Reporter's Notebook

Minneapolis

The author and consultant David Osborne opened the annual meeting of the Education Commission of the States by telling the assembled public officials, educators, and researchers why he believes a breakthrough in student achievement requires a fundamental change in the way schools are governed.

"There's a pervasive sense that we're stuck," Mr. Osborne contended during his keynote address at the July 9-12 gathering here. "And the root cause is a school system that is designed for an earlier age."

As long as they are run by a centralized bureaucracy that is often held captive by employee groups, schools will never be able to respond quickly to information-age change, shed their one-size-fits-all approach, and cater to parents, said Mr. Osborne, a co- author of the influential 1990 book Reinventing Government and a managing partner of the Minneapolis consulting...