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Voices in Urban Education
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Smart Districts
VUE Number 5, Fall 2004
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Urban School Districts: Part of the Solution, Not Part of the Problem
By Robert Rothman, Principal Associate & Editor of VUE, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
> Complete bio
School districts have emerged as a key focus in school improvement. Policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act and foundation-funded initiatives like the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Schools for a New Society high school reform program have placed new attention on the role of school districts in supporting school improvement. These efforts place significant responsibility on districts for providing schools with the assistance and support they need, and they also hold districts accountable for systemwide improvement.
This new focus on districts is a welcome shift. In the past, reformers have looked at districts as part of the problem, not part of the solution, and have tried to work around districts, rather than with them. Their attitude may have been justified, because districts, as they are currently designed, often stifle innovation and alienate, rather than engage, parents and communities.
Yet reformers now recognize that most schools do not improve by themselves. And only districts have the reach and capacity to support all schools in a community, an essential asset at a time when the goal is for all students to reach high standards. But for districts to take on this role, they must change. They must become "smart."
As Marla Ucelli and Ellen Foley write in the introductory article in this volume, smart districts revolve around three elements: results, equity, and community. Each of these elements is essential. We need results, because all children – especially children in urban communities who have been poorly served by education systems – must perform at higher levels to succeed in the twenty-first century. Equity is critical because too many children, particularly poorer children and children of color, have the greatest needs and the fewest resources. And community is vital because everyone has a stake in the success of public education and a role to play in achieving that success.
> Full text with audio
The rest of the articles show vividly how various communities are changing to create smarter districts. Frank Till describes how a large, rapidly growing district – Broward County, Florida – is harnessing the power of technology to collect and use data to produce better results.
> Excerpt
Brad Jupp shows the current inequities in the distribution of human resources within Denver and argues that district administrators and teachers unions need to focus on reversing these trends and getting the best-qualified teachers into the most challenging classrooms.
> Excerpt
Kay S. James shows how bringing all segments of a community together around improving schools in Durham, North Carolina, transformed both the community's sense of responsibility for public education and the school district's goals and strategies.
> Excerpt
And Ocynthia Williams describes the efforts of a grassroots coalition to bring about improvements in teaching in a New York City community.
> Excerpt
While all of these efforts are promising, no city has yet put all the pieces together and created a truly smart district. And, at a time when "research-based" solutions are at a premium, some skeptics might ask: How do we know a smart district works? The truth is, real children in real schools and in real communities do not easily yield the type of "ironclad" evidence based on randomized trials that is favored by traditional methods of academic research. Our ability to capture and share knowledge from these leading-edge communities that are experimenting with revolutionary re-imagining of their school districts is woefully inadequate.
However, we know enough from the reform efforts of the last two decades to understand that schools need support to improve and that the kinds of supports schools and students need demand a new type of district structure. The district-improvement efforts described in this issue of VUE are among an emerging body of new approaches that are consistent with what we know about good practice and effective school reform.
The growing interest in district reform on the part of policy-makers and funders suggests that they increasingly share this view. They understand that these experiments with smart districts form a new generation of fresh ideas with the potential to truly transform our school communities.
Archives
Smart Districts
VUE Number 5, Fall 2004
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Urban School Districts: Part of the Solution, Not Part of the Problem
By Robert Rothman, Principal Associate & Editor of VUE, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University> Complete bio
School districts have emerged as a key focus in school improvement. Policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act and foundation-funded initiatives like the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Schools for a New Society high school reform program have placed new attention on the role of school districts in supporting school improvement. These efforts place significant responsibility on districts for providing schools with the assistance and support they need, and they also hold districts accountable for systemwide improvement.
This new focus on districts is a welcome shift. In the past, reformers have looked at districts as part of the problem, not part of the solution, and have tried to work around districts, rather than with them. Their attitude may have been justified, because districts, as they are currently designed, often stifle innovation and alienate, rather than engage, parents and communities.
Yet reformers now recognize that most schools do not improve by themselves. And only districts have the reach and capacity to support all schools in a community, an essential asset at a time when the goal is for all students to reach high standards. But for districts to take on this role, they must change. They must become "smart."
As Marla Ucelli and Ellen Foley write in the introductory article in this volume, smart districts revolve around three elements: results, equity, and community. Each of these elements is essential. We need results, because all children – especially children in urban communities who have been poorly served by education systems – must perform at higher levels to succeed in the twenty-first century. Equity is critical because too many children, particularly poorer children and children of color, have the greatest needs and the fewest resources. And community is vital because everyone has a stake in the success of public education and a role to play in achieving that success.
> Full text with audio
The rest of the articles show vividly how various communities are changing to create smarter districts. Frank Till describes how a large, rapidly growing district – Broward County, Florida – is harnessing the power of technology to collect and use data to produce better results.
> Excerpt
Brad Jupp shows the current inequities in the distribution of human resources within Denver and argues that district administrators and teachers unions need to focus on reversing these trends and getting the best-qualified teachers into the most challenging classrooms.
> Excerpt
Kay S. James shows how bringing all segments of a community together around improving schools in Durham, North Carolina, transformed both the community's sense of responsibility for public education and the school district's goals and strategies.
> Excerpt
And Ocynthia Williams describes the efforts of a grassroots coalition to bring about improvements in teaching in a New York City community.
> Excerpt
While all of these efforts are promising, no city has yet put all the pieces together and created a truly smart district. And, at a time when "research-based" solutions are at a premium, some skeptics might ask: How do we know a smart district works? The truth is, real children in real schools and in real communities do not easily yield the type of "ironclad" evidence based on randomized trials that is favored by traditional methods of academic research. Our ability to capture and share knowledge from these leading-edge communities that are experimenting with revolutionary re-imagining of their school districts is woefully inadequate.
However, we know enough from the reform efforts of the last two decades to understand that schools need support to improve and that the kinds of supports schools and students need demand a new type of district structure. The district-improvement efforts described in this issue of VUE are among an emerging body of new approaches that are consistent with what we know about good practice and effective school reform.
The growing interest in district reform on the part of policy-makers and funders suggests that they increasingly share this view. They understand that these experiments with smart districts form a new generation of fresh ideas with the potential to truly transform our school communities.
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