School Reform in a Vacuum: 5 Questions With Lance Fusarelli

When it comes to the state of our schools, Americans don’t have confidence that the kids are all right.

Dr. Lance Fusarelli, professor of education policy at NC State University, took an in-depth look at trends in children’s well-being. His article, “School Reform in a Vacuum: Demographic Change, Social Policy, and the Future of Children,” ranked as one of the top 10 most-read articles in the Peabody Journal of Education last year.

For some insights on school reform, The Abstract interviewed Dr. Fusarelli.

How do we measure children’s well-being over time?                         

For this article, I looked at 12 different indicators of child well-being in the United States: unemployment and underemployment, suburban poverty, child poverty, high-poverty schools, income polarization, children living in married-couple families, children born out of wedlock, homelessness, residential segregation, school segregation, National Assessment of Educational Progress achievement and achievement gaps, and the dropout rate.

In looking at the trends over decades, we’re going in the wrong direction on nine of 12 indicators. The only bright spot is a marginal improvement in the dropout rate. Two other areas are neutral. Achievement gaps among ethnic groups and socioeconomic levels have narrowed in some areas and widened in others. Residential segregation rates remain high but have not worsened.

According to those trends, are schools in need of reform?

Schools are dealing with more disadvantaged children than ever before. You can make an argument that schools are doing a better job overall than they are given credit for, given the level of societal change. The one area of improvement is in the dropout rate, an area where schools do exercise some influence.

You argue that educational reform in a vacuum will not be enough to help children. Explain what you mean.

When we talk about school reform, we never talk about changes that have taken place in society. We seem to ignore that schools are affected by these greater trends.

Here are some striking examples. We know that poverty is linked to lower academic achievement, and 19 percent of U.S. children now live in poverty – the highest rate among industrialized nations. Changes in the economy have led to prolonged unemployment and underemployment for many parents.

Stability at home matters for children, so it’s significant that our marriage rate is the lowest in six generations and that 40 percent of children are born to an unmarried mother. Even with an increased number of women in the workforce, these trends increase children’s vulnerability to poverty. We have had a 25 percent increase in the number of homeless students.

Teachers can make a difference in children’s lives, but they can only do so much at school.

How could we take a different approach to school reform?

We can’t solve some of these problems in the classroom. Sometimes, educational problems require societal solutions.

We need to take a coordinated approach by investing in early childhood intervention programs, which have been shown to help children obtain an education and escape poverty as adults.  We also need to invest in economic recovery zones and small business loans to create jobs in distressed areas. Expanding job programs for young people, through summer programs and school-business partnerships, would help with the high youth unemployment rate.

We must have a social net in place for homeless families, especially those with children younger than 6. The lack of affordable child care and child support enforcement is a barrier to many families headed by single parents. Child tax credits would also benefit low-income families. We also need to coordinate medical, dental and social services for families in need. We’ve traditionally had a siloed approach to these problems, and we haven’t coordinated services as well as we could.

Will your approach require much more money?

What I’m suggesting is not about spending more money. It’s about spending it more wisely.  We need to invest it to make a difference during the window of time where we know it matters. We need to shift from a strategy of remediation to one of prevention and early intervention.

These reforms will require political courage to carry out. As a nation, we invest in education. The problem is that we invest poorly.