With so many targeted schools not meeting the No Child Left Behind accountability requirements, issues about the right course of action are moving to the forefront. While there will be continuing arguments about the designated options for pursuing corrective action, the even more fundamental emerging issue is what needs to be different in designing practices to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school.

Some argue that the solution lies in enhancing quality teaching. Clearly good teaching is essential. So is good governance and management of schools. The issue, however, is sufficiency. There are those who stress that much more needs to be put in place both in the classroom and schoolwide so that schools and teachers can do more to (a) enhance student engagement, (b) address barriers to learning and teaching, and (c) re-engage students who have become disengaged from classroom learning. (All these matters are seen as critical to closing the achievement gap, reducing school violence, stemming the tide of dropouts, and shutting down the school to prison pipeline.)

From this perspective, it is argued that prevailing school improvement designs are too limited in nature and scope to counter factors that interfere with effective school learning and teaching. More specifically, it is stressed that the dominating emphasis in school improvement policy and planning is on instructional and governance/management concerns and this marginalizes systemic efforts to address barriers to learning and teaching. To correct the resulting disconnect between what is planed and what is needed, an immediate shift in policy and practice has been suggested to promote development of a comprehensive system of student and learning supports through redeployment of existing school resources allocated for student and learning supports and outreach to a wide range of community resources to fill gaps.

As the reauthorization process for the ESEA resumes, this issue warrants a fuller discussion than has been the case so far. What are your ideas for expanding the focus for school improvement? How do you feel these matters can best be conveyed to those who will be shaping the future of education at the national, state, and local levels? In this time of change, we have an opportunity to make needed improvements.  Send your ideas to ltaylor@ucla.edu

To see the rest of this issue of ENEWS go to: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/enews.htm