Posts from — February 2008

I find there are lots of reasons to be thinking about changing and/or improving the school system in the US. Here are just a few (quoted from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development web site on educating the whole child):

Today 6,000 talented young people will drop out of school.

Today over 9 million children do not have health insurance.

Today 12 young people will commit suicide.

Today 960 children will be victims of a violent crime.

Today only 11 states require credits in a foreign language for students to graduate.

Today African American students are 14 percent of those in school, but only 7 percent of those taking Advanced Placement exams.

Today two-thirds of high school students will be bored in at least one class.

Today 15 million students who need mentors do not have them.

These statistics should make any educator think. Not only should they think about ‘what’ they are doing but they should think about ‘why’ they are doing it. I wonder what good, well intentioned people that are involved in the schooling system say to each other or to themselves when they see the results that this system produces. Do they honestly think we are doing good? Do they think this system as it is currently conceived and operating is something worth continuing?

They must. The aim of the current system must be something they feel comfortable with and can say in some rational fashion that we are moving towards achieving. As stated in a previous post the aim of the current system, whether consciously stated or unconsciously practiced, is to ‘school the population in the basics so they can be good citizens and reduce crime.’

I’m a student of Dr. Deming’s theory of management. He advocated continual, never ending improvement. If the school system we have had any interest in improvement would we be experiencing these kinds of statistics? Since the school system is not continually improving by definition we can say that teachers, administrators and the system itself are NOT LEARNING.

Isn’t it fascinating that there is this entire system that is supposedly designed for ‘learning’ that is engaging millions of people and demonstrates no learning as a consequence of the activities of the system. Doesn’t that make one think? It gets me to think about what is really going on?

This post is inspired by some articles from the ASCD about teaching the whole child. Most of what I’ve read I would whole heartily agree with and support.

This article (link below) asks the question about whether we should really be teaching people to think. The fact that this question is being asked would lead me to believe (or confirm my belief) that thinking is NOT a priority in the current system.

Cover the Material—Or Teach Students to Think?
Marion Brady

To move beyond rote memorization and use a full range of thinking skills, students need to tackle issues straight out of the complex world in which they live.

So here’s today’s project, kids. Get in small groups and put together flowcharts tracing the possible long-range consequences of a new state energy conservation law that says you can’t use any kind of motorized vehicle to travel less than one mile.”

This article goes on to advocate connecting the learning experience to the real world:

Real and Rigorous
A focus on real-world issues can alter the entire culture of a school or school system. It enables students and teachers to experience the “meatiness” of the direct study of reality. It’s unfailingly relevant. It shows respect for students, who become more than mere candidates for the next higher grade. It levels the playing field by not privileging those with superior symbol manipulation skills. It disregards the arbitrary, artificial boundaries of the academic disciplines. It’s easily applicable to the wider world. And it shifts the emphasis from cover-the-material memory work to a full range of thinking skills.

From another article in the same issue of the ASCD magazine, the author is suggesting we need to have a thinking discipline.

What the Future Requires
Today, the information revolution and the ubiquity of search engines have rendered having information much less valuable than knowing how to think with information in novel situations. To thrive in contemporary societies, young people must develop the capacity to think like experts. They must also be able to integrate disciplinary perspectives to understand new phenomena in such fields as medicine, bioethics, climate science, and economic development. In doing so, the disciplined mind resists oversimplification and prepares students to embrace the complexity of the modern world.

Personally I find these arguments to be both encouraging and deeply troubling.

I am encouraged that some educators are advocating for a real, rigorous and connected experience in the learning process. I am troubled that this argument will go no where in the current system.

Here’s another argument which I find both encouraging and troubling. There is a movement building that would have the current system changed to put the focus on 21st Century Skills instead of the basics. 

Voters urge teaching of 21st-century skills
Poll suggests ‘back-to-basics’ approach to education is not enough for nation’s citizens By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News 
The majority of U.S. voters believe schools are not preparing students to compete in the new global economy. In yet another sign that momentum is building for the teaching of so-called “21st-century skills” in the nation’s classrooms, results of a new poll indicate that voters overwhelmingly agree: The skills students need to succeed in the workplace of today are notably different from what they needed 20 years ago.

I’m encouraged that people are aware of the fact we need young people to have a different set of skills and knowledge in order to be successful in the 21st Century. I’m discouraged because changing the ‘what’ of schooling is just like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic. The ship is going down if we don’t change the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ as well. Just changing what is taught will only get us more of the same types of statistics listed above.

Now this is interesting. The Texas School System’s method of accountability was the model for No Child Left Behind. Recent research shows that very same school system is actually losing a lot of students – and by not counting low-achieving students in their statistics they were able to show rising test scores. Actual facts are that Texas is graduating only 33% of their students. The research also shows that the longer this system of accountability is in place the worse it will get. Here’s the full text of the article I read: 

Study: Texas school system fosters low graduation rates
A study by Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin shows that Texas’ public school accountability system, the model for the national No Child Left Behind Act, directly contributes to lower graduation rates.

By analyzing data from more than 271,000 students, the study found that 60 percent of African-American students, 75 percent of Latino students and 80 percent of English-as-a-second language students did not graduate within five years.

Each year, Texas public high schools lose at least 135,000 youth prior to graduation. Researchers found an overall graduation rate of only 33 percent.

The exit of low-achieving students created the appearance of rising test scores and of a narrowing of the achievement gap between white and minority students, thus increasing the schools’ ratings, the study showed.

What’s more, the study indicated that the higher the stakes and the longer such an accountability system governs schools, the more school personnel view students not as children to educate but as potential liabilities or assets for their school’s performance indicators, their own careers or their school’s funding.

Among other findings, the study showed a relationship between the increasing number of dropouts and schools’ rising accountability ratings, finding that the accountability system allows principals to hold back students who are deemed at risk of reducing school scores — but a high proportion of students retained this way end up dropping out.

Again I am struck by the dichotomy that exists in public education – and that rational, thinking, and caring people continue to do things that harm children.

On the one hand there is ‘evidence’ (please note I am saying that with tongue in cheek!) that incentives are good and help raise test scores. In that same hand there are programs where students are being paid to get good grades or test scores and there are programs to ‘incent’ teachers to raise test scores by giving them pay raises or some kind of bonus. There are people that point to statistics that these things are not only working but they are good. I can imagine these things ‘work’ for some short-term gain but it’s another thing to say they are ‘good.’

Tying Cash Awards to AP-Exam Scores Seen as Paying Off
Is there anything wrong with receiving $500 for a test score? What if that inducement seems to help pull up SAT scores and college-enrollment rates among disadvantaged students?

In the other hand we see recent research that shows this focus on high stakes testing is causing a shift in teaching behavior that results in leaving lots of students behind.