THE CASE FOR RADICAL REFORM
by HOWARD FULLER

Howard Fuller, former Milwaukee Superintendent of Schools and Founder of the Institute of the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, issued a dramatic wake-up call for the conference and for all of us to act with urgency for school reform. Amidst his remarks, Dr. Fuller offered eight points setting the framework for the reform debate.

NUMBER ONE: Our struggle has to always be about children.
      While I believe that the current system works well for many kids the current system DOES NOT work well for a significant number of kids, many of whom are poor and are kids of color. We can not lose a single one of these kids. As long as there is a child out there, who can not read who can not write, who can not compute, who can not think, who can not analyze, we have to do this work.

NUMBER TWO: In order to help those kids who need help the most, we need a radical departure from our current system of education.
      We have to create an entirely different system. The most powerful innovations in education must occur in the classroom between teachers and children. Yet in order to be a successful teacher today, you have to break rules to educate children.

NUMBER THREE: There are a myriad of strategies out there that could make a difference for our children. Their potential impact will be diminished if we do not find ways to empower poor parents to be able to exercise influence on the nature and direction of their children’s education.
        The height of hypocrisy in America is for people whose children are taken care of to oppose choice for poor parents. [They argue] that to let these people go means that you would destroy the system. The question is -- Is it about the system or is it about our children? Choice is not the issue in America. The issue is who has choice.

NUMBER FOUR: We must be totally committed to empowering people who now lack power. We must change the complexion of the debate.
        We have to bring people to the table whose children are affected everyday. We have to understand that when you have a strategy of empowerment it means you truly do hear the voices of the disenfranchised.

NUMBER FIVE: We must work as hard on ensuring that we have excellent options as we do to make sure the options are available.
       We have to be absolutely clear and firm that this movement is about improving student achievement. It is not about making excuses.

        There are 3 things you must have if a system is to be accountable:

• Standards: It is actually possible to write them in a language that people can understand.
• There has to be a way to assess whether the standards are being met.
• Consequences. You don’t have a system of accountability if the only people held accountable for bad teaching are the children.

NUMBER SIX: This is going to be a long struggle, and the protectors of the status quo are not going to go quietly into the night.
        For them it is about power and about control.

NUMBER SEVEN: We must understand the impact of things that are happening to our poorest children outside of the schools.
        While poverty cannot be used for an excuse not to educate our children, you also cannot ignore the impact of not being white, and poor in America. It does have an impact on your life’s chances. Poverty, crime, hunger and gangs are all factors in these children’s lives, and those of us who are out here for them have got to fight to deal with those conditions as hard as we fight to deal with those conditions once they get into the building.

NUMBER EIGHT: We must tell no lies and claim no easy victories.
        The difference in our movement has to be "If you do not succeed with kids then you should not exist." What we have to do is we have to tell the truth about what is happening. Every time we don’t tell the truth, we play a part in destroying these kids' lives.

We are committed to the truth -- to our children -- and to the notion that they can learn, and that we can turn this around for all of our children.

(The entire text of Howard Fuller's speech is available from the Center.)

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