March 2002 Newsletter

In almost every educational publication and newspaper there is an article related to school reform and accountability.  Smart Schools by Design is an idea that we have been working on for over 10 years.  We realized that schools needed to evolve to meet the changing needs of students and society even before the push for high stakes testing that we see today. It is our belief that a “smart” school has administration and staff who will set clear expectations and constantly evaluate programs and practices to monitor the progress students are making toward outcomes designated by local, state and national standards.     Of course, the ultimate outcome is for schools and families to produce high school graduates that become positive contributing members of society.

The original idea for “Smart Schools” was developed after we became aware of the technology which allowed “smart bombs” to constantly reprogram their destinations as the target moved.  We realized that children, school staff and communities are “moving targets” due to constantly changing needs that students must have to be prepared for the world as it now is and will become. Our educational system must tune in to those targets and adapt curriculum, teaching methods as well as management styles in order to connect with our target. 

It has been said that change in education cannot be achieved in fewer than 3-5 years.  If this is so, a teenager beginning high school will be a graduate with substandard skills or a student who doesn’t get a degree due to failure to pass an exit exam before changes take effect to meet the current need.  It is our belief that changes must be implemented with the expectation that after teachers and administers receive training immediate steps must be taken to implement the techniques necessary to foster positive change.  Research is available to give us the information we need to change the way we manage and teach.  What is needed is an attitude shift from staff, communities, parents and students from it is someone else’s responsibility to ensure that students will learn; it is the joint responsibility of all to ensure that learning occurs.

    Many school districts are in the process of determining what needs to be done to improve test scores.  Smart Schools will focus on teaching to standards, forming relationships with students, maintaining a safe and orderly classroom environment and continually evaluating whether the activities within the classroom are reaching the target.  If the desired results are not being achieved, practices must change so that the target will be reached.  There are great teachers who have always held students to high standards and use teaching methods that produce results.  Today these methods are called “Promising Practices” and a variety of educational jargon is used to describe the methods.  The interesting thing about these new “Promising Practices” is that most are recognized by those of us who have been in the educational system for a number of years as methods we used years ago.  They have been recycled under a new name.  We believe that good teachers have always used “Smart” teaching methods.  If they aren’t getting the desired results, they refocus and do what they need to do to reach the target.  Teachers who are not getting results need to change.  Not in 3 to 5 years, but immediately. 

Comments can be directed to: Karen T. Swenson, M.Ed., M.A.