Revolutionizing our Struggling Public Schools

As a learning and development consultant, former adjunct professor, seasoned elected official, parent, and daughter of a 36-year veteran educator, I have strong opinions regarding the current state of public education. I remember in 1997, as a graduate student at Cleveland State University pursing my Master in Education in Adult Learning and Development, discussing how education was beginning to reflect more of a business model with the thought that if schools were run like businesses, there would be true accountability across the board, reduced costs for education, and a future workforce prepared to compete in the global marketplace.


Ten years after the fact, our school districts were floundering. On March 10, 2009, during his remarks to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, then President Obama challenged teachers, school districts and states to adopt world class standards, reduce student drop-out rates, and renew their commitment to student academic achievement: 


“We have innovative principals and passionate teachers and gifted students, and we have parents whose only priority is their child's education… And yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we've let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us…The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, it's unsustainable for our democracy, it's unacceptable for our children -- and we can't afford to let it continue.”


Today, we have school districts that are literally failing – receiving an “F” on district report cards calculated using results from components such as standards met, performance/test scores, achievement, progress, gap closing, improving at-risk k-3 readers, graduation rate, students’ preparation for success, etc. These districts, already facing an up-hill battle, must compete with charter schools for crucial and limited funding as well as prevent the state “take over” of the district.

Not to mention the fact that school districts targeted for “takeover” are those with large populations of black and brown students. In his book, “Takeover,” Rutgers political scientist Domingo Morel concludes that the prevailing logic for takeovers is indeed tainted with racism and political ramifications. Data shows that students in middle-class or affluent districts have better test scores than those in poor districts. Is it truly an issue of failing schools or rather an issue of poverty and access to resources?


Beleaguered districts are usually aware that they are in jeopardy of being taken over and, in many cases, have been given time to improve. However, in most instances, struggling districts have no way of improving, as they usually do not have the expertise or capacity to facilitate change. To add insult to injury, states may have technical assistance teams that can assist struggling districts in getting back on track, but these teams don’t have the capacity or expertise to foster school reform or change initiatives. In the end, the state takeover is unsuccessful and acrimony is created when districts are taken over by the very entity that failed to offer them the structural and strategic support that they needed most.   According to State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria, state takeovers create too much hostility to create change, “even the best intentioned individuals are challenged to make progress… something has to be different (in the schools), we have to be committed to change and we have to work together to see what that change should be. (“State school district takeovers bring too many challenges to work, says State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria”, Patrick O’Donnell, https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/03/state-school-district-takeovers-bring-too-many-challenges-to-work-says-state-superintendent-paolo-demaria.html).”

In the wake of news scandals of teachers and administrators cheating on tests, exhausted and frustrated educators leaving the field of education, and majority minority school districts fighting to preserve control over their districts, one has to ask the question, “what will it take to bring about the needed change(s) to turn the tide?” According to Harvard Business Review, the greatest challenge to bringing about successful change and significant, long term performance improvement is due, in part, to the fact that leaders are selected based on their knowledge of policy and/or technical expertise rather than their commitment to spearhead reform or experience leading large-scale change efforts. 

Organizational change, the application of a structured process and a set of tools for leading change to achieve a desired outcome, is vital for any organization that wants to survive and thrive. Change is a process of moving from an organizational current state to an organizational future state. However, many leaders struggle to fully motivate and engage their employees in the process (i.e., Change Management) which makes change virtually impossible since the results and outcomes of organizational change are intrinsically and inextricably tied to individual employees doing their jobs differently (i.e., responsiveness). For example, when teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, and administrators do their jobs differently, these individual shifts in behavior (i.e., increased change capacity) become the cornerstone of change. “When numerous individual shifts are taken together as a whole, the desired future state of the organization is achieved” (Hiatt and Creasey. (2012) Change Management: The People Side of Change). 


How can we work together: teachers, students, parents, and community stakeholders to turn the corner and (what it will it take) to improve grades and tests scores, school infrastructure, teacher quality and, ultimately, provide the level of education that our children deserve? In the words of former President Barak O’bama “…The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, it's unsustainable for our democracy, it's unacceptable for our children -- and we can't afford to let it continue.”



Jennifer Mitchell Earley is a veteran Elected Official, Sr. Learning and Development Consultant and Prosci Certified Change Practitioner. The Prosci ADKAR® Model is a goal-oriented change management model that guides individual and organizational change. Created by Prosci founder Jeff Hiatt, ADKAR is an acronym that represents the five tangible and concrete outcomes that people need to achieve for lasting change: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement. It is the world’s most widely adopted individual change management framework.