Posts from — March 2007

In a recent post I expressed some concern about the ideology being employed in public education. I would suggest that most educators involved in public education feel they are doing the ‘right thing’ every day. In most public schools that means preparing young people to take tests – NOT to succeed in an ever changing, technological world.

In some areas of the country the idea of lengthening the school day has been proposed as a way to help ‘failing’ schools. The idea being proposed is to give these schools more time to prepare young people for the tests they must take – and teach subjects that have been dropped from the curriculum (like art, music and drama).

It seems to me that the issue isn’t how long the day is but what is being done during the day that matters. If educators don’t change what they are doing – how they teach – then just giving them more time isn’t going to solve much. In fact, it will probably just make matters worse.

Here’s an article that articulates this ‘solution’ in the New York Times:

Failing Schools See a Solution in Longer Day
by DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
Published: March 26, 2007
FALL RIVER, Mass. — States and school districts nationwide are moving to lengthen the day at struggling schools, spurred by grim test results suggesting that more than 10,000 schools are likely to be declared failing under federal law next year.

In some places, like New Mexico, the extra time is being used to ‘tutor’ young people in the subjects they are struggling with.

I’m not sure I really understand why teachers don’t see that teaching is an equal part in the equation of learning. Why is it just the learner that is the ‘problem?’

Here’s another tact the State of Maryland is taking to get young people to stay in school. They have decided to withhold the ability to get a drivers license if a student misses more than 10 days of school.

Truant Maryland students could be denied driver’s license
Maryland lawmakers approved a bill that would deny driver’s licenses to students with 10 or more unexcused absences. Under the bill, each student would have to present an attendance record to the state to get a permit, but students who already have a license would not be at risk of losing it. The Washington Post (3/16)

The sponsor of the bill that passed in the House of Delegates said, “This does give us a tool to use to combat truancy,” said Del. Gerron S. Levi (D), the bill’s House sponsor.

Why not give them a reason to go to school rather then a reason to avoid something else?

OK, so let’s see, I have to go to school so I can get my drivers license, but if I come to school I might win an iPod, and, if I pass a certain exam I can make $250, and if I graduate I could possibly win a car. Hmmm. Why do I need to learn anything? I’ll just sit through this whole boring mess and get the money and the perks!

Here’s another tact the State of Maryland is taking to get young people to stay in school. They have decided to withhold the ability to get a drivers license if a student misses more than 10 days of school.

Truant Maryland students could be denied driver’s license
Maryland lawmakers approved a bill that would deny driver’s licenses to students with 10 or more unexcused absences. Under the bill, each student would have to present an attendance record to the state to get a permit, but students who already have a license would not be at risk of losing it. The Washington Post (3/16)

The sponsor of the bill that passed in the House of Delegates said, “This does give us a tool to use to combat truancy,” said Del. Gerron S. Levi (D), the bill’s House sponsor.

Why not give them a reason to go to school rather then a reason to avoid something else?

OK, so let’s see, I have to go to school so I can get my drivers license, but if I come to school I might win an iPod, and, if I get an A in certain classes I might make $450, and if I graduate I could possibly win a car. Hmmm. Why do I need to learn anything? I’ll just sit through this whole boring mess and get the money and the perks!

Well, not really. The beginning of the end already started – but this is more of the kind of thing that will ultimately end in the ruin of Public Schooling. Can you imagine if incentives – paying students to go to school, paying them to get good grades, paying them to pass tests, paying them to graduate, etc. – continues?

I’ve already written about teacher incentives and charging parents if their children don’t come to school or if they miss a parent teacher meeting.

I’ve also written about the different incentives being used on young people: enticing them with iPods, breakfast, paying third graders and paying $5 per A, $4 per B, etc. and offering the enticement of a car for graduating.

Here’s another article along these lines:

A 0 incentive for passing an AP exam
A group of educators and business executives will offer some D.C.-area Advanced Placement students and teachers $250 for each passing score on science, English and math tests. In Dallas, where a similar program launched more than a decade ago, the number of passing AP scores in 10 targeted high schools increased from 71 in 1995 to 877 in 2006. The Washington Post (3/9)

The reason I was saying this is the beginning of the end is because if this continues and one school finds out about some incentive another school has; or schools in one state find out about something going on in another state; the only logical outcome of all this is an escalation of this kind of thinking with the need for greater and greater rewards being offered.

This is NOT SUSTAINABLE!

I wonder why there aren’t more people concerned about the high school system in this country. BUT, that said, just being concerned will get us no where. I learned yesterday that the landmark report called A Nation at Risk was developed by the Nixon administration and has been used since then to drive the right wing ‘reform efforts’ in the school system – culminating in what we have now as No Child Left Behind. This kind of thinking will only continue to make matters worse as I’ve stated previously. Now, here’s some pretty hard evidence that the “product” being produced by the current education system is not engaging the teenagers of today, that they experience much of high school as irrelevant’ and that it seems that teachers don’t care about them.

What’s quite interesting to me is that most of the educators I speak with already know this – but they haven’t figured out how to create an experience that is engaging and desirable by the young people that come to their schools. What will it take for the kind of change that is needed to actually occur?

Survey: Many U.S. high school students bored in class
POSTED: 12:15 p.m. EST, February 28, 2007
CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) — A majority of U.S. high school students say they get bored in class every day, and more than one out of five has considered dropping out, according to a survey released Wednesday.