IT used to be that all heart bypass operations were very invasive procedures. They involved opening the chest, stopping the heart to make the repair and, typically, six weeks of convalescence. What medicine
might teachThursday, came reports that surgeons are being trained to perform a new procedure. In some cases, they can now perform a bypass through a small opening between two ribs while the heart is still beating. The patient is back at work in a week.
Doctors and medical researchers expend a lot of effort identifying and implementing what they call "best practice." These are the procedures that are most likely to cure. This new bypass operation, for example, might soon become the best-practice standard for certain heart conditions.
The health-care revolution is placing new emphasis on following best practice.
Teaching isn't surgery and students don't face life-or-death in the classroom. However, the SAT scores announced this week for Hawaii public schools paint a dark picture. Nationally, 23 percent of third graders score below average in reading. Here, 39 percent do.
Teaching may still be considered an art, not a science - but so was medicine until relatively recently. Perhaps educators should look to medicine's example.
Research which techniques work best; train and require teachers to use those procedures. Could that be a prescription for progress?
