THE EDMONTON REFORMS
Gibbons' speech calls for decentralization, choice and accountability in public schools
BY JOE ENGE

Joe Enge serves as an education analyst with NPRI, as chairman of EdWatch Nevada, and as a member of the Carson City School Board. Author of two world history textbooks, Joe was a high school teacher in Nevada from 1988 to 2006 and a Fulbright teacher to the former Soviet Union. You can read more of his articles at www.edwatchnevada.com

Gov. Jim Gibbons proposed major educational reform in his State of the State address for Nevada. It is perestroika, glasnost and calls to bring down that wall all rolled into one. The "Edmonton" reforms he's calling for entail decentralization, choice and accountability in public schools. 

The reforms in Edmonton, Canada's education system have become a model for schools across the continent, called by some the most successful education reform in North America. What Edmonton started in the 1970s has caught the attention of school districts through out the United States and researchers such as William Ouchi, professor of management at UCLA.

Ouchi studied 223 schools in six cities, publishing the conclusions in his book Making Schools Work. Schools, such as he found in Edmonton, that consistently performed best also had the most decentralized management systems. In addition to greater school-level autonomy, families had the freedom to choose among public schools. When schools must compete for students, good schools flourish while those that do poorly literally go out of business.

Parents in the Edmonton School District have had the right to send their child to the school of their choice since 1973. The combination of greater school autonomy and parental choice has resulted in schools developing their own unique education focus to meet the needs of students.

Schools truly become "student-centered" when students and their parents choose the school best for them rather than the school choosing the students with traditional zoning. Giving greater authority to schools also means making them more accountable for results.

Current management practice in public school districts more resembles the micro-managerial style of Soviet central planning than any entrepreneurial, free-enterprise model. One of the most extensive studies of business management ever done was by the Gallup Organization and published in First, Break All the Rules by Buckingham and Coffman. Buckingham and Coffman found, after 80,000 interviews over 25 years, in business management what Ouchi found in education management, greater autonomy at the lower levels and accountability based on results yielded greater productivity and best met the needs of consumers. The same is true for students.

The schools are not forces to use the services of the district office, which they call Central Services. Corrie Ziegler, of Central Services, said, "We would never presume to say: This is the best practice." 

Different schools with different students have different needs and approaches. The Edmonton model is a complete paradigm shift; decisions are made from the bottom up based on choice and real needs instead of the standard top down directive approach. 

We've seen numerous so-called reforms and increased spending over the years without seeing increases in student achievement. What has been missing is serious structural change as the system is loath to give up its control or monopoly. Instead the public has been given a parade of pretended reforms from class-size reduction to the current push for all-day kindergarten, which has skillfully avoided the underlying problems.

The education establishment has been very successful at the game of "distract and hijack," proposing ideas to expand "silver bullet" programs and funding in the name of reform while keeping attention away from substantive changes that threaten their true priority, control. 

Angus McBeath, superintendent of Edmonton School District, said, "There is no pill, or bullet, or quick fix for school systems." McBeath noted, "Resistance will usually be in the name of the children. If you want to know who is telling stories, listen for the telltale line, 'It is bad for kids.' What they really mean is it is bad for us adults, that is, bad for the ruling class. You have to learn to speak the code in public education."

Listen carefully for the code in the reactions to Gov. Gibbons' speech. You will be able to readily discern who are telling stories and who do not want to tear down their wall. LW