It is easy to think of schools and particularly colleges as places that produce students. Most busi-nesspeople who try to apply the business model to education suggest that schools be efficiently run enterprises that produce capable students. Just as cars come off the assembly line in a factory, educated students should come out of the school after a prescribed course of study.
To ensure quality control, we often test students before they enter a particular grade or course of study and then test them again after in an effort to measure what has been produced. The term being used now to describe this process is value added. We measure to determine what value has been added to the student by the school experience.Each year data is published by individual school districts and the state that compare our schools with others. Colleges and universities are now beginning to assess the progress of students ready for graduation and as well as students that have completed general education requirements. The idea is to do product comparisons and see if our product is as good as that produced by other schools. We are nervous when we don't reach the average and if our ranking slips from one year to the next. We should be more than nervous to just be average.
Now for an alternate point of view. Faculty are the products in education.
In this view, students are consumers; they buy the product where they can get the best value for the money. Students looking for a college or university program are serious comparison shoppers.
Students may choose to purchase a medical education at the University of Utah because of the faculty that have developed the artificial limb program. What student wouldn't like the opportunity for just one class or seminar from a Nobel prize-winning faculty? Students may choose to study in a particular art or music program because of a prominent artist on the faculty at a particular school.
The selection of a college by students may be based on some general feelings or observations about a faculty. Some colleges may have a reputation for having a caring and nurturing faculty that put teaching as first priority.
If satisfied customers is one of the goals of an institution of higher education, then product improvement and quality control is a must. Faculty should be rewarded and consequently improved with opportunities to write, publish, experiment and improve courses.
This idea of faculty as the product applies at the public school level as well. We would all choose, or purchase, an expert reading teacher for our children. Parents seem willing to buy what is best even if it costs a bit more. Parents seem to understand that they are purchasing a future, not just an education.
Educators should focus on improving our product, the teachers. A sufficient investment in them will also improve the measures that we take when we test the kids in our schools and compare them to the kids in other schools.
It is tempting for some within and without the teaching profession to think of this kind of product improvement in terms of higher salaries for teachers. The notion is that a higher wage will attract more qualified teachers. This idea may be true to a degree, but it takes more than a good salary to make a teacher good.
Product improvement of this type means providing opportunities for teachers to visit other schools and attend conferences. It means providing planning time and requiring scholarly research from teachers at all levels. It means simple things like providing enough books and materials and making it unnecessary for teachers to buy supplies from their own pockets. It means rewarding teachers who are truly excellent with public recognition. Good teachers deserve the opportunity to take an occasional public bow.
Whether the faculty or the students are the products of education may be a moot point. The real point may be that we will have neither excellent students nor outstanding schools without excellent teachers. Perhaps as we look to improve our schools we need to improve the product we purchase. Our tax money purchases teachers.