What's Our Product?

I remember in the 90's the common refrain, schools should be run more like a business. There are clear efficiencies that you need in a business in order to survive. No business could be managed like public education, there is too much waste, the work year is too short, and schools don't use data. As a result, the government and the private sector pushed business-like features onto schools. The amazing impact from public educators was go ahead, measure me, and try to do what we do. However, there was only one question that came forth, what exactly is our product?

Over the past two decades, public school students have been assessed in more ways than students in any other country in the world. Annually children in 3rd through 8th take tests for the State/Federal government in Reading and Math. They take assessments in Science for two of those grades. Additionally children take standardized assessments multiple times a year for their schools in Reading and Math, plus local common assessments, plus classroom assessments. Students, teachers, and administrators are asked to create SMART goals. So they can progress monitor their steps and develop actions to improve. are measured in every which way. We know more data points than we have ever known before.

Furthermore, States and localities at private business like runs at operating schools like a business. If you'd like the comedic analysis of charter schools, one could try John Oliver's take as he cherry picks the worst of the worst. Or one could look at reports from more traditional media like the New York Times and the Detroit Free Press. The reality is as schools operate pretty efficiently. The cost of schools is related almost exclusively to the cost and benefits of employee salaries. One can increase the length of the school year by increasing labor costs. Michigan tried this, forcing schools to add additional days, but found they couldn't fund it. One can drive down the employee cost by reducing benefits and salaries. Many States and localities have done this. The result is the number of highly qualified college graduates entering the field has reduced significantly. The field is simply seen as less desirable, resulting in states and local offices of education gathering data regarding employee shortages. 

However, the biggest challenge to trying to run a school as a business is defining what our product is. As a parent, I want my children to communicate well to peers, teachers, and employers. I want them to be able to read things for pleasure and to be able to solve problems. I want my children to understand the world. Furthermore, to steal a quote from one of my parents as she drops her children off to school each day, she says "choose kindness." I want my children to be kind to others. In reality, schools have very complex jobs. Teachers are working to mentor students with the DNA of communities. Developing creative communicators who can problem solve a wide variety of situations and invest children in challenges of the future. We need good people to develop good people. We need challenge creators to cultivate students into being leaders and difference makers. Our product, as much as some may wish, can not be simply measured by the nine-month growth in reading and math scores. Our students, and their classroom leaders, are so much more than that.

Measuring the Right and Wrong Things