How do we fix education?

[Sleeping in EQ]

That would require a new and expensive level of bureaucracy, which I think is unlikely to happen.

My own fix would be to have teachers take on more admin work, do it for teacher pay (currently significantly less than admin work), and cut back their class load to make up the difference. At least this way if the Admin work was going to continue to go undone, it would be undone at teacher salary level as opposed to admin salary level, and the teachers could use the extra time to improve their classroom product.

LOL.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Two significant problems in colleges and universities are:

1. Students are content with what they already know (even though it usually isn't much), yet want the prestige of a degree.

2. Consumer society has cultivated a belief in students that if they are frustrated, injustice is occuring and they should be blaming someone.

These are both deep, cultural problems.

[RobinFinderson]

I watched the piece too, even posted about it in response to your earlier post. http://cougaruteforum.com/showpost.p...37&postcount=6

You ignored me.

Anyway, the school takes no outside or private funding, and is run on exactly the same budget per student as the rest of the NY public system. They save through making the teachers take on a lot of the auxiliary work that is typically hired out and through low cost bare-bones facilities. So yes, the teachers work harder and longer hours, but they all seem very happy to do it. Additionally, they have film review and critique sessions to help each other improve their skills and are constantly being evaluated. It's pretty intense, but again, they're all happy. I believe there's a positive feedback independent of any promotion or recognition that comes from doing your job very well, and that seems to hold here. Interesting piece.

You'll probably ignore me again.

LOL! Sorry ER. I'm laughing because I read this right before I knew that I was going to be away from CUF for a bit, and it would look like I was ignoring you all over again. Anyhow, ER, the only reasons I would ever ignore your posts are: 1. I essentially agree with them, but not enough to post a 'Right on bro!' 2. I missed your post. 3. I was away, and by the time I got back it didn't seem necessary to respond.

Anyhow, from what you describe (I still haven't watched the piece) it sounds like the school is implementing many of my ideas -- increased pay to attract better candidates, end guaranteed job security (though I still think that teachers need to be protected from getting fired just because they have ascended the pay-scale ladder), and controlled admin costs by passing those responsibilities to the teachers themselves.

As far as that teacher-peer review process goes, I would think that a pretty sophisticated algorithm could be developed that would rank the teachers reviews of their peers' work, so that a teacher who consistently gave all of her peers the highest possible marks (ie. not very critical) would have a relatively low impact on peer performance scores, where a person who was clearly taking time to offer valuable feedback and suggestions would receive an increase in their own teacher rank as well as having their evaluation scores count more toward their peers' teacher rank. A system like this would encourage teachers to take this process very seriously, and would reward those who were good at it.

Finally, I really enjoyed this RSAnimate piece on some of the ideas that are driving international education reform:

[YOUTUBE]zDZFcDGpL4U[/YOUTUBE]

[tooblue]

Two significant problems in colleges and universities are:

1. Students are content with what they already know (even though it usually isn't much), yet want the prestige of a degree.

2. Consumer society has cultivated a belief in students that if they are frustrated, injustice is occuring and they should be blaming someone.

These are both deep, cultural problems.

3. A persistent sense of entitlement. Students are determined to receive any and all benefits, inherent to the (north) American dream, regardless of their level of commitment or effort.

[creekster]

3. A persistent sense of entitlement. Students are determined to receive any and all benefits, inherent to the (north) American dream, regardless of their level of commitment or effort.

This and SIEQs two points are all spot in, IMO.

[wuapinmon]

From a .pdf emailed to me from my kids' school this afternoon.

Preparing Children for Standardized Testing


Parenting Tips – Test Preparation for Kids at Home
Parents can play a significant role in preparing their children for state mandated testing.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) produced legislation stating that all students in the United States
public education system must be tested according to a state standard. (At this time, those
standards vary from state to state).


Because of this, many children have been preparing daily during school to learn the material that
might be on the tests and to learn the format of the testing system. This hyper-focus on testing
often leaves children anxious and frightened about the test-taking experience. Many parents feel
out of the loop and unsure of how to ease their child's fears and prepare him or her for the
mandated testing.


Easing Testing Anxiety
It is important to let a younger child know that he is expected to put forth his best effort on these
tests. Explain that while the scores are important, they are not reflective of his self-worth,
intelligence, or of his academic potential. However, the results are an indication of student
achievement.


While easing the fears of younger test-takers, it is also important to remind the older (middle
school-aged) student that while the above still holds true, the results of these tests can often be
used to determine placement into advanced programs as well as into the selection of high school
courses.


Test Prep at Home
Repetition of the in-school test-taking drills and skills are not necessary to repeat at home.
However, there are some things that parents can do to encourage their children and promote a
successful day of test-taking. Some of these are: getting a good night’s sleep; arriving at
school on time; eating a good breakfast, and beginning the day without stress and arguing.


Just a Reminder
PASS Testing begins May 7th and ends on May 10
th:
May 7 – ELA for grades 3rd through 8th
May 8 – Math for grades 3rd through 8th
May 9 – Science for 4th and 7th grades; and Science or Social Studies for grades
3rd, 5th, 6th, and 8th
May 10 – Social Studies for 4th grade

[edward777]

Ever wonder that the quality of our students may have more to do with their home environments than their school environments? Find the worse school in the USA and put 100 Chinese students with limited English skills in that school. What do you think would happen to the test scores of that school within a year?

[Indy Coug]

Ever wonder that the quality of our students may have more to do with their home environments than their school environments? Find the worse school in the USA and put 100 Chinese students with limited English skills in that school. What do you think would happen to the test scores of that school within a year?

I'd like to express my condolences about your home environment.

[edward777]

Yeah, whatever Indy:

[VirginiaCougar]

Spend more money on education...



by sinking massive amounts of money in developing a Matrix brain programmer and make teachers/schools obsolete. Let the engineers solve this one (or, at least, have a hell'va lot of fun).

[YOUTUBE]Qaw5fsrqOXo[/YOUTUBE]

This is another reason why you shouldn't consider ideological groups like CATO as reputible sources. They work backwards from predetermined ideological preferences and make the facts fit. It is true that Federal Spending has increased substantially. But what that chart hides is that federal spending is a very small percentage of overall education spending. Its like looking at a family's income and considering the increase in wages for one child from 1 dollar a week to 10 dollars a week, which represents a large percentage increase for that child, but it doesn't impact the overall budget at all, which may actually be much lower as the parents' income decreases.

On average, just under 10% of education funding for elementary/secondary education comes from the federal government. The vast majority of funding comes from local and state resources. And even then, most of that 10% isn't directed towards overall education, but funds special ed and related assistance programs.

It is true that just throwing money at education won't fix it, but Ted falls subject to ideological arguments which don't actually describe reality. Most school districts in America have seen overall budget cuts for a number of years as state and local entities cut back and use education as the primary mechanism to fix state budgets.

[VirginiaCougar]

Things were going south with public education before the economic downturn, but now the wheels are coming off the wagon all over the country. If your kids are in a public school, chances are that they will be poorly prepared for college, and will lack skills to seriously compete in an international labor market. Our failing education system represents a much greater threat to the nation's security than terrorism and global warming.

So how do we fix this mess? We need some comprehensive reform, and fast.

'
I agree - comprehensive reform because the problem is multifaceted and complex. There are a lot of issues.

A primary one is mentioned above is that our society doesn't value the types of education which are needed in this more modern, technologically-driven, globalized world. But it is even deeper than that. Too many Americans don't value education. Education and the acquisition of knowledge is disparaged by many parts of our society, even among groups that should know better. Some groups call education "liberal indoctrination," attack teachers as the primary cause of the problem - calling them lazy, overpaid, etc. I don't know why anyone would enter public ed to be a teacher these days with what is said about them and how poorly most are paid.

We do need to get rid of bad teachers, it needs to be easier, but there aren't as many as is argued. Good teachers need to be supported in ways that they are not by many.

Money isn't the only solution but it is a part of the problem. State budgets have been cutting back on public education funding for years.

There isn't a single magic bullet such as vouchers,tenure, privatization that come close to addressing the issues we have in education. In fact, most particularly taken separately would only make a bad situation much, much worse.

America does need a fundamental paradigm shift on the value, importance, and necessity of education. I hope we can work through the ideological and financial minefields to make that happen.

[Y84it]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zDZFcDGpL4U

[Goatnapper'96]

I don't know why anyone would enter public ed to be a teacher these days with what is said about them and how poorly most are paid.

The bad things popular culture says can shake people up. I think byu'71 stopped working because he felt so bad about never paying his fair share. He just couldn't take it anymore about being called a freeloader. Now he is unemployed, living in a van down by the river, suffering from halitosis, inflicted with uncomfortable bunnions and combing his hair with old pine needles. But he has his improving self-esteem and nobody references him as one not paying his fair share!

[Surfah]

I like the ideas that PAC suggested. Gidget is a big fan of the Waiting for Superman documentary as well.

As for what is being taught, America needs to get over the idea that everyone needs to go to college. I'd be all for tech and trade being taught in schools again. Get kids with practical skills, experience and requisite education/certs to work and start careers upon graduation. Schools should have co-op programs with local trades and business.

Economics was requisite in California but it was just one semester your senior year. Maybe it was the teacher, but the class as I remember was a joke. I'd like to expand on that see some sort of business or finance class become part of core curiculum. Kids have no idea how money works, how credit works, basic economics, etc. I'd like to think that some business sense would help kids make better fiscal decisions in the future.

[UVACoug]

Things were going south with public education before the economic downturn, but now the wheels are coming off the wagon all over the country. If your kids are in a public school, chances are that they will be poorly prepared for college, and will lack skills to seriously compete in an international labor market. Our failing education system represents a much greater threat to the nation's security than terrorism and global warming.

So how do we fix this mess? We need some comprehensive reform, and fast.

Competition