The Deafening Silence Of Unstated Expectations
Here’s a thought experiment. Let’s say we were magically granted the ability to perfectly design our public education system. In other words, we were somehow given the knowledge of the most effective policies and how to implement them, and we put everything in place. How quickly would schools improve? Where would we be after 20 years of having the best possible policies in place? What about after 50 years?
I suspect there is much disagreement here, and that answers would vary widely. But, since there is a tendency in education policy to shy away from even talking realistically about expectations, we may never really know. We sometimes operate as though we expect immediate gratification – quick gains, every single year. When schools or districts don’t achieve gains, even over a short period of time, they are subject to being labeled as failures.
Without question, we need to set and maintain high expectations, and no school or district should ever cease
