Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Reform

Posted by on October 31, 2011

Driver ed

A new paper from Michael Fullan for the Centre for Strategic Education, as part of its Seminar Series, examines policy and strategy levers that drive reform — “drivers” — finding that the drivers now in favor are inadequate and in some cases counterproductive. He offers alternatives that have been proven more effective at accomplishing the goal of raising the bar for all students and closing the gap for lower-performing groups relative to higher-order skills and competencies. Fullan says drivers must meet four criteria, in concert, to be effective: They must foster intrinsic motivation of teachers and students; engage educators and students in continuous improvement of instruction and learning; inspire collective or team work; and affect all teachers and students 100 percent. The key to system-wide success, in Fullan’s view, is to situate the energy of educators and students as the central force, aligning the goals of reform with the intrinsic motivation of participants. The prevailing “wrong” drivers, though superficially compelling, are: accountability — using test results, and teacher appraisal, to reward or punish teachers and schools vs. capacity-building; individual teacher and leadership quality — promoting individual vs. group solutions; technology — investing in and assuming that the digital world will carry the day vs. instruction; and fragmented vs. integrated or systemic strategies. Although the four “wrong” components have a place in reform, they can never be successful drivers, and he notes that none of the top-performing countries in the world led their reforms with these four current favorites.

Read more: http://www.michaelfullan.ca/home_articles/SeminarPaper204.pdf