The Far Side of Educational Reform

"Teachers are at the far end of educational reform." Apart from students and parents, they are often the very last to be consulted about and connected to agendas of what changes are needed in education, and of how those changes should be managed. Educational change is something that government departments, venture philanthropists, performance-driven economists and election-minded legislators increasingly arrogate to themselves. Even when these policy-setting and policy-transporting bodies speak on behalf of teachers, teachers often have little or no voice. Teachers are rarely asked to speak on their own account. If it is indeed the case, as is now commonly claimed, that the teacher is the most important within-school influence on a child's educational achievement, then it is time to stop insulting teachers, excluding teachers and inflicting change after change upon them. It is time to bring teachers back in: to make them part of the solution and not just part of the problem. This paper discusses the three ways of educational change. This paper also suggests eight challenging, yet eminently winnable victories that can help move Canada beyond the Third Way to the Fourth Way of Educational Change: (1) Put responsibility before accountability; (2) Eliminate standardized testing connected to system targets; (3) Develop and disseminate diagnostic and developmental assessment alternatives; (4) Abandon the obsession with technology as an end in itself; (5) Raise quality and standards for all teachers by teachers and with teachers together; (6) Blend and interconnect the best of different provincial reforms; (7) Pursue strategic international coalitions; and (8) Promote public engagement.