catalyst-chicago.org

We create school report cards, compare schools, and hope American-style competition will spur change. But while there are schools making a difference in the poorest neighborhoods, few of their neighbors imitate them. Why?

Well, spreading good ideas from one school to another is challenging. There's no tradition for it, and it's not clear anyone really knows how to do it. Individual schools are worlds unto themselves, and this isolation has hobbled school reform efforts repeatedly over the past 100 years. We ignore it at our peril.

When one approaches school reform you can stay at the wading pool level or dive into the deep end. Either way you're engaged. But the deeper you go, the closer you come to the intractable problems in the neighborhoods, where for generations schools have been failing and kids drowning.

I've certainly been at the wading pool level. But gradually over the last 25 years, I've realized that meaningful change will come only when talented professional educators are given the freedom and opportunity to truly change the circumstances for children in public schools.

Chicago Public Schools leaders and those on the front line should be commended for progress they have made so far in a number of areas. Yet historically and now, reform efforts have a scattered or a single-minded focus rather than a systemic approach. High-stakes testing, teacher retention, school leadership, the achievement gap, violence prevention, truancy and a host of revamped instructional programs are all targeted reforms that have made improvements but were not pulled together to ensure all efforts were aimed at common goals.