Resident Scholar  Frederick M. Hess

Today, our schools confront challenges that our education system was never designed to and may not be equipped to answer. Erected haphazardly over the course of two centuries, our system of schooling has been configured to process large numbers of students for lives in an industrial nation. Given the demands of globalization and the knowledge economy, arrangements that may have worked passably well fifty years ago are no longer adequate.

Decades of earnest efforts to reform public schools have shown remarkably little ability to substantively alter routines or results, even when confronted with changing student demographics and needs. Reform tides have rolled out and in and out again, with little attention to implementation or execution.

This “spinning wheels” problem is caused not by innovation per se, but by the failure to root innovation in organizations characterized by intense, widespread commitment to them. In organizations led by officials without the tools to compel cooperation, where those who do more or devise new approaches are often stymied, and where keeping one’s head down is the surest path to professional success, implementation tends to be half-baked and the results disappointing.

Successful entrepreneurs, on the other hand, build organizations populated by committed, self-selected team members and staff. The ability to build strong, coherent cultures that foster commitment and trust are critical determinants of entrepreneurial success. . . .

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Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI.