At the end of Waiting for Superman, I found myself sad and angry. Here we are living in the greatest country in the world where opportunities are boundless and, yet, so many children are being left behind by the state of our public education system.
By focusing on specific students in areas such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Waiting for Superman brings into sharp relief an unintentional caste system in this country. If you happen to be born in a horrible school district in the United States and are not randomly picked to move to a better school, you are stuck in a cycle that is practically impossible to escape.
Now, let’s take those statistics down another level. I live in Alabama. Of the 50 states in the union, we rank near the bottom in practically every statistical educational category. And, frankly, we don’t care. If we did, we would do something about it.
The most recent bit of evidence for this lack of caring occurred just recently. Waving the banner of states’ rights and using fear of governmental intervention as its mantra, our state walked away from millions of dollars of government funding for education when we decided to essentially drop out of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top. The story as linked below is a microcosm of the challenges of educating our children – ineffective governmental agencies versus the selfish interests of an incredibly powerful teacher’s union.
http://blog.al.com/wire/2010/09/alabamas_poor_race_to_the_top.html
Interestingly, the federal government, state government and teacher’s unions all seem to agree on two key principles:
- The state of American public education is poor and needs to be improved.
- Collaboration among all of those groups is required if there is to be any improvement whatsoever.
And, on a more personal note, I have two children in the public educational system – a 13-year-old in junior high school and a 17-year-old in high school. The blessing here is that we are in one of the best school systems in the state.
The first thing you learn as you research improving public education is that there truly is no silver bullet. Every now and again, prominent research will be trotted out that touts this or that as the answer to our public education woes. And, I believe, Waiting for Superman falls into this trap somewhat by putting all of its eggs into the Charter School basket. It’s something worth trying, but it’s not the whole answer.
As with many complicated questions, there are complicated answers. Such is the case with improving public education. Rather than a single silver bullet, it is going to take a combination of many different tactics to achieve the overall goal of improving public education in this country.
The challenge in moving forward with any education reform is that people disagree on the tactics. In looking at the dizzying number of ideas around education reform, I’ve attempted to narrow those tactics I see cited most often as keys to improving public education:
The Teacher
Really, is there anyone more central to this whole idea? And, yet so central to many of the controversies surrounding education reform. Teacher accountability. Teacher testing. Teacher tenure. Teacher salaries. Teacher unions. Let’s just say this: Good teachers should be rewarded with higher pay and tenure. Bad teachers should be fired.
Here are two teacher-related links you may interested in:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/03/05/why-we-must-fire-bad-teachers.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Race-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=teachers&st=nyt&scp=1
School Calendar
If you look at the other 30 developed countries, especially the Asian cultures, you will find that their students go to school for longer periods of time than our students do. I know we all have romantic notions of childhood summers, but we live in a different, more competitive world and we need to act like it. We need to take an unemotional look at lengthening the school year.
Interesting link from Newsweek on lengthening the school year:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/27/obama-calls-for-a-longer-school-year.html
School Day
This tactic is similar to the school calendar issue. In the other developed countries the school day is longer. It’s something we should examine seriously. Charter schools are doing this now and are finding success with a longer day. However, like most of the tactics discussed here, it is requisite that a longer school day be coupled with improvements in other areas. What’s the purpose of a longer school day if it is lead by a bad teacher?
Interesting links on lengthening the school day:
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-16/opinion/feinberg.longer.schoolday_1_kipp-academy-public-charter-schools-kipp-schools?_s=PM:OPINION
http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/28/education-secretary-calls-for-12-hour-school-days-longer-school-years/
Funding
It’s an easy answer. Got an education problem? Let’s throw money at it. The problem here is that we have been throwing money at it. As a matter of fact, our per student spending as a country has increased over the years while our scores continue to languish. It’s like pouring money into an old car that won’t run. At some point, you need to step back and see what you’re paying for.
Interesting links regarding per student spending:
http://scorecard.cfed.org/education.php?page=access_to_quality_k12_education#_edn2
http://www.alsde.edu/general/quick_facts.pdf
Parental Involvement
For a period of time, my daughters attended Jefferson County public schools. We attended every parent function and we were one of the few. When we would talk to other parents about their children and the school, the answer was often this: “When my child is at school, that’s the school’s problem. Let them do their job.” When we moved to the Mountain Brook School System, there was a clear culture shift. I think it would be fair to say that Mountain Brook parents are almost too involved with their children’s education. However, they know what we all know – an excellent education is the key to success. I’ll be frank. . .I have no idea how to force parents to care about their children’s education other than to educate those children so they understand the importance of education and get involved with their children.
Information on the National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education:
http://www.ncpie.org/
Core Curriculum
This is standard practice at colleges and universities so I’m not sure why this is so controversial in our public secondary schools. The basic idea is that there are core courses that every high school student in the country must take. This ensures that they are prepared for college and that if they move, they know what to expect at their next school. The good news here for Alabama is that we actually may adopt this.
Information on the national push for a Core Curriculum:
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/11/local_school_board_officials_b.html
http://www.corestandards.org/
Classroom Size
Studies have show that the smaller the number of students in the classroom, the better the education of the student. Why? Because it allows the teacher to focus on teaching. Teachers should not be asked to maintain discipline in a classroom with 30+ students. It’s just not feasible. Good teachers get burned out. Bad teachers just give up. Students suffer. This is why advanced classes tend to work so well. By their very nature, they tend to be smaller, get the best teachers and focus all efforts on the students.
A document on the class size debate:
http://epi.3cdn.net/543d57e139a7bcc422_vnm6b5tkc.pdf
Student Motivation
Most recently, it’s been suggested that students are the real problem with education. More specifically, it’s unmotivated students. My hope is that this argument doesn’t take root because it would seem to me that we are blaming the very people we are being charged with helping. The question becomes this: Why are they unmotivated? Parent apathy? Poor teachers? Not sure, but let’s do everything we can to improve the student’s environment before blaming the student.
An article on unmotivated students:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/06/school-reform-and-student-motivation.html
Let it be written clearly: I am no public education expert. I have not been trained in education. I grew up in rural Courtland, Alabama, and went to private Christian schools through the 7th grade. I entered the public school system in 8th grade when I started in the Decatur, Alabama, public school system and graduated from Decatur High School.
My love for education was instilled in me by my parents, great teachers (shout out to Mrs. Felts and Mrs. Lacy), and my scary smart friends. All pushed me to work harder and try harder.
Now that my children are in the public school system, I have taken an even more active role in the state of public education. What Waiting for Superman did was wake me up to the fact that we live in a country where kids who understand the importance of a better education are not given that opportunity. And that’s just wrong.
Whether you agree with what I’ve written or what Waiting for Superman has to say, the charge to you can be boiled down to two words: Get Involved.
Here’s a link from the Waiting for Superman site on some ways you can get involved:
http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/page/what-you-can-do
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