Educational Engineering

8/9/2019 Educational Engineering

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Journal of Negro ducation

Educational Engineering: Managing Change to Secure Stipulated Results for DisadvantagedChildrenAuthor(s): Leon M. LessingerSource: The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 40, No. 3, Strategies for Educational Change(Summer, 1971), pp. 277-281Published by: Journal of Negro EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2966512 .Accessed: 10/02/2015 19:22

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CHAPTER XEDUCATIONALENGINEERING: MANAGINGCHANGE TO SECURE

STIPULATED RESULTS FOR DISADVANTAGEDCHILDREN

LEONM. LESSINGERCallowayProfessor f Education, GeorgiaState University

Knowledge xists of better ways toaccomplishmeasurable ains n learningfor disadvantagedhildren. Half a dec-ade and billions of federal dollars nfragmented, lmost andom esearch nddevelopment n elementary nd second-ary educationhave produced varietyof insights, echniques, aterials nd vali-dated practices n the intellectual, ocialand vocational reas of education.Whatis lacking s a direct nd systematic t-tempt to assemnble hat good practiceand translate t into standard racticein America's choolrooms nd learningcenters. This is an engineering askand those whose xpertise ill be neededmay properly e called educational n-gineers.

There s aboutengineering t its best,a delightful ack of guile. It is a can-do endeavor et to function round asimple list of questions: 1) What isthe problem? 2) What are the speci-

fications or alternative best olutions?(3) What technology s available tosolve such a class of problems? 4)What resources an be committed? 5)What are the time constraints?nd (6)When can the program tart?

Education, y contrast, aluesthe cir-cumlocution, he indirect, he nonspeci-

fic solution to the specific problem.Whereas engineering mbraces he lawof parsimony a canon of science, d-ucation uspects he simple nd equatessimplicity ith simplistic.

Herbert Hoovercaptures he engineerand the profession n striking ashionin his Memoirs:1

It is a great profession. There isthe fascination f watching figmentof the magination merge hrough heaid of science to a plan on paper.Then it moves o realizationn stoneor metal or energy..... . hisworks re out in the open where llcan see them. His acts, tep by step,are in hard substance. He cannotbury his mistakes n the grave ikethe doctors. He cannot rgue theminto thin air or blame the udge likethe lawyers . . the engineer imply

cannot deny that he did it. If hisworks o not work, e is damned.. . . To the engineer alls the ob

of clothing he bare bones of sciencewith ife, omfort nd hope.Engineering s an accountable rofes-

sion. With the recent dvent of ac-countability or results n education, heeducation rofession ay well take onan

engineeringflavor. Educational n-

gineerings an apt namefor heoutcomeof such a happy development.

A good engineer eginsby challeng-ing assumptions. He refuses o believethat something s impossiblemerely e-cause it has never been done or becausepeople say there s no way to do itor because it would upset establishedways. The good engineer, n the field

1 Herbert Hoover,The Memoirs f Her-bert Hoover. Excerpt n Mayes, HerbertR., An Editor's Treasury, art I, VolumeII (New York: Atheneum 969), p. 1253.

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278 THE JOURNALOF NEGRO EDUCATION

of education s elsewhere, tarts with agoal to be achieved, ot with the deadweight f precedent r unexamined e-liefs.

In the education f disadvantaged hil-dren the notion f aptitude s the singlegreatest bstacle o progress. Education-al engineering hallenges he traditionalapproach, ot by denying hat studentsdiffer n their ptitude ut in changingits basic definition. Aptitude o the en-gineer s not the degree of masterystudent will retain. It is defined nsteadas a function f the amount f time ndresource needed to attain full masteryof learning stipulated ask. Obviously,some tudents an master skill such asreading more quickly than others, ndsome wiRl be quite slow, but if thecurriculum s adapted to these differ-ences, every hild can learn to read orto calculate or to master ny of theother kills ssential o a productive ifein society. What matters most withregard o a particular kill is not howlong a child took to master t or thetype of training e received, ut thefact that he now possesseshe skill.

What happens when this engineeringdefinition f aptitude s accepted? Theanswer o this question an literally ethe catalyst or the basic refonn n edu-cation so deeply desired, or instead ofa fixed program n which each childlearnswhat he can, a goalof basic mas-tery for everyone s stipulated nd thesystem ffers hatever rograms re ne-cessary o meet that goal. Instead ofgrades the system provides diagnosticinstruments o help decide which pro-gram each child needs; instead of solereliance n its own personnel, he sys-tem seeks outside help as it learns of

its own lack of capability n definedcircumstances;nstead f vague goals andobjectives, he decisionmakers dopt ac-

countability olicies requiring ndepen-dent accomplishment udits which relateactual results o those which were in-tended; nstead of merely arrying ntraditional ractice, hesystem eekswaysto close the performance ap its inde-pendent audit discloses; nstead of re-strictive udgeting, he system nvests.fiscal et-asides s incentives nd devel-

opment capital to close the gaps itsfeedback ystem eveals; nd at the endof the process he system wards skillwarranties nstead of the increasingly-dubious diploma. With regard o whatmust e leamed, nstead f labeling ome,children s losers, he fundamental s-sumption s that with appropriate rain-ing every kid will finish s a winner.2

In the engineering ense the schools,treat earning not as a race to some,valued goal, but as the ability o getthere, ne way or another, t a variety-of paces.

How can the process called educa--tional engineering mprove the schoolas it is actually xperienced y the stu-

dents? Of what stages and elementsdoes it consist? What must schooloffi--cials do in order o make use of edu-cational ngineering? he remainder fthis article ddresses hese questions na general way.

The principle f accountabilitys the'key to the adoption f educational ngi-neering, or in order o answer o the-public in terms f results, chool offi-cialswill have to adopt ertainmanager-

2 Leon M. Lessinger, very Kid a Win-ner: Accountability n Education (New-York: Simon and Schuster, 970).




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EDUCATIONALENGINEERING 279

ial procedures hat both stimulate hedemandfor perfornance nd help themprovide t. The public has a right o

know what benefits hey are receivingfor their ax dollars. In addition o re-porting he ngredients f educational ys-tems, he teachers, pace,materials, ol-lars and the like, accountability equiresa reporting f the educational ains oroutcomes tudents' chieved. his soundssimple nough, ut schoolsmust changein several espectsn order or the pub-

lic to know the actual results f instruc-tional programs. hese changes ncdude:(1) developing erformance riteria oreach program, 2) obtaining n inde-pendent ducational ccomplishmentu-dit to measure the actual performanceagainst hesecriteria, nd (3) providinga public forum or the auditor o makehis report. Accountability ill forceeducators oabandon he traditional rac-tice of withholding ll but the mostgen-eral information n educational ccom-plishment. With this truth n accom-plishment eporting, choolswill haveto act on what the data show and besubject o cofmpetitiveressures rom ys-tems hat re more uccessful.

Within the continuing rod of ac-countability, he educational ngineeringprocess an flourish. The process d-dresses each performance ap not invague terms ut point by point. If amachinemalfunctions, ngineers mmedi-ately ook for pecific auses. They testthe variables, he performance f eachpart of the assembly, o find out whatis goingwrong. Rather han reject hemachine, uestion the capability f itsoperators, r condemn he factory ys-tem of production, hey go straight othe specific uestion f what is wrongwith the machine.

The educational ngineer pplies asimilar pproach o education. Insteadof blaming the leamers, the teachers,

their nvironments,he school ystem rvarious parts of it, he attends to acareful efinition f the performance e-sired and the factors hich eem to becausing he difficulty. e assures ualityby a series f specific hanges nstead fhalf-launching r talking o death onegrand program fter nother.

Educational ngineering mploys ev-eral additional orms f help to transformgoodpractice nto tandard ractice. heseadditional orms may comefrom utsidethe school system nd are designed ohelp the local system, ithin imits nits own terms. In other words, thecontrol emainsocal,but the services redrawn from many ources.

In order to draw on the technologyof instruction ow being developed ravailable s a result f the federal nvest-ments nd *to ssure hat ocal uses of itare skillful, prudent, thorough andprompt, school district eedshelp inthe form f (1) development r ven-ture capital, armarked or innovation,supplied n part from ederal unds, ndset aside from the ordinary peratingbudget; 2) an outsidemanagement up-port group that serves the local boardboth as a catalyst orthe new programsand as a bufFer etween he board andthe groups, gencies nd firms nvolvedin the process f change; 3) firms nthe knowledge ndustry r nonprofit

groups or groups from within ts ownpersonnel anded together o meet theinstructional eeds pecified y the schoolboard; 4) a performance ontract egal-ly binding ll parties o perform s speci-fied; (5) an independent ccomplish-




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280 THE JOURNALOF NEGRO EDUCATION

ment uditorwho makes publicreportof the uccess f the performanceontract;and (6) a commitment hrough pro-visions n the performance ontract obring uccessful ractice nto the schoolsystem fter t has been demonstratedin the educational ngineering rocess.

It can be readily een that these sixelements an be orchestratedn a varietyof ways with a variety f resources oachieve variety f objectives ncludingteacher training, management raining,

try-out f alternative rocedures nd soforth.

The following escription llustratesone educational ngineering rocessde-signed to achieve results n the basicacademic kills; ariations n this particu-lar process re now in use in over onehundred chool ystems mploying orethan 30 million dollars f developmentcapital largely ederal SEA funds).

(1) The local education agency(LEA) employs management upportgroup (MSG), whose members havecompetencyto ssist hem n political, o-cial, economic,managerial, nd educa-tionalmatters. The relationship etweenthe management upport roup nd thelocal school leadership roup resemblesthat of long-term onsultants n a re-tainer account. (2) The MSG workswith taff nd communityor other roupsas required y a particular ocal situa-tion) to produce request or proposal(RFP), which s a set of specificationsindicating s clearly s possible he ser-

vice to be performed, he approximateamount of money to be invested, heconstraints o be observed, he standardsacceptable, nd related matters. TleREP is the ocal education gency's lue-print for action to meet pressing rior-

ities. (3) The next tageof the educa-tional engineering rocessoccurs whenthe RFP is sent out to bid. The pre-

bidding conferenceecomesthe forum

for educational xchange. Here a richand varied ommunication hrough om-petition ccursbetween lements f theprivate nd public sector. The biddingprocess s flexible o the extent hat al-lowance s madeby LEA officials ornewinsights nd better lements o be in-corporated nto a revised RFP. (4)

Following he bidding onference, re-vised RFP is issuedand actual bids areentertained. he MSG assists he LEAin operating he conference nd review-ing the bids. The local board hearsthe top bids in a manner imilar o theprocessused in the employment f anarchitect. (5) The local school boardselectswhat it considers o be the best

bid and enters nto negotiation or aperformance ontract ith the successfulbidder. The MSG assists t this stage.(6) Concurrently ith the signing ofthe performance ontract, n independenteducational ccomplishmentudit team semployed y the LEA both to monitorexecution f the performanceontract ndto provide eedback o the LEA to certi-fy results orpurposes f paymient.

From he foregoing t maybe apparentthat ducational ngineering ests n sev-eral assumptions hat are a feature fthe research nd development anage-ment tyle f American usiness nd in-dustry. n the nterest f maximum lex-ibility n the developmen,tf this field

in education omeof the more mportantof these ssumptions re now described.

AssuMPTIoNs UNDRLYiNG EDUCATIONALENGTNERING

(1) The theory nd practice f Re-




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EDUCATIONALENGINEERING 281

search nd DevelopmmenitR & D) man-agement, s pioneered nd utilized byAmerican ndustry nd the federal ov-

ernment an be adapted o the needs ndinterest f the American ducational ys-tem.

(2) R & D management xpertise ndnot educational echniques s such pro-videsthe necessary nd sufficient rogramstrategy or attaining nd maintainingnew levels of student chievement, lexi-bility and institutional elf-renewal.

(3) R & D management t its best snot in conflict with the concepts ndtrends n the educational ield, .g. indi-vidualized nstruction, tudent entered-ness, human dignity, ut is essential otheir fulfillment sing increasingly im-ited resources n more nd more omplexcircumstances.

(4) The history f the employmentof innovative anagement tyles n otherfields uggests hat ts use in educationwill require xperimentation, ome trialand error xperience nd staff raining.Its use will pass through tages f evolu-tion achievingmore complexroles andresponsibilitiess feedback rom rojects

builds and is evaluated.The barely two-year ry-out f the

educational ngineering rocess escribedin this rticle lready ttests o the valid-ity of these ssumptions.

SUMMARY

When a program n the schools s

well engineered, t will meet everal ests:it will require educational lanners ospecify, n measurable erms, what they

are trying o accomplish. t will pro-vide for n independent udit of results.It will allow taxpayers nd their repre-sentatives o judge the educational ay-off of a given appropriation. t willstimulate continuing rocess f inno-vation, not merely one-shot eform.It will call forth ducational deas,talentand technology rom ll sectors f the

society, ot only from within particu-lar school ystem. t will allow schoolsto experiment ith new programs tlimited isk nd adopt the best of thempromptly. Above all, it will guaranteeresults n terms f what students anactually do. In this sense, educationalengineering s not a single program, uta technique for the management fmuch-needednstitutional hange nd re-form.

Educational ngi-neering tarts ith theassumption hat ll children an succeed,that with an adequate echnology f in-struction interested and enlightenedadults an help them oward ompetenceand a certified ense of accomplishment.The end product f educational ngineer-ing is not a program r a machine r areport, ut rather capability as,for example, child's ability o read,and the gleam n his eye.


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