Divided We Stand

"Underneath the rage, frustration, and criticism, we generally found that people cared about children and wanted quality education and straightforward ideas."

Bill Miller,

director, Louisiana Learn for the 21st Century

Given this combustible mix, reformers who waded blithely into major changes in a familiar institution like schools were asking for trouble. Arleen Arnsparger, the communications director at the Education Commission of the States in Denver, has seen a sea change in attitudes as reformers have learned that they can't just present their ideas to communities and expect support. When her organization started working on Re:Learning, a project to build state-level support for reforms in high schools, Arnsparger says few people were interested in her suggestion that communities should be involved.

"We said, 'Well, OK. Give us a call if you think you need help in this area,'" she recalls. "It did not take long for people to start giving us lots of calls. What they ran into was a wall, where folks were real nervous about the changes that were being made." Unfortunately, she adds, most of the calls asked for advice on quieting critics, not on dealing...