Is competition The Force or The Dark Side?

by Alistair BomphrayThere has been some upheaval at my school lately as we attempt to restructure into wall-to-wall academies for next year. As I mentioned in my post from a couple of weeks ago, “My Academy Can Beat Up Your Academy: The Danger of Small Schools,” much of this upheaval is rooted in competition. It’s no mystery. Whenever you create semi-autonomous entities on the same campus—and ask them to share resources, draw from the same student/teacher pool, prove their worth with test-driven data—there’s bound to be some in-fighting.A couple of weeks ago, I asked our readers what they thought about competition in schools. Here are the results:Do you think it’s okay for teachers to use competition in their classes as a motivational tool?Yes 69%No 31%Do you think it’s beneficial for schools to compete with each other for the highest graduation rate/standardized test scores?Yes 29%No 68%Other 3%Do you think it’s acceptable for academies (or small learning communities) within one school to be competitive with each other?Yes 55%No 45%Let me try to wrap my head around this. So it’s okay for me to use competition in my own classes. And it’s even okay for my academy to be competitive with the other academies on campus (although we seem to be a little more conflicted about this). But it’s not okay for schools to be competitive with each other. Doesn’t that seem a little contradictory?Maybe not. Maybe competition within a class or a school can be managed so that it doesn’t deteriorate into savagery. Maybe my use of the words “standardized testing” in question two scared people off. What does seem clear is that on some level we are confused about what role competition should have in our schools. I know I am.To read the rest, go here: http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/11/reader-poll-results-is-competition-the-force-or-the-dark-side/