March 9, 2010

Theory #1 — Testing and Punishment

Once a proponent of No Child Left Behind, launched under the George W. Bush administration, Diane Ravitch, an NYU professor and former United States Assistant Secretary of Education under the first President Bush, has changed her mind.

And many teachers are thrilled.

Ravitch now believes that the monetary rewards/punishment cycle that has characterized No Child Left Behind has corrupted the program.

"There's a lot of cheating going on. There's a lot of gaming the system. Instead of raising standards, it's actually lowered standards because many states have dumbed down their tests or changed the scoring of the test to say that more kids are passing than actually are. There are states that say that 80-90% of their children are proficient readers and proficient in math but when the national test is given — the national assessment of educational progress — the same state will have not 90% proficient but 25 or 30%... It's a kind of institutionalized fraud that's been going on these past few years." (Ravitch on NPR)

Critical of Obama for continuing policies that she claims give George W. Bush "a third term in education", Ravitch lays out her analysis of the ailing public education system in her new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System.

Her new book comes at a critical time, a time when school administrators and state legislators are trying to negotiate impending budget cuts while students and teachers fail their way to the bottom. Kids still hate school.

Drastic measures

The finger pointing has left behind a wrath of demonstrators, fired teachers, disgruntled parents, frustrated students and drop-outs. At Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, which serves the state's poorest district with 75% of the population living in poverty, teachers and administrations were slapped across the board for bad test scores and a 48% graduation rate. Every single teacher in that school was fired in February. Negotiations to reinstate them are underway.

Meanwhile, in Texas, as part of an experiment to see if dollar bills would increase student test scores, schools handed out merit pay to teachers beginning in 2005. The results of the experiment have been less than stellar and were widely regarded as "weakly positive or negligible" by researchers at Vanderbilt University.

In other words, merit paychecks to teachers are not the answer to making kids fall in love with school.

Just in from Germany, a couple was granted political asylum in the United States after they were threatened by their government in 2008 with harsh penalties for home schooling their children, a criminal offense in Germany.

In the U.S., the number of homeschooled children is growing, up 74% in 2007 from 1999, according to USA Today. Likewise, the number of parents who are intent on educating their children continues to rise against a steady backdrop of schools that continue to fail. While some public schools are meeting the measure, many cannot educate, motivate or graduate. Or, in the eyes of many who choose to go solo, what they teach is either low in substance, lacking in values, lacking in common applications or simply runs counter to core beliefs.

So why do kids hate school?

Lack of access to resources and stimulating (fun) programs is one theory. A boring and out-of-touch curriculum laden with non-contemporary reading material (Shakespeare) that makes high schoolers feel like school is a colossal waste of time is another. Institutionalized discrimination in underprivileged communities is yet another. Grumpy teachers, irresponsible parents, lazy kids — all contentious theories.

Theory #2 — Nobody listens to them

School and district administrators, along with embattled state legislators who are reeling from mounting budget cuts, can probably use more student input.

What about an increase in the number of regular public school forums that focus on hearing from today's students? Perhaps students themselves can shed more light on the current situation and explain why so many have given up. Parents certainly have a lot to say, teachers are vocal, administrators are firm and legislators are forceful. But there may be more to gain from listening to high school drop-outs, "D" students and those who are motivated but frustrated. Is a "Suggestion Box" too archaic? NewsSip

Photo Credit: School by Ente 75