The 'Still, Small Voice' of Reform

The champions of school reform have labored through many dark nights since A Nation at Risk , Horace's Compromise , High School , and In a Different Voice arrived on our bookshelves in the early 1980s. There has been study after study, book after book, yet the long shadow of business-as-usual seems to hang over most of America's schools. Or does it?

It could be that we are too set on searching for our signs in the large and dramatic, when instead we ought to remember the lesson of the prophet Elijah and look for our inspiration in "the still, small voice." If we did, we might see that there is more happening in individual classrooms, at the hands of inspired teachers, than the public knows or the press acknowledges.

As a parent of a high school student, but also as a former teacher still deeply interested in the future of schools, I have been eager to see the signs that school reform is taking root. I am not referring to the big stuff like changing how we fund schools or breaking the death grip of age-grouping. Nor do I need to see that our nation's SAT scores have risen by 15 points or that reading levels jumped two grades to convince me that better learning is taking place. Like most parents, I am interested in my own child's experience. I want to see my daughter learning and being taught in authentic and worthy ways. I want to see her enthusiasm for what she is doing and her pride in what she's accomplishing. Does she "own" what she does every day? Is she eager to get to school? Does her school affirm her strengths and give her a clear picture of where she needs more work and how to compensate for weaknesses so she never uses...