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Steamboat Springs — School change has been an ubiquitous topic of national and local concern for decades. In the process of trying to implement change, many school districts have adopted a policy of becoming "everything to everybody." Although an altruistic policy on the surface, it seems to me that if a school system tries to be everything to everybody, it becomes virtually nothing in terms of educational value.

Let's take a look at what this all-inclusive policy teaches us. If community concern is focused on the record of school athletic teams, we learn a powerful lesson about educational priorities. If teachers who are trained in academic content and pedagogy are required to become surrogate parents and social workers, we learn a lesson about how our society values the professional educator. If teachers and school administrators are required to take on the role of peace officers, we learn another lesson about the societal value of the school system as an institution.

And even in the curriculum, important lessons are taught by the internal and external pressures of what others feel are priorities. When some subjects are taught daily in order to pass the Colorado School Assessment Program (CSAP) test - or to meet the accountability measures of "No Child Left Behind" - and other subjects (such as the arts) are taught at random, every two weeks or neglected altogether, we learn another lesson about priorities. And then, what happens to those who are really looking for a well-rounded and high-quality academic experience? If the policy is to be everything to everybody, can we meet the needs for those seeking academic excellence through a broad and inclusive curriculum?

A policy of being everything to everybody has produced massive failures in our educational system and short-sighted planning for the future. For example, the number of high school graduates requiring remedial work prior to taking college classes is increasing at an alarming rate across the nation. Data provided in a recent "Report Card for Higher Education" indicates that 58 percent of high school graduates are not prepared to enter college and/or the workforce.

The problem of ill-prepared high school graduates has become so epidemic that, according to a recent report in the "Chronicle of Higher Education," governors from 45 states, corporate executives, policy experts, leaders from both secondary and higher education, and representatives from a wide range of philanthropic and nonprofit organizations have expressed interest in making a high school diploma a true indicator of college and career readiness.

The message of making a high school diploma an indicator for college readiness is sending a strong message to educational policy-makers that our school systems cannot be "everything to everybody." This national initiative sends a strong message that our schools need to get back to the basic mission of educating our children and youth to be prepared for college and the workforce.

The need for educational reform is not an indictment about our teachers and school administrators. On the contrary. For the most part, those who have dedicated their lives to the profession of education are outstanding and dedicated professionals who are making positive differences in the lives of our children. Nor is the need for educational reform an indictment on our school boards. Boards of Education represent our communities and are reflecting the values of our communities and our society.

If positive change is going to occur in school policy, we must first let our school boards know that we are not as concerned with issues of social and political power as we are concerned with curricular content. And secondly, we must work to counteract the false notion that every serious problem can be solved by education. We must prioritize education so that it is not everything to everybody. Education must be the means by which our children will learn how to work with ideas, knowledge, and information that will enable them to function effectively in a global society after their formal schooling is over.

Kerry Hart is dean of Colorado Mountain College's Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs. He can be reached at khart@coloradomtn.edu.