Meeting challenge with the three R's of reinvention.

© Copyright Tony Wagner, 2002 (first published in Education Week, November 27, 2002)

Districts are making progress with elementary school reforms around the country. Fourth grade reading and math scores are up in many states. In elementary schools where recently I've spent time, there's a sense of emergent pride and hope.

Not so in secondary schools. Districts that have seen test scores increase for elementary-age children see those same kids' scores fall in 8th grade. The slump is often even worse by the time the students get to 10th grade. Secondary school reformers are profoundly demoralized. They have no sense of what's going wrong, or what new strategies they might try.

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What is little understood is that the change challenge is profoundly different in elementary vs. secondary education. To understand the differences, I'd like to suggest a three-part lens for analyzing successful improvements in teaching, curriculum, and school structure. They are the interdependent principles of Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.

Profound changes in our society over the last quarter-century and the rapid shift from a blue-collar, industrial economy to a knowledge economy mean that all students now need new skills for work, citizenship, and college-readiness. All students now need a rigorous curriculum. But rigor is often interpreted to mean simply covering more of the same old tired, traditional academic content. The problem with "more of the same" rigor is that the content is often irrelevant to many of today's students. The traditional college-prep, lecture-style curriculum is not connected to the world from which many students come; nor does it align with the worlds for which students must be prepared.

Increasingly, all students must learn to reason, communicate, problem-solve, and work collaboratively. The skills now needed for work, college, and active, informed citizenship are essentially the same, but they are often not the skills being taught in many so-called college-preparatory curricula. Employers and professors agree that communication and study skills, good work habits, curiosity, and respect are what's most lacking among the nation's high school graduates, according to Public Agenda studies (see, for example, Reality Check, 2002 at www.publicagenda.org). Except for "basic math skills," neither group is concerned about lack of proficiency in traditional academic disciplines.