A Learning Environment

Education remains atop the civic agenda at a time when a confluence of national, state and local attention provides what Providence, R.I., School Supt. Diana Lam calls “a teachable moment.” It’s an instant when all conditions favor learning in Washington, Sacramento and elsewhere. Teachable moments are taken advantage of in classrooms but too often aren’t recognized as opportunities outside them. Since the 1983 publication of the landmark report “A Nation at Risk,” this country has lurched state-by-state, and often fad-by-fad (remember whole language reading instruction?), toward school reform.

Now, with crime down and the economy tenuously holding, there remains a national focus on education, said Harold O. Levy, head of the New York City public schools, at a forum a week ago on what works in city schools.

What, then, should come from this special moment? “The political will to sustain this focus,” San Diego schools chief Alan Bersin said at the session, sponsored by Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School in Pasadena. The former federal prosecutor “would like to see the American people roll up their sleeves and go to work to provide an excellent principal at every school,” effective professional development for teachers and a system of education that holds “all adults accountable.”

What else? More money. How much more? As Levy put it, “enough money to do the job properly.”

Are governments listening?

Los Angeles School Supt. Roy Romer, fresh off of negotiations with the teachers union, wants enough money to hire and keep the best teachers. The district will give teachers an average annual raise of 11.5% this year. While defending the big pay hike, which unfortunately came with almost no accountability, Romer challenged teachers to do a better job.

Superintendents want more teachers--good teachers--who know how to teach reading and won’t flee a tough and demanding job. They want better research, transformed teacher training, longer school days, longer school years and higher standards for all children, whether they are poor, minority or speak a first language other than English.

Urban schools chiefs also want more help from businesses, the freedom to take risks without facing a firestorm of criticism, legitimacy for the job they are doing and respect for teaching, a profession often written off by the brightest college students.

Whether the superintendents come to their posts by way of the classroom or from an unrelated profession, they know what doesn’t work: an overtly political school board, too many bosses, a complacent bureaucracy--and unions so powerful they obstruct reform.

President Bush, Congress, governors, mayors, school boards and superintendents are all facing in the direction of effective reform. There is widespread public support for better schools. National and state governments should not let this be crowded off the agenda by economic worries, the power crisis or any other issue-of-the-moment. Improved education is the most enduring benefit that government can provide to its citizens.