Singapore stuff

I checked back with the Singapore report. (pdf file)

Founded as a British trading colony in 1819, Singapore joined Malaysia in 1963 but withdrew two years later and became an independent city-state. Its resident population is about 4.1 million, slightly larger than Los Angeles or Chicago. Singapore is a multiracial, multireligious, multilingual urban society. The largest ethnic group is Chinese (77 percent), followed by Malay (14 percent) and Indian (8 percent). In 1970, Singapore’s per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was about $300. By 2000, its per capita income was about $25,000, one of the highest in the world. Singapore’s economic growth is described “as a modern miracle because it has built its success on only one resource, its people” (MariMari, 2003). Singapore’s emphasis on education is seen as a major reason for its economic success.

[snip]

Singapore has a highly centralized education system controlled and coordinated by its Ministry of Education. The Ministry has implemented a national curriculum, developed a syllabus that guides instruction in all required subjects in all schools, and instituted uniform high-stakes assessments at the critical end of both primary and secondary school. Singapore’s education system (see Exhibit 2–2) consists of six years of primary education and four or five years of secondary education (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2003). At the primary level, pupils undertake a fouryear foundation stage in primary grades 1–4, followed by a two-year orientation stage in primary grades 5 and 6. Singapore and the United States have a similar age-grade correspondence in the primary grades; fourth graders are typically nine years old. The emphasis during the foundation stage is on basic literacy and numeracy. Eighty percent of the curriculum time is used for instruction in English, the student’s mother tongue (Chinese, Malay, or Tamil), and mathematics. Science is not taught until primary grade 3.

[snip]

At the end of primary grade 6, pupils take the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), which assesses their abilities for placement in a secondary school program that suits their “learning, pace, abilities, and inclinations” (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2000a). Pupils are then admitted to the special, express, or normal stream for four years of secondary education. Students in the express and special streams, which have a high-level language curriculum, complete a college preparatory course and take the rigorous Joint Cambridge University (England) and Singapore O level college entrance examination at the end of their fourth year. Students in the normal stream complete a less rigorous curriculum and take the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Normal (N-level) examination. Somewhat more than three-quarters of all secondary students take the O-level exam and the remaining students take the N-level exam (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2003a).

Throughout primary and secondary school, student advancement is tied to performance. A Ministry of Education’s mission statement makes this clear:

Every child must be encouraged to progress through the education system as far as his ability allows. Advancement must always depend on performance and merit to ensure equal opportunity for all. (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2003b)

Singapore also recognizes that not all children proceed at a rapid academic pace and that some children require special assistance:

Every child should be taught at a pace he can cope with. Each should be stimulated to excel according to his individual aptitudes. The system must be flexible, to cope with pupils who mature mentally, physically, emotionally and socially at different rates. (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2003b)

In practice, this approach means that Singapore relies on early high-stakes testing, but it also holds teachers responsible for the success of all children and ensures that teachers devote more attention, rather than less, to students with greater academic needs.

[snip]


ethnic groups in Singapore

Some believe that Singapore is successful because it educates a comparatively homogeneous population that is unlike the multiethnic U.S. population. It is true that Singapore’s student population is not as diverse as the U.S. student population, but to characterize Singapore as homogeneous is misleading. Singapore has three major ethnic groups. About three-fourths of Singapore’s population is Chinese, but almost a quarter is Malay or Indian. Like the United States, Singapore experienced serious ethnic strife in the 1960s. Singapore accommodates its heterogeneous population by practicing principles of multiracialism and meritocracy. It practices true bilingualism in grades 1 through 3 when, although English is the primary language of instruction, children from each major ethnic group also study their home languages. Singapore does remarkably well academically even though many students are receiving instruction primarily in a language other than what they speak at home, something at which the United States has been less successful.

Singapore’s 1999 TIMSS scores confirm that its minority students do well. Singapore broke out the 1999 TIMSS scores for its Malay and Chinese populations (Ministry of Education Singapore, 2000b). Although 96 percent of Chinese students performed better than the international eighth-grade mathematics average, Malaysian Singaporeans also did very well, with 83 percent scoring above the international average. Scores for Singapore’s Indian minority population were not available, but typically, students of Indian background outperform their Malaysian peers by a small margin. By comparison, in the United States, half of black eighth-grade students achieved no better than the bottom quarter of all international test takers (NCES, 2000).


tracking in Singapore

Beginning in grades 5 and 6, Singapore identifies its weaker students on the basis of a general examination of mathematics and language competency. These students receive special assistance and are taught according to a special fifth- and sixth-grade mathematics framework. This special framework mandates that students in the slower track

• receive approximately 30 percent more mathematics instruction than students in the regular track, and

• be exposed to the same mathematical content as students in the regular track, although at a slower pace.

The mathematics framework for students needing compensatory assistance adds review material to strengthen students’ understanding of previously taught content. For example, topics on numbers and geometry taught in grade 4 are repeated at a faster pace in grade 5. The introduction of some new concepts such as ratios, rates, and averages, which are normally introduced in grade 5, are delayed until grade 6 for the weaker students (Ministry of Education, 2001a). What is important, however, is that because slower students spend extra time studying mathematics, topics usually taught in grades 5 and 6 do not have to be completely sacrificed to make room for repetition.6

To support the framework for slower students, Singapore has developed a Learning Support Program to help educators identify these students and provide them with extra help (Ministry of Education 2003c). Mathematics Support Teachers (MST), who receive on-the-job supervision and specialized training to ensure that they are professionally competent, deliver compensatory assistance.

In the United States, we expect all students to meet the standards in state frameworks, but the standards do not help teachers address the needs of slower students. In fact, U.S. standards do not acknowledge that students learn at different rates. No Child Left Behind addresses the needs of failing schools, but it does not directly require that failing students receive help. Although some research evidence supports the belief that students benefit when the curriculum is adjusted to match their ability levels (Loveless, 1999), a distinct alternative curriculum would raise concerns in the United States about potential harm to students from ability grouping. Singapore’s approach differs from traditional ability grouping in that Singapore establishes a framework that requires students to master the same content as other students, not a watered-down curriculum as often happens in U.S. ability-grouped classrooms. Singapore also provides extra assistance from an expert teacher.

Singapore in a nutshell

• 3 ethnic groups complete with ethnic strife in the 60s: Chinese (77 percent), followed by Malay (14 percent) and Indian (8 percent)

• during grades 1-3 children are taught school subjects in English and also study their native language

• minority students there do far better than minority students here (96% of Chinese students perform better than 8th grade international average compared to 83% of Malay students)
  

• highly centralized education [ed.: which works everywhere in the universe and would no doubt be a horror here once Columbia Teachers College got hold of it]

• 10 or 11 years of schooling all told, compared to our 13 in K-12

• 3 tracks in secondary school, which begins at the end of grade 6 (special, express, or normal)
  

• slower students in secondary school receive 30% more math instruction from specially trained teachers & learn the same curriculum fast students learn but at a slower pace

update

from Independent George:

Actually, the language difficulties go far beyond that.

About 80% of the population is ethnically Chinese, but are split between native speakers of Mandarin, Hokkein, and Cantonese. Another 15% are Malay, and the rest are mostly Indian. Furthermore, the Malay population has been historically poorer and less educated than the Chinese population, and the Indians were largely an immigrant laboring class.

Essentially, Singapore is a big, ethnically mixed city with a long, often bloody history of class & ethnic divisions. So, of course, it's completely unfair to make a comparison to, say, New York or Los Angeles.

Soviet Education - continued

First, let me highlight few points touched in comments to my previous post. Since I experienced soviet school system only as a student and never as an employee, I consulted my husband's grandmother who works in that system for more than 40 years (she teaches Russian language and literature and Ukrainian language and literature in grades 5-10 in one of the schools in Odessa, Ukraine).

Thus, before year 1990 - all educational institutions (including art and music schools) and extracurricular activities, such as science, technology, math, journalism clubs, choirs, dance studios etc were free of charge.

General schools - 8 years (compulsory) or 10 years
Vocational schools - 2 years after grade 8, profession in manual labor (carpenter, seamstress, car mechanic etc)
Professional-technical school - 4 years after grade 8, 2 years after grade 10, analogous to a Community college Associate degree, lower level specialists, nurses, daycare teachers
Institute, Academy, University - 5 years after grade 10, specialists: engineers, teachers, veterinarians, doctors, lawyers, researchers. Medical school - all specialities except dentistry -6 years.

Prestige from lowest to highest: institute, academy, university. Institutes were "specialized" with a range of major available within specialization. For instance, I graduated from veterinary faculty of the Institute of Agriculture. This one was also offering majors in wine production technology, agronomy, live-stock breeding, plant-breeding, and economics of agriculture.

Universities offered more classical education, with broad curriculum in liberal arts and sciences. Students in universities had more opportunities to participate and stay in research. Odessa university was also preparing teachers for grades 5-10 (major in speciality +classes in teaching the subject).

Since it was the centralized system, and education was free, the funding was miserable. Higher ed institutions had yearly set up limits on enrollment with entrance exams given in July. The best institutions (or even majors within institutes) had very high number of students wishing to be accepted with low percentage of acceptance. When I took my entrance exams into a vet school, the competition was 5 students for 1 place. Thus, out of 500 students who took exams, a 100 was enrolled. The rest had to do something else and could try again next July. (I knew a guy who tried to enter medical school for 6 years in a row, and finally entered a vet. school. For all those "missed" years he was working as a nurse in a hospital).

After 1990, the institutes were allowed to accept 10% of the students above the limit charging them a tuition, so called contract students.

All other students who didn't pay money for education could receive a monthly stipend which depended on each semester's GPA. I was getting " an honor" stipend for all 5 years - you couldn't live on this money, but it was good enough for some treats.

The higher ed institutions have day and night sections. Day section - classes 5 days a week, from 8 to 3-4 pm; no choice in classes; programs set up for you and are not flexible. A student is placed in a group (about 20-30 people) and has all classes with the same people for all 5 years. If a student failed an exam session, he/she would be expelled from any year. After 1990 such students could repeat a semester they failed if they paid a tuition. All subjects are carefully sequenced and interconnected, so repeating a class you failed in Fall semester during Spring semester was not possible.

The acceptance for Day section was limited by age - after age 35 one could not get into Day section.

Night section - for working people and people getting a second degree. Also Distant learning was quite popular. In Distant learning classes you would visit your school twice in a semester - 1 week introductory sessions, and in 3 month - the exams. I was doing my post-grad studies (didn't finish) in another city by Distant learning. Very convenient.

424.6

today's newsflash from the NCES:

Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education totaled $424.6 billion in FY 05, with $280.0 billion (65.9 percent) spent on instruction and instruction-related activities, $22.1 billion (5.2 percent) on student support services, $46.8 billion (11.0 percent) on administration, and $75.7 billion (17.8 percent) on operations

Which brings to mind an oldie but goodie:





There you have it.

High spending, low achievement.

Works for me!


larger chart here
million billion trillion
big numbers (hit refresh a couple of times)
more big numbers (hit refresh a couple of times)
The Failure of Input-based Schooling Policies
(pdf file)

How soviet education system worked

I am going to describe the structure of soviet (before 1990) system of Education. It is more or less stays the same, though more options (private schools, gymnasiums) are available now. This should explain why I feel so strange and hesitant when seeing how education works in America. And keep thinking of sending my son to live with my mother in Ukraine despite the loss of everyday English in this life.

First, the grade school was set up to be completed in 10 years, starting at age 6 or 7. (They included a preparatory class -K- into it now, so it's 11years presently.)

There was no locational separation of elementary, middle, and high school grades - all grades from 1 to 10 were in the same school. And since taking ALL classes was mandatory for all grades, one would come to 1st grade and move on through the school with the same students in the class.

Teacher -generalists were teaching grades 1-4, with visiting art, music, and shop teachers. Looping was usual - your 1st grade teacher was staying with you until grade 4. Students stayed in one classroom. No more then 5 45min. periods were allowed in grades 1-4, with 5 min. breakes between the periods and one 15 min. lunch break. Afterschool (HW help and simple daycare) was free for working parents 5 days of the week.

In grades 5-10 all subjects were taught by teachers-specialists in their subjects. Again, there was looping: same teacher who taught you math in 5th grade would continue "to grow" with you until grade 10. So, the teacher HAD to know curriculum for all grades. After the whole "line" of this teacher's classes graduated, this teacher would return to grade 5. The same approach was taken with other subjects - language, literature, foreign language, physics, chemistry, biology, history, technical drawing etc.

Only 8 years of education were compulsory: After 8th grade the student could get into a vocational school to get a trade in hands or straight join the world of work. Those, who were bound to college, were staying in school until grade 10. (Best years! All misbehaving and failing students - gone!)

Repeating the year was an accepted practice for failing students (without filing paperwork or consulting parents, the decision was made by faculty), though In my 10 years of schooling there, I haven't seen anyone left to repeate the year.

Higher ed institutions (Universities, Academies, Institutes) did not rely on any state exams (state exams were introduced first when I was in 10 grade), rather testing the students on the school program themselves. For instance, to get into vet. shool after 10th grade I had to take oral exam in the school course of Biology, written exam in the school course of Chemistry, and write an essay from the course of Russian literature. To get into Technology school to study computer systems, my husband had to take an exam in the school course of math, school course of physics, and write an essay. Again, all entrance exams were tailored to the major (so one had select early!) and were completely in accordance with the school courses.

How was it possible? All schools in the country (15 republics during soviet times) had the same curriculum, logically alligned over the grades. If a student transferred from one school during the time they studied decimals in math , then the next day in the school across the country he would get to study decimals, too. And not miss anything. Since books were the same for everyone, one could perfectly catch up with missed portion, too. So the institutes knew the school program and were sure that everything needed had been taught. The schools were provided with the curriculum targeted on proper preparation for the higher education. Attention: NO REMEDIAL CLASSES in universities! Whatever was learned in school was taken as a basis to build on. Kids who did not satisfy the requirements could not enter the higher ed institutions. They would lose a year and try next time.

Thus, here some of the benefits of centralized system of education (there are disadvantages, too... but I'll bring them up later):
1)connection between the grades in terms of the same place, same teachers, same classmates
2)gradual and logical arrangement of the curriculum
3)connection between school and higher ed institutions
4) teachers - specialists in their subjects, not just educators.
5)vocational schools for students who do not succeed in academics.

making connections

from "nowthatshockey" on Beyond TERC:

Mathematical reasoning does not lie in the connection of mathematics to the real world, but in the connection within mathematics.

How mathematics is applied is its connection to your world.

4-15-2007

making connections
help desk

"parents can find worksheets online"

Remember "If students need distributed practice parents can find worksheets online"?

At the time the worksheets C. needed would have been complex angle arrays requiring the student to set up and solve equations in one variable, preferably one variable used on both sides of the equation.

I took the math chair's advice. I searched for angle-slash-algebra worksheets online.

question: Is there a search word for angle-slash-algebra worksheets?

I didn't find any.

So I had to make my own.

As of today, the math chair will be correct, at least for readers of ktm-2: parents can find angle-slash-algebra worksheets online.

Please let me know if you find errors. Thanks!

(I could kick myself. I don't remember the source of these problems. Sorry.)

Let me introduce myself: Exo

Let me introduce myself - I'm Exo.
Catherine was very kind to invite me to blog on KTM, the blog I read and comment on quite often. Thanks, Catherine.

I live and teach in Brooklyn, NY. I came to the US 7 years ago -seems like a century now.

Since my education experiences are all pretty fresh in my memory, and I still follow the trends in Russian education system, I will try to provide some insights on the education abroad comparing it to the education in the US public schools.
I am not promising you a lot of official data, rather some personal experience in both systems of education: I went to a soviet grade school (10 years) and graduated from a vet school there, then graduated from a college here, landed a job in a middle school as a science teacher, and my son is in Kindergarten in a public school. ( And, as most parents, I re-teach him at home!)




Truly yours,
Exo

lost and found

I'm cleaning up my office & found this photo. That's me on the left, with Jimmy, and my sister Ros on the right.

boo hoo

My sister in law told me she went through all her son's books, the ones she read to him when he was little. She was crying the whole time, remembering the days when she read bedtime stories.

So there she was, sorting and crying.

I'm not crying at the moment, though I'm also not getting a heck of a lot of sorting done...

Steve H on TIPS

Steve H is in fine form today:

This is from the TIPS example on fractions. It's at the bottom of the page after the child has presented the topic to a parent.


"Dear Parent, Please let me know your reactions to your child’s work on this activity.

____ O.K. My child seems to understand this skill
____ PLEASE CHECK. My child needed some help on this, but seems to understand.
____ PLEASE HELP. My child still needs instruction on this skill. ____ PLEASE NOTE. (other comments)"


How about:

_____ I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS CRAP

I check all of my son's work every night. I set higher expectations than his school. I do a lot of explaining and reteaching. I don't want to do this and I shouldn't have to. TIPS turns a negative into a positive. Apparently the schools can't do the job themselves.

TIPS is a grand annoyance for capable parents and is a useless joke for the rest.

file under: hideous unintended consequences

No Child Left Behind requires schools to "develop ways to get parents more involved in their child's education and improving the school."

That explains a lot.

I've forgotten now who made this find - sorry!

frequently asked questions

from Susan S:

What is a "learning center"?

from Smartest Tractor:

Learning centre: 4 to 5 kids at a table (possibly a new $300 "kidney table" designed for collaboration) who chat about anything they wish until Mister or Ms. Whoever decides to "check" on their ongoing collaboration.

Assessment: Checklists, peer evaluation, or the ever popular self-evaluation.

Thank you, Smartest Tractor!

Glad we cleared that up.

today's form letter from the school!

April 13, 2007

To the Parent/Guardian of: C.B.

We at Irvington Middle School routinely monitor attendance to insure our reports are accurate and to prevent any patterns of absenteeism from developing. A review of our records indicates that your child has been absent a total of 17 days to date. Please confirm that you are aware of, and are in agreement with, this figure by signing and returning this letter to the main office within five days of receiving it.

If you believe an error has been made or there are extenuating circumstances that need to be brought to our attention, please contact our attendance office so this information can be documented. Likewise, if your child suffers from a medical condition that will cause him to miss school on a regular basis, kindly submit a signed statement from his physician on official letterhead verifying that fact.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely, etc.

What?!

Thank you for your support?

What happened to thank you for your ongoing cooperation and support?


As it happens, I do think C. "suffers from a medical condition that will cause him to miss school on a regular basis" (and thank you for asking!)

I have discussed it with the school nurse on several occasions, last year as well as this.

C. is acutely vulnerable to viral infections. What is a 3-day absence for other children is routinely a 2-week absence for him, punctuated by days when we send him back to school and the nurse calls us an hour later to come pick him up again.

This fact is in the records.

They could look it up.


update, from Ben Calvin

Schools are much more vigilant to attendance now that much funding is tied to the number of pupils in school each day.

My neighbor's public elementary schools stopped sending home kids with head lice, claiming that "new research" proved that it was not really very contagious.

Surprisingly they had to reinstate the rule after four or five epidemics of head lice swept the school.

thank you for your ongoing support and cooperation
thank you for your cooperation and support in this endeavor
today's form letter from the school

let's differentiate, part 2!

D) Instructional strategies

- compacting
- deciding what student knows and needs to know - pre-assessment
- concentrate on what needs to know
- independent projects
- interest centres or groups
- tiered assignments
- level depends on previous learning, interest, and abilities
- flexible groupings
- learning centres
- varying questions
- level depends on previous learning, interest, and abilities
- mentorships/apprenticeships
- contracts

source:
Differentiated Instruction Graphic

Independent projects, learning centres, contracts... looks like a surefire plan for involving parents in schoolwork to me!

[pause]

Especially given the fact that the professor teaching this stuff has a webpage bearing the legend, Teaching is an ancient, mysterious, and revered profession.

Can a profession be ancient and mysterious?

Answer: no.

let's differentiate!

source:
Differentiated Instruction Graphic


Differentiated instruction flow charts and clip arts are my favorite edu-visuals on the web.

There are lots of them posted at the old ktm.

This is a good one.

Becky C on starting at the top

...teachers assign a ten-year-old to write a summary paragraph on The Lousiana Purchase. The ten-year-old is to pull the right amount of important details about that happy event from a two-page single spaced essay given out in class.

To a ten-year-old, every sentence of that essay seems as compelling and important as every other sentence BECAUSE TEN-YEAR-OLDS HAVE NO LIFE EXPERIENCE LET ALONE KNOWLEDGE OF WORLD HISTORY TO JUDGE what they can leave out of their summary and WHAT MUST NOT BE LEFT OUT.

It's this weird inversion of developmental expectations.

It's like they envision my child comfortably attired in a wool cardigan, sitting at home in a shabby leather wingback chair, thick black reading glasses perched low on his nose and hair thinning slightly on top of his head, and he puffs away thoughtfully on his pipe while he writes down the right amount of important details from the essay on a yellow legal pad with his leaking fountain pen.

Teachers think that if you CALL a child a writer, if adults SEE him as a writer, if we CELEBRATE and PUBLISH his writing, that good writing will follow like cargo planes landing on a South Pacific island.

But, NO IT DOESN'T.

Steve H & Becky C on "independent study"

from May 18, 2006, reacting to a sample tiered instruction assignment:

Where is the "instruction"? There is none, because Tiered Instruction is in their Independent Study section. I looked through everything they had there and all I ever found (in any section) was a reference to "mini-lessons" given by the teacher. They really have to stop using the word teacher or instructor because that is not what they are doing. Differentiated Instruction with no instruction. How about Differentiated Learning. Or, "You're on Your Own Learning".

This write-up looks more like a grading rubric. Perhaps they grade based on what they expect from a child. I've seen this before in job reviews. If you always exceed expectations, then you can't get much of a raise because you are just doing what you normally do. Are they going to give a "meeting expectations" to an "Above Grade Level" child and an "exceeding expectations" to a "Below Grade Level" child, even though the former student did more and better work? Of course, if you read the information at the site, the assessment is fuzzy and all individual. Once a Below Grade Level child; always a Below Grade Level child.

Even if one really thought that tiered (differentiated expectations) is a good thing to do, the explanation and examples on this web site are just so incredibly horrible.

Just look at this assignment. In eighth grade - "create a flag for Nunavut" is an Above Grade Level task. "Write an essay about what you would do if you were Prime Minister." Do about what? Citizenship? What in particular? "Trace your family heritage and present it." Just in Canada? How far back? Why? I've had assignments like this - poorly thought out and whipped together by lazy teachers.

Not only is it a wrong approach to education, it is done very badly.

here is Becky C:

Not a single one of these activities will be graded for quality. Did the Slow kid write well about his most memorable trip in Canada? Did the Medium kid do a good job representing the life of a PM? Did the Fast kid find the right amount of important details about the creation of Nunavat?

This is about teachers sending their teaching work home for parents to do.

As you might guess, we have had quite a few writing assignments sent home to our family this year from the public school. I have been working really hard to teach my boys to write. I have been feeling bitter about this.

Differentiated Instruction does not happen in real life. It is about as scarce as Direct Instruction.

and:

...if even one gullible parent of a 4th grader directly instructs her child how to write a summary paragraph by holding the child accountable for the quality of their paragraph, which is to say that the paragraph contains the right amount of important details... why, that's one more child who magically shows up in 6th grade already knowing how to write, and one less child that will need direct instruction in writing in 6th grade. Magical!

I've just HAD IT with writing assignments that are ASSIGNED to the student but are not GRADED constructively by the teacher as a means of instruction.

HAD IT HAD IT HAD IT

A mom in town here, who is actively concerned about the writing instruction, told me this week she would like to see her child get back just one paper without the sole feedback being the word "Terrific!" written on top.

Apparently she's decided to throw caution to the winds and skip the part about being careful what you wish for ...

no common sense-y

comment left by Paula V:

This is the first year my third grader has had an attitude about a teacher. However, I keep hearing how third grade is a transition year. Perhaps this attitude is part of the territory.

My third grader was cautious up until this year. His classroom is full of boys and only a handful of girls. It seems the boys are ruling the roost, and it is driving the teacher nuts.

His teacher is young and sweet, but I fear she isn't very effective in illicting compliance among her boy students. Taking away recess points in a room full of boys isn't working.

My sister, a former middle school teacher, said that was not a good strategy. Single out the misbehaving kids and take away their points. I told her that would never happen...it might embarrass someone. She said that was absolutely ridiculous.

[snip]

No, my son's teacher does not single the misbehaving students out. Yes, she keeps the whole group inside.

When I questioned her on the taking away of recess points, she said children must understand how to work within a group. They need to know how to make wise decisions as a group.

Fuzzy thinking, fuzzy ethics, and a violation of the Geneva Convention to boot!

magic white people

Over at ktm - 1 we got to talking about magic white people at some point (scroll down), magic white people being middle and upper-middle class white parents who somehow manage to imbue their children with advanced K-5 knowledge and skills over the dinner table.

Judging by Monday's op-ed, white folks are getting more magical by the minute:

Schools serving mostly wealthy and white students have a distinct advantage when it comes to testing. Their students are far more likely to be raised in an environment that gives them the necessary tools to succeed on tests. They grow up with the intellectual abundance their wealth provides: books, educational videos and Baby Einstein games, to name a few. Having these resources may not make children smarter, but it does educate them in many of the skills -- such as letter sounds and addition facts -- that are covered on standardized tests. Knowing their students are likely to succeed on tests gives these schools freedom to teach higher-level thinking skills.

Who knew a child could learn phonics and phonemic awareness from Baby Einstein games?

If parents would just do their job and expose their kids to books, educational videos, and Baby Einstein games, dyslexia would go away tomorrow!

Of course, if we got rid of the tests we wouldn't have to worry about letter sounds at all.

We could go straight to higher-level thinking.

policy analysts bite back

here

and

here

Responding to Classroom Caste System

Missing from all of these analyses, as usual, is the hapless parent.

You know, the parent, the person actually teaching the basic skills all these white kids supposedly possess in spades before they set foot inside a public school. (gosh. I wonder why we have all those "reading specialists" floating around our K-3 school? Aren't parents supposed to be handling phonics? How could an upper middle class white kid possibly have trouble learning to read?)

The idea that there could possibly be a critical thinking gap when white kids are spending their earliest years in school not learning "basic skills," but checking out "the role of quilts on the Underground Railroad," is plain wrong.

Of course, if NCLB has created a situation in which disadvantaged black and Hispanic children are being taught basic skills and advantaged white children are being taught quilts and dances "based on retellings of Cinderella," we should be seeing the last of the achievement gap pretty soon here.

connect the dots

• by nearly all accounts, constructivism taught in schools of education to the exclusion of all other pedagogies
  

• baby boom teachers retiring

• teaching staffs consisting almost entirely of young, childless females who know one thing and that one thing is constructivism
  

• in some communities, parents who are appreciably more affluent and/or better educated than parents in previous generations - i.e., parents who have some hope of remediating the deficiencies of the school either through their own reteaching of content or by availing themselves of the tutoring that can be provided by district teachers for a handsome fee
  

The result, perceptible only to parents who have children currently enrolled in the public schools, it seems, is a role reversal Tex calls "the new normal."

• newsletters sent home in the backpack telling parents they are responsible for teaching the math facts, and assigning them a deadline by which this feat is to be accomplished

• first-grade spelling lists drawn up for parents along with instructions that the words are to be mastered by the end of the school year
  

• pages and pages of text and PowerPoint slides posted at the DOE telling parents how to "help with homework"

• "We have far greater, bigger things to think about."

• "If students need distributed practice, parents can find worksheets online."
  

• official, university-sponsored involve parents in schoolwork programs with names like "TIPS" (Teachers Involving Parents in Schoolwork)
  

• "contracts" and "acknowledgement of letter" forms for parents to sign re: involvement in child's grades and/or homework
  

• humorous personal narratives about middle school assignments no middle schooler can actually do

• routine references to teachers "requiring" parents to help with homework

• etc.
  

I feel as if I'm living in a parallel universe.

Our pundits, wonks, and columnists reside in a land where wealthy white schools are good to excellent; poor black and Hispanic schools are wretched.

Apparently, in the world of policy analysis, people get what they pay for.

George Bernard Shaw

My father-in-law, a classics professor, and I share a little joke that all educators are socialists, which isn't true, it's a little joke, but a study of socialism has given me a great deal of insight into the hopes and dreams of the nice people who believe in whole language and other constructivist teaching practices. They really mean well. They really mean for us all to enjoy heaven on earth.

My husband has a set of Encyclopedia Britannica volumes published in 1946. It dares call itself "A New Survey of Universal Knowledge." In Volume 20, Sarsparilla to Sorcery, I have looked up Socialism and Socrates and Sophistry, for instance. After Socialism, but before Socrates and Sophistry, there is an entry entitled "Socialism: Principles and Outlook."

Now, the Socialism article itself appears complete at first reading. It gives the origins and history of Socialism; Owenism, Marxism, national movements and the Russian Revolution are each treated in turn. The entry is written by a gentleman named G. D. H. Cole.

But "Socialism: Principles and Outlook" is written by George Bernard Shaw. In the spirit of inquiry, independent research, and consulting original sources, I thought you guys might like the following observation Shaw makes with regards to schooling:

Democracy, or votes for everybody, does not produce constructive solutions of social problems; nor does compulsory schooling help much. Unbounded hopes were based on each successive extension of the electoral franchise, culminating in the enfranchisement of women. These hopes have been disappointed, because the voters, male and female, being politically untrained and uneducated,have (a) no grasp of constructive measures, (b) loathe taxation as such, (c) dislike being governed at all, and (d) dread and resent any extension of official interference as an encroachment on their personal liberty. Compulsory schooling, far from enlightening them, inculcates the sacredness of private property, and stigmatizes a distributive state as criminal and disastrous, thereby continually renewing the old prejudices against Socialism,and making impossible a national education dogmatically inculcating as first principles the iniquity of private property, the paramount social importance of equality of income, and the criminality of idleness.

He continues,

Capitalism has never produced the necessary enlightenment among the masses nor admitted to a controlling share in public affairs the order of intellect and character outside which Socialism, or indeed politics, as distinguished from mere party electioneering, is incomprehensible. Not until the two main tenets of Socialism -- abolition of private property (which must not be confused with personal property), and equality of income -- have taken hold of the people as religious dogmas, as to which no controversy is regarded as sane, will a stable Socialist state be possible....

The private individual, with the odds overwhelmingly against him as a social climber, dreams even in the deepest poverty of some bequest or freak of fortune by which he may become a capitalist, and dreads that the little he has may be snatched from him by that terrible and unintelligible thing, State policy. Thus the private person's vote is the vote of Ananias and Sapphira; and democracy becomes a more effective bar to Socialism than the pliant and bewildered conservatism of the plutocracy.

Hmm. I'd better go find out who Ananias and Sapphira are.

I think Scarsdale is a "pliant and bewildered conservatism of the plutocracy."

So, I'm siding with Vlorbik today. Rather than schools being used as tools for training capitalists or socialists, let's agree to abolish the schools.