As 2011 came to a close it was obvious that the power of community needed to be at the forefront now more than ever.

Time and time again changes in education at the local and state level failed to involve community voice; and decisions came from the top down.

One example is the voucher campaign  that Gov. Tom Corbett pushed in Pennsylvania throughout 2011. After slashing Pennsylvania’s education budget, Corbett then decided that the problem with Pennsylvania’s education system was its lack of “school choice.” He then spearheaded voucher legislation that garnered national attention.

Nevertheless communities from all over the state came together in opposition to vouchers and ultimately halted its progress.

Thanks to the resounding voices of countless community champions, vouchers are no longer a looming reality for Pennsylvania
However, often the voices of the community are excluded and don’t get to weigh in on the very proposals and decisions that affect the lives of students.

In Philadelphia, the School Reform Commission recently agreed to a major contract with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where the future of 50,000 seats from the lowest performing schools are at stake. The School Reform Commission made this decision without a single public hearing on the proposal.

Furthermore this private process was completed so quickly the public never had a chance to try and demand input. For this reason it is essential we actively check the powers that be to ensure our seat at the table.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”  Our Students matter and the education that they receive matters.

If we remain silent and allow education to continue to be run into the ground then our lives will have ended. If our students can’t succeed then our future is lost along with theirs.

With a five year plan and billions of dollars invested by the Obama administration to turnaround 5,000 of the nations lowest performing schools, there are quite a few red flags on the field.

In this policy, there are four models of school turnaround: turnaround, restart, transformation and closure.  Turnaround replaces a schools principal and no less than 50 percent of its staff and in addition increases learning time along with other reforms. Restart ultimately results in a school becoming charter school. Transformation also replaces the principal and increases learning time along with instructional reforms but doesn’t require the schools to replace 50 percent of its staff and lastly closure shuts a school down and sends students elsewhere to learn.

Any of the four methods of school turnaround could easily become the new one size fits all answer to fixing our lowest performing schools. However after the failures of No Child Left Behind are we ready to try on this newest ensemble? The push around school turnaround is going to foster the same tired thinking that, if it works well in some places then it’s bound to work all over.

When are the policymakers going to wake up and allow students, parents, and teachers; the real experts on education to create and implement our own turnaround? We recognize that the conversation is too centered around who manages the turnaround process instead of what the actual teaching and learning looks like. Turnaround should be centered around the quality of students education rather than test scores and graduation rates.

Turnaround feels more like a corporate matter than an educational process because in an educational process teachers, parents and students are the focus not the folks that manage the institution. The top down strategy seems more appropriate for turnarounds in corporations and other businesses. Schools are not like businesses and shouldn't be managed like one. The bottom-line should be quality education for our students not statistics.

For more information on school turnaround click here.

 Check out our podcast to hear lots of audio from PSU's action. 

You can hear Sadae's poem, Eric & Koby's rap, Helen Gym's speech and a great, short piece that Candace made with the all the best highlights.

Our action in response to the District's Plan, Imagine 2014, was really powerful.  The speeches and performances did a great job of laying out concerns with the District's plan. The PSU members who spoke presented a different vision for empowering students and communities to really transform our schools.