the same time, 4 in 10 students say they do not want to study math or have a career in math. The disconnect between public attitudes and school concerns points out a need to hold conversations where everyone can voice opinions and grapple to find solutions.
Wadsworth also described a disconnect between teachers and the general public. Teachers often feel that they are scapegoats and that their concerns are not taken seriously. Their demoralization and the public's complacency compound problems for schools.
“We cannot write off anyone, and we cannot be content with a 70-percent graduation rate,” Wadsworth noted. “For the first time in history, the younger generation is less educated than the older generation. At the same time, it is the most diverse generation in our nation's history.”
Educators need to build support in the community, engage citizens in setting goals and priorities, and learn through substantial public dialogue. “Forget the messaging,” she said, “and listen to the public. Give people alternatives, reduce simplistic wishful thinking, and let the public struggle with you to set the agenda for schools.”