Falcon Schools Move Toward Innovative Reform
On January 13, the Falcon School District 49 board voted to take the first major step in an innovative reform plan that would bring greater autonomy to school principals as “innovation leaders,” downsize the central office, and let funds follow students to the school of their choice. Board vice president Chris Wright explains how the process is expected to unfold, as well as the potential academic and cost-saving benefits of pursuing the innovation zone proposal.
Posted by ben
on Jan 17th, 2011 and filed under Latest on K-12 issues, Podcasts.
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With this type of innovation, will the teachers’ jobs be at risk? Sounds like the Principal would have the power to cut at will…that is scary for some teachers that might step up and need to stand toe to toe with the Principal over some issues…what would be in place to protect those teachers? No one needs to lose their jobs, that won’t help anything…bus drivers included.
For specific information on how this proposal will play out in Falcon, you will have to address your question to the school leaders there. I will note, however, that K-12 education is not primarily a jobs program but a means of educating and enriching children. Are you saying that all jobs in K-12 education should be guaranteed? I’m sure there are a lot of people in the private sector who can tell you that isn’t the way it works.
Now, no one wants to see teachers arbitrarily fired. What incentive would a principal have to fire qualified staff that were improving outcomes for students enrolled in the school? A successful principal in an autonomous system is one who listens to his teachers and collaborates with them to promote excellence within the educational program. But if a teacher or other staff member isn’t on board with promoting excellence, what’s the solution?
The schools in falcon already get resources they need, established staffing ratios in place to keep class sizes down with teachers and para’s are already in place so when students come and go so do the staff for that building. Schools also get a per pupil allocation that is then used for supplies and other at will items. What they need is people in place intelligent enough to assist the educators spend those resources effectively and efficiently and let the educators do what they do best. I am not sure how this is any different than what is already being done, splitting the district in three will only destroy the scale that large enterprises get to enjoy when it comes to acquiring and allocating resources. Companies who have gone with autonomous divisions in the past have ended up consolidating when times get tough to leverage the same advantages. You have a board who has never run anything larger than a small business and is confused about profit motives of outside corporations. While the plans are good overall, I think the implementation is for all of the wrong reasons.
[...] can find out more about Falcon’s innovation plan by listening to an iVoices podcast with school board member Chris Wright, or by visiting a new page created on the district’s [...]
[...] board member Chris Wright discuss the plan with the Independence Institute’s Ben DeGrow on a 13-minute iVoices podcast. You also ought to read Ben’s op-ed published in the Colorado Springs Gazette. As he notes, a [...]
[...] Ben DeGrow with the Independence Institute interviewed board vice president Chris Wright about the initiative. You can listen to the podcast here. [...]
[...] innovations page and the links it contains, especially the open letter from the Board, the iVoices podcast interview and the op-ed by Ben [...]