School reform is steady work. As a teacher, administrator, superintendent, and university researcher for over six decades in working to reform classrooms, schools, and districts, it should come as no surprise to readers that what I thought about reform in the mid-1950s as a teacher, what I believed school reform was when I ran a district in the 1970s and 1980s, and how I conceptualize reform today as a retired professor has changed. Looking back at my strongly held beliefs on reforming schools then and how, I can see how they have morphed into quite different views about school reform today.
There may be wisdom in this “confession” about evolving beliefs about school reform. And even if some readers were to think so, I am well aware that wisdom cannot be told to others because reflecting on one’s direct experience more often than not trumps others’ advice. So I offer these reflections on how one educator’s beliefs about reform changed over time to get readers to ponder what their beliefs once were and are now about teaching, learning, and, yes, of course–reforming schools.
Changes in reform beliefs over time is surely common especially as educators accumulate different experiences over time. What may be uncommon is to document those changes and then reflect on those changes in beliefs.
And that is what I have done in the final chapter of my next book. What I present below is a draft–not a final version so I am open to CONTINUE READING: How Beliefs in School Reform Evolve Over Time | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice