Categories
Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Undergraduate News

Rahfin Faruk: Break down traditional barriers to truly transform our schools

Dallas Morning News

Originally Posted: Jan. 2, 2015

By: Rahfin Faruk

Faruk1I had public school high teachers who could bring the driest material to life. My physics teacher lay on a bed of nails to explain the relationship between surface area and force, and my American history teacher linked the Lincoln-Douglas debates to contemporary problems.

After coming to SMU, a few miles from my home in Richardson, I realized that I had created a romanticized version of my high school experience. Even within my own high school, some students went off to Ivy League schools but far more never crossed the graduation stage.

This reality exemplifies the crisis in American education. Only in 1 in 4 high school students graduates college-ready in the core subjects of English, reading, math and science. If the 1.3 million dropouts from the Class of 2010 had graduated, the nation would have seen $337 billion more in earnings over the students’ lifetimes.

As a result, words like innovation and change have become the rage in education policy — vested interests and outsiders, Democrats and Republicans, public servants and nonprofit heads have all said in chorus, “Something needs to be done.”

But the doing is where there is no agreement. Large billionaire-backed foundations have called for smaller class sizes and technology. Teacher unions have lobbied for more funding for classroom resources and higher pay. Free market advocates have argued for school choice and technical learning.

As part of a class on education policy that I took at SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development, we had the opportunity to ride around with Mike Miles, the Dallas Independent School District’s superintendent.

When I asked him what transformations were underway at DISD and around the country, he quickly corrected me: He said we were experiencing reform — a far cry from transformation.

Miles made a salient point. Transformation is a thorough change in form while reform is change within an existing institution.

Thus, while we continue to change the inputs — improved curriculum, newer textbooks and more laptops — we are pushing change in a system that we are unwilling or unable to transform.

So far, the dominant drivers of change have been all levels of government plus the private and philanthropic institutions that make up the social sector, as it is known.

Their often disparate actions filter down to the classroom. In effect, the classroom and students are siloed from them when both the policymakers/thinkers and practitioners need each other.

“No one is talking to each other” is what Regina Nippert, executive director of SMU’s Center of Communities on Education, told my class. She leads a collaborative effort known as the School Zone. Its aim is to align government and the social sector with the classroom.

In West Dallas, where the School Zone operates, it was hard for a nonprofit to know what issues students face in the classroom. On the flip side, it was difficult for teachers to know what services their students were receiving — from tutoring to out-of-school enrichment.

In a system where communication is lacking, gauging demand, supply or effectiveness is a far-flung dream. Both sides need to get in the trenches with each other if we are going to really transform schools.

We need to create a system in which partnerships become formalized and systemic. This means more frequent data sharing, collaborative meetings between principals, teachers and parents, and high-level planning that includes more seats at the table.

That is how we get the trenches and the tower talking to each other.

Rahfin Faruk is a senior at SMU, where he serves as a student trustee. He may be contacted at rfaruk@smu.edu.

Leave a Reply