Sometimes I scratch my head when I read about the government’s efforts to improve schools: new standards and tests to be applied, strict teacher evaluations, and threats of school closures and job losses. They frighten the school employees, not to mention the students. Instead of making people unable to solve problems or try new ideas-which is what fear does to us-research on school reform strongly suggests that policy-makers should encourage school leaders to take a more humane approach. In their study on the reform efforts of twelve Chicago public schools, Bryk and Schneider found that enabling positive social relationships between the adults was the key to successful school improvement and that trust was at the heart of those relationships.
Trust in schools comes down to one thing: psychological safety or safety to speak one’s mind, to discuss with openness and honesty what is and isn’t working, to make collective decisions.
Yet this kind of safety doesn’t come easily to schools. According to Bryk and Schneider, the adults in school rely on each other to do their jobs correctly and with integrity (正直). The challenge is that our expectations are very diverse based on our unique backgrounds.
At one school where I taught, each teacher had different expectations about how much effort teachers should put into their work-a big difference between the teachers who left at the last bell and those who worked into the evening. And when expectations are unspoken, it becomes impossible for others to live up to them.
We also make assumptions about the intentions behind a person’s behavior. As we all know, assumptions are often wrong. For example, parents and teachers may think the principal takes particular decision based on his career advancement rather than that is best for the students, who don’t feel psychologically safe to question our assumptions, trust files out the window and our relationships suffer.
【小题1】According to Paragraph 1, why does the author scratch his head?| A．Because he doesn’t know what to do once schools are closed. |
| B．Because he is not sure about the practicability of those new tests. |
| C．Because he is concerned that many teachers will lose their jobs. |
| D．Because he is not in favor of the government’ s reform efforts. |
| A．New standards and tests in schools. |
| B．Positive social relationships. |
| C．Strict teacher and student evaluations. |
| D．Assistance of the government. |
| A．Freedom to express one’ s views. |
| B．Extra effort teachers put into their work. |
| C．Independence of the teachers in schools. |
| D．Unconscious and unspoken expectations. |
| A．They should be trusted. |
| B．They are often bold. |
| C．They are often incorrect. |
| D．They should be encouraged. |
