For a number of people, public education in the United States isn't exactly the best. With this growing problem and perception, Rick Davis, president of Midland Independent School District (MISD), said that by participating and contributing in a "collective impact process," public education can continually improve.
In MRT, Davis described "collective impact process" as an approach that involves the participation of the community in improving public education. Educate Midland is the name of the collective impact process which was already started in Midland with a goal to continuously improve education.
One thing that is common in public schools that outperform that of Midland's is the strong support of the communities in their public schools. Districts where the outperforming schools belong to have recognized the role that community engagement plays in making public schools improve. In turn, with a good public school, better graduates are produced, and a better community is established.
According to Rick Davis, he initially thought that improving public school education depends only on the school and on the few number of people in the Department of Education. However, he said, "I have come to the humbling realization that successful public education is not a 'them or us' challenge; it is a 'we' challenge."
Educate Midland is the product of concerted efforts coming from various sectors of society. Businesses and organizations have joined efforts to reach a shared goal of improving the Midland public school education system.
Aside from the "collective impact process," Nation Swell mentioned other ways which could help improved public school education system. It suggested investing in training teachers, focusing on making teachers better and not punishing bad ones, modernizing teacher's jobs, and letting kids learn at their own pace.
The collective impact process espoused by Davis, and the methods mentioned by Nation Swell, may all help in improving the public school education system in the U.S. What matters now is that these methods are implemented in a continuous fashion to ensure improvement in public schools.
