ABSTRACT
Historically, schools and districts in the United States have been structured to operate, and be managed, from the top down. This top-down structure perpetuates itself right down to the bottom of the system and plays itself out by teachers then supervising students in classrooms. The authors consider how this structure of our education system impacts students, who are people and not products, the costs are enormous. The top-down pressure to improve academic achievement not only does not work, it actually causes performance to decrease. Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy (MSLA) was designed to meet the specific needs of the students it serves. At MSLA, they consider student participation in service learning and passion areas, student surveys, behavior, re-enrollment, and engagement in order to determine student success. In teacher-powered schools, like MSLA, teachers are replacing accountability with responsibility. The staff also cares deeply about who the students are as people and citizens, not just about their standardized test scores.
