ERIC Number: ED449561
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 2000
Pages: 66
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: ISBN-0-87367-669-6
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Schools We Want, the Schools We Deserve: American Education in Retrospect and Prospect. Fastback 469.
Doyle, Denis P.
This booklet examines the forces that power education today and asks whether parents and educators might wish to alter these forces. It states that schools, being conservative institutions, retain many of their 19th-century characteristics. The text notes that although innovations such as textbooks and electrification transformed the nature of schooling, schools still reflect social preferences, as evidenced by their spending more on sports than on reading. To overcome the twin pillars of organizational rigidity and anti-intellectualism, schools must look to successful models. One such example is the Chicago Public School System, which borrowed ideas from Catholic Schools and elsewhere to turn around a system that was once denounced as the nation's worst school system. Educators must closely examine their fiduciary responsibilities and look to market economics, such as the axiom that cost does not determine price, to help in the redesigning of schools. Educators must also carefully examine the technologies that are now available in education and use these to improve their institutions. Namely, with the proper technology in place, educators can rapidly assess the effectiveness of their schools and can use such evaluations to reinforce the three components of performance-driven schools: standards, assessments, and consequences. (RJM)
Descriptors: Educational Change, Educational History, Educational Trends, Elementary Secondary Education, Excellence in Education, Free Enterprise System, Long Range Planning, School Restructuring, Strategic Planning
Phi Delta Kappa International, P.O. Box 789, Bloomington, IN 47402-0789. Tel: 800-766-1156 (Toll-free); Web site: http://www.pdkintl.org.
Publication Type: Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, Bloomington, IN.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: The Fastback series is published every spring and fall; current series editor is Donovan R. Walling. Sponsored by the Suffolk County, New York Chapter.