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I attended our school's budget meeting tonight. Apparently, we are in dire need of a reading consultant, phonemic awareness tutorial program for scaffolding, and a mathematics intervention specialist. Yet somehow, this remediation isn't supposed to reflect on the efficacy of our chosen curriculum, which is, by all accounts, focused on critical thinking and 21st century skills.
There is a serious breakdown happening at some point early on. I can't even count the number of bright kindergarteners and first graders that have been held back due to no fault of their own. Had these children been taught well, there wouldn't be so many 8 and even 9 year olds in first grade. As Catherine says, "they do what they do."
The other side of this coin is that they want to keep spending taxpayer money on all this stuff that is clearly not getting the job done. Another item in the proposed budget is the purchase of an inquiry-based science curriculum that will eventually require remediation by some kind of science specialist or scaffolding program.
This is insane. The chosen curricula and/or pedagogy is clearly not working for a significant number of children and not only do they want to keep buying more of it, we now need remediation that may not have been necessary if these children were taught properly in the first place.
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8 comments:
You have just tripped over the elephant in the room, and that is the (frightening) fact that the entire system is, in a perverse way, results-driven. But not in the way we want. It is an engine fueled by failure, not success.
Think about it. Student failure provides endlessly expanding opportunities for job creation, innovative "projects," interventions, pseudo-research, administrivia and on and on and on. It provides educrats of all sorts with opportunities to present themselves as caring, professional problem-solvers. If they were wearing T-shirts, the front would say, "See how hard we're trying!" and the back would say, "Don't blame us, look what we have to work with."
In contrast, what does effective curriculum and pedagogy provide? Real student learning is not nearly so full of photo-ops, catchy news stories or video segments. Kids learning well and quickly aren't newsworthy. It looks, well, natural. We almost have to have a system in place to make kids stupid. Remember that the IQ of kids who don't learn to read early on will fall steadily throughout their years in school.
And if kids were effectively taught in most areas from the beginning, huge amounts could be slashed from the budgets allocated for school districts. Not a chance any will undermine their own livelihood in such a way.
"If they were wearing T-shirts, the front would say, 'See how hard we're trying!' and the back would say, 'Don't blame us, look what we have to work with.'"
Sincerity is not enough.
But what does a sixth grade teacher do when a child enters his/her classroom not knowing the times table? Complain? Blame the child? Blame the parents? Blame the system? Ask for remediation (a form of blaming the child)? Wear T-shirts? Or, do they go yelling and screaming to the adminstration that they just can't pass these kids along; that the lower grade teachers are not doing their jobs; that the curriculum is causing the problem?
For those on the inside, are there any of these discussions going on? Why do schools pass kids along? Social promotion used to be a last resort. Now, it's part of the pedagogy. They can't tell the difference between whether kids need extra help, whether they need a kick in the rear, or whether the curriculum is bad. Education is now based on putting all of the onus on the child and parent; a pedagogical justification for less responsibility.
do they go yelling and screaming to the administration that they just can't pass these kids along; that the lower grade teachers are not doing their jobs; that the curriculum is causing the problem?
My question precisely. Where is the accountability? Why isn't there an uproar by parents, by teachers, by the community? The hole just keeps getting deeper.
Palisadesk, your observations are painful but clearly what I am seeing happening. How do you rid yourself of that elephant in the room?
Change the incentives. One of the basic insights of economics is, "You get more of what you pay for." When you pay for poverty, you get more of it; when you stop, you get less.
We must stop paying more when the results are poor and start paying more for good results.
We must stop paying more when the results are poor and start paying more for good results.
Easier said than done!
Most people "blame the child." This is everywhere the case. The parents feel this way as much as the teachers & administrators.
Across the board.
Subsidizing failure will produce more failure. How to stop paying more? While I agree we should starve the failing schools, there's no political way to make it happen in most places.
But a good start would be to find a way to educate parents on where their children should be in skills and knowledge. The standard trope is to complain the parents' apathy is a problem, but of course, parents expect their teachers to tell them what their child should know in 1st grade math, 3rd grade reading, etc. Since the teachers don't tell them (and dont' appear to have such standards at all anymore) they are unable to articulate until too late how their child is failing.
But I think it's hopeless. I really do. For too long, teachers have told us that if our kids can't read, it's because they have a learning disability instead of a "being taught" deficit.
But for the rest of the concerned parents out there, would being ON the schoool board make a whit of difference? If you spent your money and time trying to get elected, would it buy you anything?
"But for the rest of the concerned parents out there, would being ON the schoool board make a whit of difference? If you spent your money and time trying to get elected, would it buy you anything?"
No, because the problem has to do with fundamental differences of opinion over what constitutes a proper K-8 education. The school and teachers are ones in control of that, not the board. The board might fight along the edges to get a little bit more, but that's about it. How can a board go into a school to change things completely? They can't. Most discussions focus on money, not academics. Any academic discussions focus only on meeting pathetically low state cutoffs. Many parents pay to send their kids to other schools and are no longer willing to fight that fight. The rest of the parents are keeping a low profile.
I think many parents want more. Perhaps they can't define it exactly, but in any case, it's very, very politically incorrect to complain about the schools. You'll get trashed. You have to be tough like Catherine. It still might not do any good.
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