Workplace Trends

Accountability Environment

In the last few decades, accountability demands on schools have increased, culminating with the national No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 legislation. This law has imposed requirements upon schools and students, based primarily on student performance on standardized tests. These expanded accountability requirements have subjected educational institutions to increased public scrutiny. The effect on the workplace has been mixed, with two different management models unfolding. It is too soon to determine which of these trends will become more prominent or whether they will continue to coexist.

In some situations, there has been an increase in control over teacher autonomy, resulting in teaching models such as direct instruction, in which teachers must follow explicit steps and sometimes even scripts in their teaching. The use of standardized tests to measure performance has also resulted in many systems adopting more rigid curriculum standards, with directions that all children must use the same textbooks, giving teachers little freedom to vary their instruction or curricular approach. Thus, the workplace has become more controlled and the role of the teacher more constricted.

In other settings, schools and systems have decided to restructure the workplace to make it more collaborative. Shared leadership that includes teachers, staff, parents, and sometimes students has emerged, making the workplace a center of teamwork and joint decision making. In some situations, new organizational structures that include team teaching are also being formed. In such settings, there is often an increase in partnerships with parents, schools, universities, businesses, and communities focused upon the problems facing schools and enhancing educational resources and student success.

Family, Societal, and Workplace Transformations

Today's families are much more mobile and much less cohesive than in the past. Most children come from single-parent homes or from homes in which both parents are working and lack the support that came from extended families in the past. Poverty is on the rise, and many children are in need of social and health services that parents cannot always provide. In many instances, family problems and needs fall on the shoulders of the schools. Seeking to meet these needs, many schools are changing the workplace to include interagency partnerships with human service providers. Such partnerships have resulted in hiring and/or placing additional personnel in some schools, including nurses, social workers, and family counselors. Preschool and after-school programs have also been added to many school settings, thus extending the workday of the school and changing the responsibilities of the school and school personnel in caring for students.

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