Unrelenting focus needed for sustained reform: trying something new and different every time a school's efforts are labeled as "insufficient" is the opposite of a sustained and focused effort.

Those of you who know me or have seen me would find it difficult to believe that I once jogged religiously. If I didn't jog every day, I was sure that I would stop jogging all together. Sure enough, when I broke my leg roller-skating and was laid up for weeks, I never again returned to a regular jogging routine. Well, I may have taken a stab at it, but the added discomfort provided permission to stop--at least for a day or two to recover--and that permission proved my downfall.

The need to be unrelenting

When we examine the research on sustainability, one thing that seems to appear on every list is the need for "unrelenting focus." Unrelenting? Can't we relent once in awhile? In my case, six inches around the waist and 60 pounds everywhere else point to an emphatic answer of "NO!"

This story will date me, but when I earned my teaching credential at Hayward (now East Bay) State it was acceptable to smoke in classrooms. During one heated classroom discussion about the differences in what we experienced or saw in classrooms and what we knew worked best, our professor was bemused by our idealism.

Stopping the discussion, she said, "Look at me," and then lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "Does anyone understand what I just did?" I was confused, but someone answered, "You just showed us that there is a big difference between knowing the right thing to do and doing it."

That difference may be the issue of sustainability as it points to the need to be unrelenting. The difficulty in sustaining reform is seldom a lack of knowledge about what is the right thing to do. The difficulty lies in doing it--and in maintaining those actions relentlessly.

I'm doing my doctoral dissertation on the concept of collective efficacy--the belief within a community that collective effort makes a difference. I've been reading a study in which collective efficacy was repeatedly measured in a college basketball team. It was high after a win, but guess what happened to it after a loss? How does a team maintain the effort when the results are not positive? Even if the players know that little will be accomplished without it, the work of improvement is hard to sustain without tangible results.

Reform done well, but still "insufficient"

This raises a fear. What will happen to reform that is done well when the results at a school are insufficient to avoid being labeled as in need of Program Improvement? This result will be inevitable for most when the expectations for percentages of "proficient" students increase dramatically beginning in 2008. A likely consequence is that something different will be attempted, and when that is also inadequate, something else will be tried. That's the opposite of sustained and focused effort.

Which begs the question, "What's the alternative when being relentless isn't allowed?" The answer is, "Be relentless anyway." The alternative is even unhealthier than an extra 60 pounds of fat.

George Manthey is assistant executive director of ACSA's Educational Services Department.