The Paradox of Educational Power

Inevitably and predictably, America's news media have given us another round of back-to-school stories and documentaries, many of which again question why Johnny cannot read or why his teacher cannot be more effective.

Just as predictably, virtually none of these analyses has gotten it right. They focus on what are alleged to be tight budgets, low teacher salaries, political conflicts, religious pressure groups, or some other secondary condition. What they miss is the fundamental condition that immobilizes education improvement in the United States.

Almost every education reform proposal since the issuance of A Nation at Risk in 1983 has concentrated on fixing the education system . New laws will be invented, or reinvented, intended to make education personnel direct their attention to yet another activity such as AIDS prevention, school-to-work training, more or fewer teacher education courses, and the addition or elimination of some sacred library book. What well-intentioned reformers almost always overlook is that authority for instruction should reside with schools, not conglomerates of schools called education systems. The means for holding education accountable is to specify desired goals and then hold individual schools, not entire school systems, responsible for obtaining these ends. America has lost its way in education because America has...