"One of the reasons I'm not clearly in favor of a national standardized test," stated Harold "Bud" Hodgkinson in his Distinguished Lecture, "is that those tests will not take into account the differences of the populations to be educated, and these differences are very, very important."
Citing numerous "nondebatable" statistics about population shifts in the United States and the world, Hodgkinson helped his audience appreciate who tomorrow's students will be. "Schools are at the center of the issue," Hodgkinson asserted, pointing out that immigration to the United States is currently 85 percent non-European, a complete turnaround from previous patterns. "This is part of why the whole issue of pluralism is so much more interesting and complex than ever before," he said.
Encouraging educators to find ways for all students to bring their cultural gifts to the table, Hodgkinson predicted that "we'll have the first set of world schools in the world, because everybody in the world is going to be in your schools."
Principals have demanding jobs and those who work in the central office shouldn't add to their stress, declared Cy Yusten, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning in the Saint Paul (Minn.) Public School district. Indeed, those who are leading the leaders should do all that they can to support principals who "are on the front lines doing the job," he said.
Yusten, a former principal and teacher, suggested that helping principals identify their leadership styles is a good first step for administrators who want to be more "coach" than supervisor to the principals in their districts. "If you know people's styles, you know how to approach them and can better decide how they can contribute to the team," he noted.
Helping principals identify their "overdone strengths" can help them better appreciate how others perceive them—and that can only help them become better leaders, Yusten added. Principals with "overdone strengths" have positive attributes, "but they really have too much of a good thing." For example, a principal who believes she is self-confident may be considered arrogant by others. The administrator can tell this principal to "back off the strength a bit." It's a much more positive approach, Yusten observed, and it helps principals become more objective about their "strengths and non-strengths." Self-assessment should be neither positive or negative, said Yusten, "and it's the job of those who work with principals to help them understand that."
Although some people charge that unions resist change, "unions are not blockers to school reform," asserted Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association (NEA). "We understand that schools exist to educate kids, not to provide our members with jobs. In the long term, job security exists only if the school is doing its job."
"The truth is that teachers matter," declared Chase. "A quality public school is the sum of many factors, but quality teaching is the crucial element. Standards are very important, but standards don't teach children. Curriculums are very important, but curriculums don't teach children, either. So if we are serious about improving student learning, we need to focus on teaching and teachers. Some call this renewed interest in quality `new unionism.'"
This "new unionism" might result in the merger of the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). "It is essential that NEA and the AFT merge," Chase said. Both organizations boast large memberships and are fiscally strong. "But we are trying to create something that is new. If you look at our beliefs, principles, and values, they are the same. Merging makes an awful lot of sense."
"My grandfather came to this country as a 13-year-old stowaway, without a cent to his name, not speaking the language, and literally with only the clothes on his back," related Carl Glickman of the University of Georgia, author of Revolutionizing America's Schools. "The idea that two generations later, I, his grandson, would be standing here, is a remarkable story. And many of us have such stories."
However, Glickman said, "as more of us have walked over the drawbridge of education to material success and personal satisfaction, we seem to have allowed the bridge to be lifted up behind us, denying others the same educational chances to get across.
"The purpose of public schools—and private schools with a public purpose—is that all students, in our eyes, are created equal, and they're entitled to an education that provides them with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"If each of our public schools, districts, states, and universities would return to the original point, then the drawbridge would remain down, and it would be reinforced and widened, so that many more children of poverty—who are just as alert, curious, and capable as other children—would walk across."