Mehta Outlines Four Paths For the Future in Ed Week

What would it take to generate significant improvement in American schooling?

The current path forward is not going to get us there. Despite the ideological heterogeneity of our group, there was a lot of agreement about what was broken. Expectations far outstrip performance. Teachers (on the whole) can't do what is asked of them, especially as expectations increase. Bureaucratic structures erected in the Progressive Era seek to address the problem but only compound it. Policymakers distrust teachers and schools; teachers and schools distrust policymakers. Efforts to rationalize schools through NCLB style accountability just double down on the existing structure, and are largely impotent to create the kind of significant improvement we say we seek. If we keep doing what we're doing, we're not going to get there.

Broadly speaking, four pathways have emerged that would depart significantly from our present path, and offer some reason to think that they might yield large-scale improvement. (This draws on the work of the group, but represents my view only.)

For full post, visit the Futures of School Reform Group on edweek.org.