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![]() Breaking Ranks IITM Presents Challenges and Possibilities
Renowned educator Theodore R. Sizer spoke favorably about the transforming potential of Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform, NASSP's new "field guide" to school reform, during his Convention keynote address, "Closing Ranks: New Pressures, New Conflicts, New Opportunities." However, Sizer cautioned that "breaking ranks" itself is an often painful and difficult task that will require much "rattling of our assumptions and challenging of our institutional habits." Sizer commended the leadership of NASSP for taking the risk of introducing the new school reform publication. "The temptation is to keep one's head down, pretending the world is just the same as it always was, and persist with the familiar," Sizer said. But all principals need to rethink what high schools mean and how they should be changed to ensure a quality education for all students, he continued. Sizer said that Breaking Ranks II recommendations "run both parallel with and in opposition to" the current so-called standards movement and its practical expressions in state curriculum frameworks and tests, and particularly in the application of the No Child Left Behind Act. Focusing his prepared remarks on the themes of personalization and student exhibitions, Sizer participated in a conversation with Tim Westerberg about the pressures, conflicts, and opportunities schools, communities, and principals face as changes are made in high schools. Westerberg, principal of Littleton (CO) High School, which is featured in Breaking Ranks II for its school improvement efforts, said that "schools are always in the process of becoming." Westerberg underscored that the process of change is ongoing. "Washington-area professional groups such as NASSP have all too long been tarred with the charge that they are, above all, the defenders of the status quo," Sizer said, but NASSP's recommendations counter this argument. "Our Association decisively takes a different tack and suggests for our membership an alternative direction, one that draws from current research and demonstrably good practice." Prior to Sizer's and Westerberg's remarks, Gerald N. Tirozzi, NASSP's executive director, outlined how NASSP is helping principals implement Breaking Ranks II reforms:
Tirozzi characterized the challenge of school improvement as needing to "be prepared to disrupt that which has been for that which should be." Back to 2004 Convention Wrap-Up Main Page |
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© National Association of Secondary School Principals 1904 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1537 - Phone: 703.860.0200 - FAX: 703.476.5490 |
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