Chapter 21 Reflection

Unfortunately with the current state of our economy, the improvement needs in the section “Needs and Future Direction” from chapter 21 seem unlikely to happen for many school districts. I agree schools need to rethink how they are allocating their current resources. I can’t tell you how many wasted dollars my district has spent on school improvement conferences. A new “piecemeal” change is taught at each conference to improve our district. Everyone leaves excited to use the new guidelines in hope of improvement. Within a few months principals stop holding staff members accountable, teachers become disinterested, and go back to the old routine. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for guidelines that will transform education. I just want everyone to stay onboard whether they truly agree or not. This brings me to positive modeling from school leaders. I truly feel a good leader models the correct methods to improve a school as well as encouraging the facility to continue implementing the systemic improvement. This is the first step to school improvement. We can continue to spend money and time to learn the systemic improvement transformation process but without good leadership any improvement model will fall to the wayside. I also believe policymakers are ultimately responsible for developing a systemic improvement transformation process in school districts that actually works for both students and teachers. So many districts are struggling financially. Teachers are spending money out of pocket for classrooms. Policymakers need to realize the expense it takes to do right by our students. They need to stop decreasing federal funding for school districts to compensate for other areas and look for the money elsewhere. I believe systemic transformation is needed to improve school districts but policymakers need to fix themselves before schools can reap the benefits.