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“We want to do something transformational and not… just do business as usual,” says Superintendent Mike Looney of Fulton County Schools - a large metro-Atlanta district that borders my own.
Finally, someone is speaking my language! But is their plan actually transformational? Looney’s district announced in May that they will spend $90 million of their American Rescue Plan funds on an initiative called “Every Child Reads” aimed at overcoming the learning loss experienced by their students during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is, as far as I’m aware, the first major, local move announced regarding the big, looming question in education - it looks like we made it through the pandemic, so what do we do now? According to the presentation made to Fulton County’s school board in May, many students in Fulton County made only a fraction of the progress as readers that they would have made in a normal school year: 
Worse, yet, students already struggling the most when the year began face the largest deficits, with some even ending the year worse than they started it:
I would imagine that most large, urban and suburban school districts would find themselves in a similar spot if they were to investigate. Georgia State University conducted a study of three large, unidentified districts in metro-Atlanta and found fairly similar results. I applaud Fulton County Schools for facing this challenge head on and taking a big swing. Getting kids reading again is one of my biggest priorities for post-pandemic students, too.
I’ve already written several posts sharing thoughts, hopes, dreams, and fears regarding the question of what do we do next?
There are two types of change - transformation and intensification. Transformation is exactly what it sounds like - changing into something else entirely. Transportation changed transformationally when cars and trains replaced horses and carriages. Communication changed transformationally when the internet and mobile phones replaced mail, fax machines, and long-distance landline calling. Transformational changes are very, very, VERY big leaps forward made when an entirely new way of doing something completely replaces the old version. Intensification is improving an existing system. Electric cars represent an intensification in transportation; they’re still cars, they’re just improved cars. Voice-responsive smartphones represent an intensification in communication; they’re improved versions of keyboard-only smartphones. Intensification is a small step forward made by doing an existing process better. In education, the change from the one-room schoolhouse to the existing system based on courses and grade levels (often called the “factory model”) was the last transformational change. At that time, the whole existing system was replaced entirely. Since that transformation, almost all changes in schools represent intensification - merely improving what happens within the existing way of doing things. Intensification isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it necessarily follows transformation. Once something transformationally new comes into existence, it usually needs a lot of improvement. Think about the difference between an airplane or a computer or a school today versus the first ones ever produced. They’re much, MUCH better and can do much, MUCH more. What I see in Fulton County’s Every Child Reads plan is intensification, not transformation. Teachers will be better trained and have a better curriculum. They’ll spend more time, more effort, and more money to get kids back on track reading. More. Better. Intensification. Again, intensification isn’t bad. If we’re going to do something, we should do it better when a way to do so presents itself. The problem, however, is that intensification has very clear limits. Any sort of system, product, or technology typically follows the same improvement pattern called an “s-curve.” 
There are three important “stages” in that s-curve.
At point 1, the technology, system, or product is new, and improvement is slow. Through intensification, part 2 of the s-curve is a period of rapid advancement and improvement, before it inevitably reaches point 3, where it has pretty much become as good as it can get and any further improvement is very, very slow.
Transformational change replaces the whole thing with something new, resulting in a whole new s-curve: 
The reason I think we’re due for transformation is that intensification isn’t working any more in our schools. No matter how much money we spend, pressure we apply, or improvements we try to make, we’ve reached a point where the needle is hardly moving.
*nationsreportcard.gov
Or, in short, looking at the s-curve of our current education system, 
We’ve reached our limit. Intensification cannot and will not give us the improvement we seek anymore. We’ve max-ed it out.
Which only leaves transformation - true transformation - if we want to better educate our students. I wish Fulton County School well. I hope their “Every Child Reads” program yields amazing results that the whole country can follow. My suspicion, however, is that it will be yet another intensification project that doesn’t move the needle much. If I’m right, don’t blame them or their program. There are simply no new heights for this iteration of school to reach. This thing is as good as it can get. It’s time to create the next thing. If you enjoyed this post, please share it! Want to make sure you never miss a new post? Subscribe below for email notifications of new content.
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About MeI'm an award-winning teacher in Atlanta with experience teaching at every level from elementary school to college. Categories
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