What is wrong with our schools?

The simple answer to ‘what is wrong with our schools’ is to be found not in studies about brain research, analyses of how to configure schools, or debates about curriculum – the simple answer is to be found in the serious dysfunction with which many schools and school districts are run.

A few examples?

  • Teachers who are given continuing contracts despite overwhelming negative feedback from parents, students, and other teachers.
  • School boards that vote to change educational programming for the sole purpose of reducing taxes and without evaluating impact on student outcomes.
  • Hierarchical decision-making that excludes input from specialists on the teaching staff.
  • Failure to collect feedback from teachers on administrative performance.

If we are to improve student educational outcomes we need to start with addressing what is most cropped-image.pngobviously ‘wrong with our schools.’

 

 

Kathreen Harrison

About Kathreen Harrison

Kathreen Harrison is a public school teacher in Maine. She has a master’s degree from Bank Street College of Education and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College. She has worked in a variety of schools in New York and Maine in a number of capacities – French teacher, gifted and talented teacher, elementary school teacher, and curriculum coordinator for island schools. She has lived in Maine for 20 years and has a particular interest in school reform.