Forging Successful Alliances In School Reform

By Michael D. Usdan

Oversimplification of the reform process has fostered a dysfunctional debate in this country that could cripple public education.

The somewhat bogus argument of whether education reform is a top-down or bottom-up process continues to rage. At one end of the continuum are those who claim that only top-down pressure by political and corporate leaders can coerce an intransigent educational system to implement the comprehensive reform needed to make our public schools work better. Advocates of this position support such nationally visible activities as the summit of the nation's governors and business leaders last March in Pallisades, N.Y.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who contend that only bottom-up reform initiatives will work. They say that education improvement depends on the "buy in" of the teachers and administrators who know firsthand the problems confronting schools today. And to them, the education summit, which only minimally involved practitioners, reeked of elitism and ignored the possible contributions of the very people...