School

The latest wave of school reform in the United States has emphasized a change in the way organization of school cultures. A common theme throughout the literature on the subject in the United States is a redefining of the roles and relationships embedded in school cultures with the goal of improving learning conditions for all students and reducing student alienation.

Philip Cusick's Inside High School (1973) focused on a large semiurban public school to determine what students do in school and how they make sense of their lives in school. He concluded that the school organization was failing its students:

It has not accepted them as active participants in their own education; rather it has systematically denied their involvement in basic educational processes and relegated them to the position of watchers, waiters, order-followers and passive receptacles for the depositing of disconnected bits of information. They, in turn, have responded by paying only minimal amount of forced attention to the formal educational processes. . . . (p. 221)

Surprisingly, the literature on school reform reflects little on the role of student. Michelle Fine (1991) has taken this criticism further by suggesting that schools take part in a "ritual of silencing" which is "a systematic commitment" (by the school) to "not name those aspects of social life or school that activate social anxieties or engage in conversations about controversy, inequity, and critique" Elementary students in class at a rural school near Guilin, China. KEREN SU/CORBIS (p. 33). Critics of education reform have challenged teachers to examine their own attitudes toward those excluded from power and authority and provide a voice for silenced groups (Lowe 1998).

In the 1990s the central focus of American education was economic growth, equality of opportunity, and meeting the basic academic and psychological needs of students. International economic competition with Germany and Japan and educating the workforce were also concerns. For example, nations are often engaged in educational competition. International competition has resulted in beliefs about one nation being better in some areas than other nations. Educators argue that Americans are more creative and innovative than are other nations. Some educators, however, assume that the Japanese approach of rote learning inhibits creativity and individual thought (Westbury 1993).

A closer examination reveals quite the opposite. Qualitative research studies provide evidence for the student-centered nature of Japanese classrooms (Letendre 1999). Teachers appear highly sensitive to student interests, emphasize creative problem-solving, and work to increase students' curiosity about their world. It has also been argued that Japanese schools provide more equal access to a problem-solving curriculum than do their American counterparts. Little evidence supports the claim that the Japanese focus on the elite class. Compared to Germany and the United States (where formal tracking and ability grouping occur very early), the Japanese system is more egalitarian regarding issues of creative problem-solving. The first step towards using comparative educational data more effectively would be to abandon beliefs about the superiority of one country's schools (Letendre 1999). International comparisons can lead to a more critical awareness of educational practices without such judgments.

During the mid-1980s the U.S. National Center on Effective Secondary Schools reported that "the effective schools literature in the U.S., and indeed most of the rhetoric about school improvement, had neglected the most salient issue (student disengagement) for both teachers and students each hour of the day" (Newmann 1992, p. 2). According to Fred Newmann (1992):

The most immediate and persisting issue for students and teachers is not low achievement, but student disengagement. The most obviously disengaged students disrupt classes, skip them, or fail to complete assignments. More typically, disengaged students behave well in school. They attend class and complete the work, but with little indication of excitement, commitment, or pride in mastery of the curriculum. In contrast, engaged students make a psychological investment in learning. (p. 3)

Schools must deal with such issues as cultural diversity, the special needs of students, school violence, and distractions that compete with a student's emotional investment. For example, the problems facing U.S. and Japanese educational systems are deeply rooted in the social and economic structure of each nation. As evidenced by trends in teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and school violence, the United States has significant problems to deal with, as do Japan and other countries.

Overall social conditions such as poverty appear to have a significant impact on student achievement. Increasing student academic motivation is supported or constricted within a given organizational setting, family, and community (Letendre 1999). Finally, when students are not engaged in the learning environment, they are more likely to drop out of school. The problems facing schools today that have been identified by educational policy makers (i.e., attendance rates, drop-out rates, low student achievement) are not the actual problems, but the consequences of other fundamental issues within and outside of school.