A Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

ED815 The Future of Educational Institutions

Capella University, September, 2000

By D.L. Jackson 

EDUCATION REFORM FOR THE 21^st CENTURY

American schools historically are a reflection of the value system of northern European immigrants that is characterized by a strong belief in competition and rugged individualism. Dr. Edwin Nichols, a Washington, D.C. based social psychologist who has done extensive research on the culture of American schools, (Morefield, 2000, online) characterizes this as ‘getting what I need’. Achieving my personal goal is, therefore, more important than whether or not anyone else reaches theirs. However, business in the information age is moving toward a more holistic set of concepts -- from the pronoun 'I' to the pronoun 'we' -- which will need to be reflected in the education model of the 21^st century.

What is often forgotten in the search for new education paradigms is that compulsory education is a relatively new phenomenon. It was not until the mid-twentieth century that universal high school graduation became feasible for the nation's citizens. However, since that time the very definition of what it means to be educated has changed. Historically, our educational system was based upon providing students with basic skills to prepare them to work in an industrial based economy. Today's students will need other skills to allow them to access information, work with those around them, and utilize higher order thinking skills needed in knowledge-based economies (Bamburg, 2000, online). A nation-wide approach that will allow local, state, and federal organizations a role will be the only acceptable option in the development of a new education model.

The Department of Education has begun a long-term analysis of various school reform strategies and realizing that one of the problems with education research is that it has not been disseminated to those most in need -- the teachers -- has organized a clearinghouse to address education research. The program, Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD), was authorized in the FY 1998 through the Department of Education Appropriations Act (Doherty, 2000, p. 1).

It aims to raise student achievement by helping public schools across the United States successfully implement comprehensive school reform strategies. The legislation promotes the adoption of reform models. Decades of research on effective schools point to the importance of setting high standards for all students, maintaining an atmosphere of collaboration among school staff, offering ongoing staff development, organizing efficient school management, and involving parents. Research also shows that fragmented approaches to school reform rarely add up to a coherent, sustainable whole.

According to Doherty, characteristics of effective schools include:

• Clearly stated goals and objectives
• High expectations for all students
• Strong leadership that has a vision for the school and the expertise to make the vision a reality
• An emphasis on academics
• Systems for monitoring and assessing pupil progress tied to instructional objectives
• Maximizing the amount of classroom time that is devoted to active learning
• The use of a variety of instructional methods and groupings
• A safe and orderly school climate and
• High levels of parental involvement. (Doherty, p. 4)

Leaders from various education associations have reviewed more than 100 studies of 24 externally developed school reform models and have identified three models, Success for All, Direct Instruction, and High Schools That Work, with documented evidence of positive effects on student achievement. Although the bulk of the SCRD funds are targeted toward Title 1 schools, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) has awarded $12.7 million in funds to support the design and implementation of new research-based models focused on effective practices for middle and high schools (Doherty, 2000, p. 22).

As part of the national evaluation of CSRD, the Department's Planning and Evaluation Service, is also tracking promising ongoing research underway on models and comprehensive school reform (Doherty, 2000, p. 74). The following five research studies are examples of research projects that will look at multiple reform models and form part of the Department of Education's effort to support longitudinal work disseminated through a central clearinghouse.

The New American Schools (NAS) will study seven design teams (ATLAS, Audrey Cohen Purpose Centered Education, Co-NECT, Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, Modern Red Schoolhouse, America's Choice, Roots and Wings) and their activities in different districts with a final evaluative report due in 2001.

Study of Instructional Improvement: Six years of data collection will begin in the 2000-01 school year. The focus is to gain a deeper understanding of the processes of school improvement, to investigate the conditions under which school improvement efforts improve classroom teaching and student learning; and to examine how state and local policies assist or detract from school improvement initiatives.

Scaling-Up: Effects of Major National Restructuring Models in Diverse Communities of Students at Risk: Data has been collected since 1996 and will the study will end in July, 2001. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of externally developed school reform models in schools serving multilingual, multicultural populations.

Longitudinal Research on Whole School Improvement through CSRD and Other Reform Efforts: Choice, Implementation, Institutionalization, and Systemic Support. From November, 1999 to November, 2004 data will be collected that will be used to examine whole school improvement through the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program (CSRD).

FEPSI - Formative Evaluation Process for School Improvement: Beginning in the Fall, 1999 and ending in the Spring, 2002, data will be collected and used to evaluate the effectiveness of models including: Success for All, Direct Instruction, Roots and Wings, Early Literacy, Basic School, Sun Catchers, Core Knowledge, Community for Learning, Middle Schools that Work, High Schools That Work, Accelerated Schools, Modern Red Schoolhouse, and Co-NECT.

While the Department of Education has been organizing a long-term review of successful programs, the public has been taking advantage of school choice which means parents have the "power and opportunity to choose the school their child will attend" (Center for Education Reform, 2000, online). The continuum of choices starts with options for alternative schools and programs, 'space available' open enrollment, charter schools, private and parochial schools, home schooling, for-profit contract schools, private vouchers, and publicly supported vouchers in a few locations. As high school students begin to choose distance learning options or University Internet courses, the range of possibilities is growing more complex (Pipho, 2000, p. 565).

In a recent Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup poll, 59% of the poll-takers said they would prefer the existing [education] system be reformed, as opposed to 34 % who wanted an alternative system found. (CNN Special, 2000, online). This suggests that school restructuring has an advantage over concepts such as vouchers, charter schools, and choice; however, it also indicates that pressures to restructure are not going to subside in the near future. However, the Center for Educational Reform (2000, online) questioned the interpretation of other portions of the poll including the contention that "public approval of the public schools [was] at an all time high" when 2 percent fewer people gave the school in their community As or Bs and more people give their schools a C this year than last with half of all Americans viewing schools as mediocre at best. According to the Consumer Trends Institute, 25% of all children are today being educated through public school alternatives, including charter, magnet, voucher, private and home schools (Ebenkamp, 2000, p. 26).

One of the more controversial 'school choice' options is the voucher system. The vouchers are usually issued by the state and can be used by parents to pay tuition at an out of district public school, a private school or, in some cases, a religious school (McClain, 2000, online). Critics of the program fear the blurring of the separation of church and state when tax money is used to buy tuition at parochial schools. At present, vouchers are used in five states (Vermont, Maine, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida) but "more than 25 states have introduced voucher legislation so far this session" (Pipho, 2000, p. 567).

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Poll (1999) found that "53% percent of the general population and 60% of the black population support a voucher system" (Center for Education Reform, 2000, online). The Public Agenda Foundation found similar results in its study, On Thin Ice, indicating that "57% of the general public favor the idea of parents being given a voucher and 70% would seriously consider or definitely use a voucher to send their child to a private school" (Center for Education Reform, 2000, online).

Although Maine (since 1903) and Vermont (since 1869) both have tuition credit programs, the Milwaukee Public School District, which enacted its voucher program in 1990, is regarded as the first "modern" program (CNN Special, 2000, online). When Greene, Peterson, and Jiangtao Du studied the Milwaukee program, they found that by the end of the fourth year of the program, students were performing six percentile points better in reading and 11 percentile points better in Math on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills when compared to their peers (McClain, 2000, online). However, the American Federation of Teachers disagrees with claims of academic improvement as their research indicates that "when Rouse (1998) compares small class size public school students to regular public school students and voucher students, the small class public school students outperform everyone" (AFT on the Issues, 2000, online).

Charter schools are basically experimental schools authorized (and funded or partially funded) by local school districts, free from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools but with the onus of knowing its charter can be revoked if its performance contract isn't fulfilled. Less than a decade after the first charter school opened its doors, these 'school choice' options are having a dramatic impact on other competing schools in the communities where they have been established. Wherever a "large number of charters are clustered, traditional schools have begun to behave differently in order to keep up and in many states their presence is accelerating system wide school improvement" (Center for Education Reform, 2000, online).

To date, more than 50 reports on the progress, success rates, and achievement of charters have been completed by states, universities, and regional and national groups. More than 80% show that charter schools are achieving their goals. With New York, Oklahoma, and Oregon passing charter legislation in 1999, there are a total of 36 states and the District of Colombia involved in the charter program with more than 250,000 students currently enrolled. (Center for Education Reform, 2000, online).

Charter schools now report that capital financing difficulties and political opposition from teachers' unions, state boards and bureaucracies, and local board/district offices are hurting their efforts. California's Little Hoover Commission found that "both the State Department of Education and sponsoring school districts have taken actions that constrain the ability of charter schools to operate freely" (Center for Education Reform, 2000, online).

The contemporary home-schooling movement began sometime around mid-century with a handful of families who found schools too conservative. They pursued instead a philosophy of education that promoted best learning as taking place without established curriculum where the children were able to pursue their own interests with the encouragement of parents and other adults. The rise of home-schooling has been a significant trend in the last 40 years. Although not all states require student data, the information available shows the number of home-schoolers to be growing between 7% and 15% per year (Gergen, 2000, p. 64). Home-schooling has become the second most popular form of non-government sponsored education in the U.S., outranked only by the schools affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. (Kantrowitz, 1998, p. 65).

While there are no national statistics, researchers who study home-schooling estimate that as many as 1.5 million children are currently being taught primarily by their mothers or fathers (Kantrowitz, 1998, p. 69).

Internationally, home-schooling directories have listings in Canada, Ireland, England, France, Australia, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand, and Japan (Holt, online). However, home-schooling is not always accepted and, in fact, is illegal in both Germany and the Netherlands. The emotions associated with home-schooling in Germany were brought to the forefront when earlier this year, three police officers broke into Johann Harder's house, destroyed furniture, and eventually left taking his 11 year old daughter with them. Mr. Harder, a father of 11, then received a letter threatening him with fines of $250 per child per day or the loss of his children because he was home-schooling them. Charges were suddenly dropped during the summer after more than 1,500 letters were received by the Mayor's office from other home-schoolers around the world (Sillars, 2000, p. 45).

Surveys done by the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Oregon have identified five motivations for parents to home-school their children: (1) concern about the academic quality of local conventional schools; (2) a belief that the best education also is the most individualized; (3) the desire to enhance relationships among family members; (4) an attempt to mitigate the negative influences of peer pressure; and (5) worries that schools are becoming increasingly unsafe (Archer, 2000, p. 5). Until 1994 -1995, the majority of families named 'religion' as the main reason for choosing home-schooling when responding to a Florida Department of Education survey that was sent for over a decade to home-schooling families. However, in 1995, the single most important reason for home-schooling became "dissatisfaction with the public school instructional program" (Lines, 2000, p. 78).

Home-schooled children have won the annual U.S. spelling bee contest every year since 1997 and this year was no different as George Thampy took first place. However, home-schooled children also won second and third prizes as well which was regarded as unusual. Because home-schooled children carry off the prizes in many open competitions and have the reputation of being self-motivated, most leading universities compete to admit them. Stanford University reports that home-schooled applicants are twice as likely to be admitted as graduates of public schools (Hunter, 2000, p. 44).

Although vouchers, charters, and home-schooling choices are the most popular (after private schools), there are other alternative education options as well. One form involves community education which has three basic components: "lifelong learning, community involvement, and efficient use of resources" (National Community Education Association, 2000, online). The Boyle Street Education Centre in downtown Edmonton has as its mission: "ensuring success for all students in their goal of education, development of life and social skills, and employability" (Yu, 1998, p. 35). Special incentives like free breakfasts and lunches help maintain a regular attendance record. The curriculum has been adapted so that each student takes only one core subject at a time which means they receive partial credit if they have to leave school for any reason rather than 0 credits for an uncompleted course in the normal set-up. Other alternative courses such as cosmetology, fashion studies, foods, design studies, career transitions, information processing, a registered apprenticeship program and work experience are also available.

Another option, supported by Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winning economist, is the for-profit school. "Our elementary and secondary educational system needs to be radically restructured. Such a reconstruction can be achieved only by privatizing a major segment of the education system i.e. by enabling a private, for- profit industry to develop that will provide a wide variety of learning opportunities and offer effective competition to public schools" (McClain, 2000, online). Edison Schools, started by Christopher Whittle, an entrepreneur, offer just that -- a commercial enterprise. Mr. Whittle has received considerable financial backing and although, arguably there are financial and union problems in some of his schools, more states are signing up. Maryland is considering contracting some of its problem schools out to the Edison project sometime this school year.

The fundamentals behind Edison's School Design take into account recent good-policy research and include, among others : (1) schools organized for every student's success; (2) a better use of time; (3) a challenging curriculum; (4) teaching methods that motivate; (5) assessments that provide accountability; (6) a professional environment for teachers; (7) technology for the Information Age; (8) and schools tailored to the community. Every student over Grade 3 receives a computer for his/her own personal use and the network links homes and schools. (Edison Schools, 2000, online). Recently, Edison Schools commissioned RAND Corporation to provide an ongoing analysis of its school performance. RAND's evaluation will focus primarily on student achievement but will also examine key elements of Edison's school design. The evaluation will also look at state and local achievement data for all Edison schools to provide an objective analysis of the progress Edison students are making. In addition, RAND will conduct intensive case studies in a number of Edison schools to help explain the achievement results.

Historically, reformers tried to change behaviors by exposing educators to new knowledge (e.g. workshops and conferences) believing that ignorance was a barrier to change and that educators would incorporate any new knowledge learned into their own teaching environment. Political approaches to school reform involved pressure generated by a power elite who were not trained educators (Kowalski, 1997, p. 6). This strategy is exemplified by actions such as requiring longer school years, increasing graduation requirements, and setting higher licensing standards for educators. Neither of these methods appeared to have a lasting effect because teachers traditionally resent outside influences and most educators adopt new ideologies for a short period of time and then revert back to 'tried and true'.

Since the 1983, Carnegie Commissioned report, A Nation at Risk, was published,

. . . there has been a continuous series of reform efforts designed to correct the problems in the public school system. The first wave of reform tried to solve the problem by mandating increased standards including more graduation requirements, longer school days, and longer school years. The second way of reforms focused upon restructuring with the premise behind this effort that the basic pieces of the schooling system were all right and what was needed was to rearrange the pieces to fit together in a different way. (Bamburg, 2000, online).

Because an overall, cohesive structure wasn't offered, it was never known whether or not the bits and pieces of small reforms would, when put together, create the right education for the children. Neither series of reforms accomplished the goal of off-setting the 'mediocrity' of the school system. A system that was designed to educate all students to the same level was bound to suffer from reduced standards due to, among other problems, the sheer number of students being educated.

One has only to look at the plethora of reading research experiments -- more than 5,000 (Allen, 1992, p. 13) -- and still the results are confusing and inconclusive. Arguably, one of the reasons for the apparent failure of such research is that the proposals for studying and restructuring are all built on existing structures, as if the existing structures should be immune from change consideration. There are problems and we create fixes without considering the implications on the whole system or whether or not the system itself might be the reason for the difficulties.

After tinkering with standards, curricula, and instructional approaches for nearly two decades, policy makers in most states have concluded that meaningful reform will not occur unless schools engage in fundamental restructuring. That is to say, the desired level of improvement will not be attained unless educational elders reshape governance, including key facets of operations such as decision making, the distribution of power, and relationships between schools and their broader communities. (Kowalski, 1997, p. 5)

The key to all education reform is trust. MacKenzie, D. and Rogers, V. (1997) suggest that one approach would be to establish an extended period of national consultation on all the issues of education, at every level, with a predictable process of consensus building. In the first round, issues and alternatives could be identified and in the second, specific proposals could be considered.

The traditional beliefs that intelligence is fixed and that learning occurs sequentially from the simple to the complex have been shown to be false. It now appears that learning is more of a developmental process. The human brain is more complex than our linear lockstep curriculum currently recognizes. We will need to integrate our curriculum content utilizing thematic approaches.

Brain research and cognitive studies done by Caine and Caine have largely been responsible for our new ideas about learning. Bamburg (2000, online) synthesizes the following from Teaching and the Human Brain: (1) Good teaching uses all aspects of the brain's operation; (2) Expecting equal achievement on the basis of chronological age is inappropriate; (3) Life-like lessons are better; (4) The search for meaning occurs through patterning; (5) Information should be presented in a way that allows the brain to extract patterns; (6) Monitoring the emotional climate of the room is important; (7) Realizing that skills are built over time as learning is cumulative and developmental; (8) Acknowledging two memory systems: spatial memory system (experiential learning) as well as a system of rote learning (memorization); and (9) Accepting that each brain is unique and that learning actually changes the structure of the brain -- the more we learn, the more complex we become.

Allen suggests that, "our current system is failing to meet the needs of the day, is highly inflexible, and does not allow many important decisions to be made at the appropriate levels. The objective of true school reform is simple: to build a framework, a context for educational development in the United States that meets contemporary needs, is flexible, and incorporates mechanisms for decision making at all levels: local, state, and national" (Allen, 1992, p. 46). He offers a plan using a national framework in which "up to two thirds of the experimental school curriculum might be national and one – third reserved to the state and local districts, but the actual proportion is not as important as the concept -- that the curriculum responsibility be shared between local communities and the nation as a whole. (Allen, 1992, p. 67).

Allen also indicates that four barriers to equal education must be examined: inequity, mobility, obsolescence, and lack of accountability. Overcoming these barriers through the implementation of a '70% federal/30% local' national curriculum will enhance a 21^st century education paradigm. He suggests that in response to the current situation where each History teacher designs his or her curriculum to the exclusion of every other History teacher in the country, the development of the national curriculum would provide some new ways of attacking the perennial problem of what to include in the curriculum, rather than leaving this important decision to the textbook publishers.

Postman (1995) takes the idea of a national curriculum one step further when he suggests a change from the traditional subjects. He suggests that teaching about the environment through astronomy, anthropology, and archeology by using the metaphor of the earth as a spaceship, on which we are all riding will be an excellent way to inculcate concern for the environment in each student. Teaching a subject that proved difficult as a student will help students learn that making mistakes is a normal process of learning and that learning itself is a developmental process. Studying to roots of language will enable an understanding of the symbolization in language -- both written and spoken. Studying the intermingling nature of cultures, art, and politics will provide the means to learning that diversity is the key to our success as individuals, not sameness. Finally, studying comparative religions allows for an investigation of the question, 'Is it possible to have a coherent, stable culture while still allowing religious and political freedom of thought and expression?' (Postman, 1995, p. 74).

"The question is not, does or doesn't public schooling create a public? The question is, 'What kind of public does it create?'" (Postman, 1995, p.18). David Labaree of Michigan State University argues that schooling these days is not seen as a way to create democratic citizens or even capable workers, but serves more as a credentialing mechanism. "'The purpose of education from this angle is not what it can do for democracy or the economy but what it can do for me.' And this shift turns our school systems into 'a vast public subsidy for private ambition.' . . . The point is not to get an education but to get ahead -- and therefore, from the student consumer's point of view, 'to gain the highest grade with the minimum amount of learning.'" (Kohn, 1998, p. 571).

It's hard to disagree with the notion of education being a credentialing mechanism when society determines your own personal value based on your employment. On the other hand, the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that jobs requiring short or moderate on-the-job training, such as clerical and service jobs will account for more than half of all jobs in 2006 (Jobs of Tomorrow, 1999, online). Postman (1995) says that "any education that is mainly about economic utility is far to limited to be useful and, in any case, so diminishes the world that it mocks one's humanity" (p. 31). However, he agrees with Labaree and says that by believing that education is all about employment, a covenant of sorts is provided to the students:

If you will pay attention in school, and do your homework, and score well on tests, and behave yourself, you will be rewarded with a well paying job when you are done. It's driving idea is that the purpose of schooling is to prepare children for competent entry into the economic life of a community. It follows from this that any school activity not designed to further this end is seen as a frill or an ornament -- which is today, a waste of valuable time . . . the story tells us that we are first and foremost economic creatures, and that our sense of worth and purpose is to be found in our capacity to secure material benefits. . . .The story goes on to preach that America is not so much a culture as an economy, and that the vitality of any nation's economy rests on high standards of achievement and rigorous discipline in schools. There is little evidence (that is to say, none) that the productivity of a nation's economy is related to the quality of its schooling. (Postman, pp. 27-28)

The reality is that everyone in a school has a vision of what they think the school should look like and the kinds of things it should do. However, the problem is that, under the current education model, these visions are all strongly held and all competing with one another rather than working together towards the achievement of one goal -- the education of all students.

We succeeded in the immediate environments in which we worked but failed to generate the critical mass necessary to challenge the inertia of the system as a whole. Our problem, then as now, is that no one is in charge of U.S. education; it is larger and more complex than any and all of the mechanisms we have at hand to deal with it. (Allen, p. xiii).

Some critics argue that one of the primary reasons for school failure is the incompatibility of the industrial revolution management style of leadership that does not take into account the new emphasis on collaboration and global concerns, among others. If educators are serious about the business of educating children, then the schools must be transformed into learning organizations where everyone is a learner -- including the management.

It is not, however, just the management that is locked into an outmoded 'job description' that is hampering the implementation of education reform. Most teachers have been trained to think about 'their' students in 'their' classrooms to the exclusion of the rest of the school. Teachers have been so focused on what happens within their own walls that there is little interest in or time for the school as a whole unless some particular event directly affects them or their students. Teachers today are "locked into structures -- staffing arrangements, classroom sizes, curricula experiences -- that make no rational sense" (Alllen, 1992, p. 61). They are, in fact, not in the business of preparing all students for the twenty-first century. Instead, they are paid to decide who can learn and who cannot.

No matter what type of education one experiences, there is no guarantee that one has actually learned it, despite diplomas granted and degrees earned. In well-publicized surveys, young adults who had just graduated from Harvard were asked to explain why the seasons change on earth but were unable to satisfactorily answer the question. Other surveys and polls have found educated people unable to locate primary geographical features on unmarked maps, name prominent citizens, etc. The assumption then that one becomes a good citizen or a well-rounded individual by passing through a profession school system is false. What's more there is no evidence at all that shows even a "modest connection between school performance and later job performance" (Holt, 1998, online). So the viability of continuing to use the 'education for good jobs' paradigm is not relevant to the 21^st century.

However, what can be proven is that the mind of a normal child can be developed through practice. "Learning capacity is a function of will and effort" (Howard, 2000, online). Confidence in the learning capacity of our children is the psychological foundation for an entirely different approach to education.

SUMMARY

The nations that lead the world will be those who can shift from being industrial economies based upon the production of manufactured goods to those that possess the capacity to produce and utilize knowledge successfully. The major issue that confronts educators in America is whether or not we can transform education and create schools that can successfully prepare our nation's students for life in the 21^st century.

"…reviewing the literature on world-wide educational reform, analyzing global reports … conclusions have emerged: (1) despite significant differences in the orientation or circumstances, educators have identified a need for whole-system change in education that reflects new developments in access to information, along with the benefits of world-wide teacher collegiality; (2) durable education reform must reside in and take strength from indigenous cultures, yet allow access to world-wide 'best practices'. In short, we must play to our strengths and challenge old assumptions simultaneously. (Mednick, 2000, online)

The conditions that must exist if change is to occur are complex. The transformation of education is a systems change, however, change will also occur within each school and for each educator as well. In order to accomplish a nation-wide education reform, the evidence presented in this paper suggests the following:

Delineate responsibilities of federal, state, and local agencies so that each is responsible for particular aspects of the reform. Allen (1992) advocates the implementation of a national curriculum that is 70% federally organized and 30% locally organized. One of the problems overcoming mediocre education is the mobility of the American public. A national curriculum will facilitate the transition from one school system to another so the student will be able to continue with his/her studies with as little disruption as possible.

Reassess the core curriculum mandated by the legislatures. Given that there is no evidence correlating school performance and subsequent job performance, perhaps what was are trying to teach can be re-examined. Postman (1995) offers the suggestion that other issues take preference rather than the 'economic utility' model. He advocates subjects dealing with the environment; learning as a process; celebrating differences rather than similarities; studying language to understand the significance of using symbolization in our communication; and addressing the question: Is it possible to maintain a stable nation given such national diversity?

Eliminate 'school vs community' segregation. Dewey complained in 1938 that schools should not be isolated centers of learning, that learning should be integrated into real life-like situations. Caine and Caine's brain research proves Dewey's statements of 60 years ago were correct in that more learning takes places when it is relevant to the situations at hand. Trained educators think like trained educators; the time has come to let others offer suggestions as well. That several urban teaching districts are employing non-teachers is significant because those individuals will provide the 'diversity' we need to come up with original and workable solutions to the problem of education in the 21^st century.

Increase school choice options. That the AFT and other unions, along with school boards, are hindering the development of school options is deplorable. Isolationism does not work for families or nations. It cannot work for education either. A recent study published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research offered clear evidence of the value of education freedom. Greene (2000) investigated the premise that "increasing a parent's freedom to choose how his/her child is education will increase the likelihood that the child will be well-educated" (p. 4). The report used a new Education Freedom Index (EFI), composed of measures of five types of educational options: (a) charter school, (b) vouchers, (c) home-school regulations, (d) ability to choose a different public school district by relocating, and (e) ability to choose a different public school district without relocating, to compare the 50 states. Amazingly, the report found that for every additional point scored on

the EFI, a state can expect an additional 5.5% of its students to test proficient on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Arizona and Minnesota have the highest EFI ranking. (Greene, 2000, p. 3). The significance of parental school choice cannot be denied.

Train educators to communicate and to work co-operatively. Currently, they are responsible for developing 100% of the curriculum, maintaining order, and incorporating new research into their teaching methodologies. This is untenable. To be successful in the 21^st century, teachers will need to refocus their energies away from the isolated classroom towards a view of the larger picture.

Perhaps Mark Twain was right, one hundred years ago, when he exhorted us not to let schooling get in the way of our education. Perhaps he could foresee the dilemmas facing us as we work in the 21^st century with a system encumbered by an industrial-age model.

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