Previously the chief legal officer and assistant superintendent for human resources with Niles Township High School District 219, John Heintz guides the Chicago consulting firm Second Rail. Leveraging experience that spans multiple disciplines, John Heintz assists Chicago clients in navigating staff performance, effective incentives, and innovative strategies for instilling a sense of entrepreneurial ownership in educational results.
In late 2016, Mr. Heintz authored the piece “Looking to 2017 for Transforming Education” and examined a situation in which he explained that due to the familiarity most Americans have with public education significant resistance stands in the way of transformation. Mr. Heintz makes the argument that nothing hinders improving America's schools more than antiquated and emotional expectations for schools. The first step, he explains, is the need to overcome expectations based not in data but nostalgia. The need for transformation is insistent, with graduates facing diminished job prospects in a global market, an increasing perception of a skills gaps between what employers need and what students know, and lackluster student performance ratings on international scales like the highly respected PISA exam.
Unfortunately, Mr. Heintz argues, the public at large does not have a strong understanding of the progress that has been made in education design in recent years. Underlying expert recommendations is solid research in cognitive science, nutrition, medicine and data analysis. These areas came to prominence in educational design in the last decade. Their recommendations will change many fundamental priorities of schools. Increased public understanding of and support for the work of progressive, non-partisan experts could significantly improve educational outcomes. Mr. Heintz highlights the distance between current public perceptions and expert recommendations. He calls for giving educational experts the kind of latitude they need to make real progress. Schools have a long way to go. He highlights that most schools continuing to be organized on the agrarian calendar despite no evidence of a positive relationship between that calendar and academic performance. Nonetheless, a three-month summer break continues to be firmly embedded in the school landscape. Innovative schools are bucking the trend. Not until the public sees the benefits of these new models will the student experience be transformed.
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