Progressive interactions are more complicated to establish and maintain because they require people to stay engaged over longer periods of time (Fullan, 2005, p. 100).
"Political philosophers like John Dewey enormously enriched understanding of the links between democracy and education. In the two decades following the Brown decision in 1954, Americans ardently discussed how public schooling could promote racial and economic justice" (Tyack and Cuban, p 142).
"For each unit of performance I demand of you, I have an equal and reciprocal responsibility to provide you with a unit of capacity to produce that performance" (Elmore, p. 245).
"Right Action" in educational policy might be best phrased in terms of three theorems:
1) Effective education policy is based on principles and guiding ideas that are sustainable over time, and through the vicissitudes of political cycles, social change, and new understandings of knowledge (Elmore, 2005; Fullan, 2005; Tyack and Cuban, 1995). "Right Action" in policy-making is committed to this notion of sustainability.
2) "Right Action" in education policy is committed to notions of fairness and to constitutional principles of democracy, equality, and civic virtue (Postman, 1996; Rawls, 1971; Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Policy that makes changes based on other assumptions (economic discourse, the hope of new technology, the discourse of consumerism) may influence schools, but it will not contribute to the progress or sustenance of democracy.
3) "Right Action" in education policy recognizes the calculus of resources and capacity as a moral enterprise. Reciprocity in expectations about performance and commitment to capacity is a necessity (Elmore, 2005). Similarly, systems cannot change or be expected to change without "growing the investment" in schools (Fullan, 2005). The development of leaders, skilled teachers, and more capable graduates cannot be expected as a result of powerful external sanction; i.e, a system of punishments or rewards. Punishment will never be the moral basis of right action in educational policy. The morality of policy and resources in a system is that they must be shared in ways that benefit all stakeholders. Finally, they must be cultivated in ways that encourage the growth of all learners within the system.
