Abstract:

Bill Ferriter, a North Carolina NBCT, reviews Barth’s book which emphasizes the importance of the relationships between adults in a school, analyzing how teachers sometimes cultivate professional isolation and the pressure of accountability on administrators. Ferriter calls the book, written by a Harvard professor who was a principal for ten years, “authentic.”

Citation: Barth, R.S. (1991). Improving schools from within: Teachers, parents, and principals can make the difference. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.

Full Text:

Roland S. Barth
(224 pp./paperback)
August 1991, Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 1-55542-368-X
US $19.00

Reviewed by Bill Ferriter
Dillard Drive Middle School
Raleigh, NC

Improving Schools from Within is a how-to manual for teachers and principals interested in implementing real change within the public school system. Written by Roland Barth, a Harvard professor with ten-plus years of experience as an elementary school principal, Improving Schools speaks with an authenticity lacking in many current discussions of school improvement.

Barth's central point throughout his book is that the relationships between adults within a school, particularly the links between administrators and teachers, are the single greatest factor in school improvement. He argues that adversarial relationships within schools are preventing forward progress, and he provides descriptions of how these relationships should be improved.

Barth goes on to contend that "Parallel Play" between staff members is hindering student success. Much like children in a sandbox who share resources and materials but do not interact, teachers often intentionally maintain professional isolation, failing to draw on the ideas and support of their colleagues.

He also examines the damage done through intimidation by the standard practice of formal teacher evaluations. The fear of administrative power is so great that – when these formal evaluative systems are used – true collegiality between the evaluators and those evaluated is nearly impossible.

Finally, the great pressures faced by principals in today's "Accountability Culture" are discussed. Barth describes the tendency of principals to control a school tightly in an effort to "produce" the outcomes desired by school board members, state boards of education and the community at large. These outside pressures, he claims, influence the decision making of well-intentioned administrators, thereby squelching the creativity of educators and limiting the effectiveness of many schools.

Although Barth wrote his book more than 10 years ago, Improving Schools from Within is an excellent reflection of the "State of our Schools." Barth's accurate depiction of the interactions between administration and teachers is remarkable. It was as if he had walked the halls in every building where I have ever worked, pointing out the "fatal flaws" that so often hinder success. The conversational tone of Barth's writing also makes Improving Schools appealing.

Raising awareness of the importance of healthy interactions between teachers, principals and parents is the real contribution made by Improving Schools from Within. It would be difficult for any reflective educator to walk away from this book untouched.

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Editor's note: Ronald Barth's new book, Learning by Heart, is due out in paperback ($19.95) in February 2004 and is currently available in hardback ($24.95).

Here's the publisher's note: "A decade after publication of his best-selling book, Barth returns to the schoolhouse. Drawing from a career committed to building schools rich in community, learning, and leadership, he shows how to accomplish the most difficult task of school reform-transforming a school's culture so that it will be hospitable to human learning. In an engaging conversational style, he suggests how school people can become the architects, engineers, and designers of their own schools—and of their own destinies."

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