View in EDS

The Road Less Traveled: Changing Schools from the Inside Out

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Road Less Traveled: Changing Schools from the Inside Out
Language: English
Authors: Goodwin, Bryan, McREL International
Source: McREL International. 2015.
Availability: McREL International. 4601 DTC Parkway Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596. Tel: 303-337-0990; Fax: 303-337-3005; Web site: http://www.mcrel.org
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 16
Publication Date: 2015
Intended Audience: Policymakers; Practitioners
Document Type: Reports - Descriptive
Descriptors: Educational Change, Change Strategies, Educational Quality, Learner Engagement, Student Motivation, Personality Traits, Teacher Role, Administrator Role, Systems Approach, Principals, Moral Development
Abstract: Roughly 30 years ago, American educators stood at a crossroads, with a decision to make about the future of education. With their ears ringing of warnings that they were facing a "rising tide of mediocrity" and recognizing unacceptable gaps in achievement between disadvantaged students and others, educators set off down a path of reform that has, in the words of Frost, "made all the difference"--or has it? One thing known for sure is that it altered how educators have gone about running their schools. In this report, the author urges education leaders and policymakers to rethink the way they have been approaching reform for the past three decades and consider what might happen if they improved schools not from the top down but instead from the inside out--putting curiosity at the center of learning and unleashing a powerful, more engaging system of schooling. The author shows how schools can flip the top-down paradigm by taking a few key, consistent actions that put student engagement, motivation, and true problem-solving at the heart of teaching and learning to create new, more powerful outcomes that set students up for lifelong success.
Abstractor: ERIC
Number of References: 62
Entry Date: 2016
Accession Number: ED568894
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:Roughly 30 years ago, American educators stood at a crossroads, with a decision to make about the future of education. With their ears ringing of warnings that they were facing a "rising tide of mediocrity" and recognizing unacceptable gaps in achievement between disadvantaged students and others, educators set off down a path of reform that has, in the words of Frost, "made all the difference"--or has it? One thing known for sure is that it altered how educators have gone about running their schools. In this report, the author urges education leaders and policymakers to rethink the way they have been approaching reform for the past three decades and consider what might happen if they improved schools not from the top down but instead from the inside out--putting curiosity at the center of learning and unleashing a powerful, more engaging system of schooling. The author shows how schools can flip the top-down paradigm by taking a few key, consistent actions that put student engagement, motivation, and true problem-solving at the heart of teaching and learning to create new, more powerful outcomes that set students up for lifelong success.