Cathy Owens-Oliver

Why Schools Fumble Cathy Owens-Oliver

Are kids failing school or are schools failing kids? This is a question that keeps me up at night, grappling with the post pandemic demand for school improvement. What if schools adopted a "football faith" and religiously committed to making every learning experience a touchdown? What if every educator believed that, no matter what position s/he plays on the team, the ultimate goal is to get the ball, which is the student, into the end zone? This analogy is a great way to reimagine American schools, but it will remain in our imagination until we stop fumbling the ball. While teachers on the field are held accountable for what they do when the ball is in their hands, many question who really calls the plays? I believe educators know exactly what to do to solve problems in schools, but we aren't empowered to do what we know works. This book calls attention to repeated fumbles in the education industry and provides strategies to help individual school teams to address their own problems. Its first purpose is to get to the root of perpetuated problems in schools so we may better understand why they exist. Second, its purpose is to make a clarion call for all team players, who know what it takes to win, to come together and be real game changers.