Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

ing with the financing of education and eleven were reviewing the use of local property taxes
as the major source of revenue for public education. If these campaigns are successful,
schools in poorer communities, especially urban and rural areas, should have significantly
more money available for education.

·School-based management offers real possibilities for reforming the way schools oper-
ate. This approach to running schools usually involves teams of administrators, teachers, par-
ents, and sometimes student and community participants in collective decision making about
issues as diverse as spending on supplies, curriculum, school lunches, discipline codes, and
construction priorities. This approach has been tried in many communities and has received
strong support from teacher unions.

·What has come to be called themiddle school modelis organized so that interdisciplinary
teams of subject teachers who have the same classes meet on a daily basis with counselors,
inclusion teachers, classroom aides, and administrators to plan instruction, coordinate proj-
ects and trips, and review the progress of individual students. Not only does this approach im-
prove instruction, but it builds morale among staff members and tears down some of the bar-
riers that exist between teachers and administrators.

·Many large buildings housing thousands of high school students and hundreds of teach-
ers have been subdivided into mini-schools of a few hundred students. This reform is similar
to some of the innovations of the middle school movement. It is designed to combat youthful
alienation and anonymity. Mini-schools provide a family atmosphere in which small groups of
teachers know students on a personal level. They also allow for closer cooperation between
teachers and site administrators.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION—MODELS FOR ORGANIZING SCHOOLS

Traditional Model Alternative Model

Clear hierarchy of authority among staff members,

between staff and students.

Teachers and administrators are a team; decisions

are collective; students are involved in the deci-

sion-making process.

Tight uniform schedule. Flexible schedule based on activities.

Distinct academic departments. Interdisciplinary collaboration.

Priority iscontrolthrough enforcement of rules

and punishment.

Priority isrelationshipthrough positive reinforce-

ment and struggle.

Teacher-centered lectures. Student-centered activities.

Competitive atmosphere.

Homogenous, tracked classrooms.

Cooperative atmosphere. Heterogeneous,

untracked classrooms.

Questions to Consider:

1. Which school would you rather attend as a student? Explain.


2. Where would you rather work as a teacher? Explain.


3. Do you think the “detracking” of schools is a legitimate goal? Can it work? Explain.
   4.If you could build a secondary school from scratch, which of these models would it
   more closely resemble? Why?

126 CHAPTER 5