The Pyramid, the Funnel and the Megaphone
Who calls the shots in educational decision-making?
Where are policy ideas generated and developed? Who implements them when they become rules and mandates? Who suffers when policy causes unintended consequences--or even damage-- to school communities and children?
I participated in a wonderful professional development workshop last weekend, hosted by the Virginia Education Association and created by the teacher leaders who work with the Arizona K-12 Center. We looked at theprevailing model of ed policy decision-making, illustrated in The Mitchell 20 film: a hierarchical pyramid, with decision-making power concentrated at the peak--Congress and the Department of Education-- flowing down through layers and layers of state bureaucracy, district offices and administrators, and ending up on the
