What if it s the system that s the problem? What if the key to breakthrough school improvement is not mandating new solutions built on an elusive combination of the right standards, pedagogy, and assessments but removing entrenched bureaucratic barriers and rethinking restrictive norms and routines? What if we were free to start from scratch? This is the greenfield reform strategy: Create an environment that invites new solutions to surface and provide the infrastructure necessary for them to succeed.
In Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling, Frederick M. Hess advocates for an entrepreneurial approach focused on supporting outstanding teaching and learning. Sharing the examples of organizations whose bold alternative strategies represent promising shifts in K-12 education, Hess builds a case for
* School systems marked by data on performance and productivity and compelled to compete on cost and quality. * Personnel policies designed to attract, retain, and reward teachers and leaders committed to excellence. * Education funding configured to support new ventures and foster creative problem solving.
The goal, Hess argues, ought not to be the creation of a new best system but schools capable of evolving with the students and society they serve. Education Unbound is a catalyst for conversation and change and a must-read for practitioners, policymakers, would-be education entrepreneurs, and anyone committed to school excellence and the next steps in education reform.
{"itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":9.99,"ASIN":"141660913X","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":28.45,"ASIN":"1891792253","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"141660913X::4xiNyKMxpGPv7IIiA9aoKr9mTodCNoHFkGFDmcbHjwFOHqbaK%2F0ZOFW7QhjpNOon%2FnxXsyHO%2BMKp8Co4L2GahTMxDgSO851lQbL5GwPGxW9Iidknan%2F2ew%3D%3D,1891792253::S5RigzuNR59C4f0IWLr76HARpVZwhHbFtJXnXUs7KS%2Fe1s0h114RUywMmAFiNsn%2BRkcMV2yDUaod1yU4jdyaJlZs83IQ2Jr1%2BBL%2F%2Fox2cIQ%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"currenyCode":"USD","shippingDetails":{"xy":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["add to wishlist","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items"]}}
An educator, political scientist and author, Rick Hess studies K-12 and higher education issues. His books include Cage-Busting Leadership, The Same Thing Over and Over, Education Unbound, Common Sense School Reform, Revolution at the Margins, and Spinning Wheels, and he writes the popular Education Week blog "Rick Hess Straight Up." Rick's work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and National Review. Rick serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the review boards for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools, and on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and 4.0 SCHOOLS. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University, and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government, as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum, from Harvard.
The ideal to build a better school system drives many thinkers to revamp it for a better system tomorrow. "Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling" is a discussion from Frederick M. Hess aimed at discussing the state of education, saying that modern America's education problems could dwell in the very foundation of the system. Calling for a reboot of the system to start from scratch, Hess gives scholarly thought and opinion, making "Education Unbound" a fascinating and very highly recommended read that shouldn't be missed by education administrators.
At the last minute, I had to change my schedule and realized that I needed the book sooner than I thought. I became quite concerned about this because the date to receive the book would be 3 weeks later. I contacted the seller and asked could they send it within a week and they did. I am so grateful and so very relieved. They are wonderful and reliable. I would definitely order from them again and would highly recommend them to other college students.
Change in education is often reduced to minor tweaking, or engineered retrofitting of an adaptation. This often boils down to much ado about nothing, and it rarely changes what happens in classrooms, in the long term.
The top option for all educators involved in change is the greenfields option. Tabula rasa. Start on a clean slate, if that were possible, in education.
Hess has written a ground-breaking book that is very relevant to me at present. Hess's book shows what can be done, and what needs to be considered. This should be compulsory reading for Western Australian school communities entering, or wanting to commence, the Independent Public Schools program.
