pinky-wink |
|
_______________
_______________ Recent Posts: This just in: It's Official: Jesus a Carolina Fan!
|
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
White bread only, please.
Last night's School Board meeting in Champaign found veteran teacher Kathleen Smith submitting her resignation in protest of the district's handling of the NCLB requirements. Mrs. Smith made it clear why she resigned:
"Each year students come to me with different skills, different strengths and different weaknesses," Smith said. "It's always a learning process. They learn about me and I learn about them. Now I find myself constrained by a mentality that says all students will learn the same material at the same pace and prove it by taking the same multiple-choice test within a given time frame.Illini Pundit asked in a recent comment how I would hold school districts accountable for the Federal money they receive. This is a legitimate question, though it is rooted in what I would consider a naive notion of federal financing of education. The US Department of Education will probably receive $56 billion for education in 2006. This will be distributed amongst the 50 states. This is obviously far less than the $80 billion emergency spending for the "War of Terror" and is less than 20% of the military budget for 2006. This amount is so far removed from the billions in tax cuts pushed through by the Republicans that comparison is mute. Yet no one seems to be as concerned about "accountability" in the military, much less for our economic steward. Strange logic we have here. But I digress. Assuming that school districts need to be held accountable for the money they receive from the US government, the question becomes "is this money being well spent?” And, more importantly, how do we know? The current answer is the multiple choice test, which is notoriously unreliable. I won’t go into specifics here, but it has become clear through research over the last 30 years that students who perform well on standardized tests are usually good test takers, not necessarily good students. Any prof at the U of I could tell you that much. So why rely on the standardized test? Well, it’s easy, and cheap. Plus the testing companies make craploads of money off standardized tests. But there is a better way. Since each student learns differently, why couldn’t we create assessments for each student that are not based on the test model? For example, students could be asked to prepare portfolios of their work and demonstrate to assessors their knowledge of the material they have been taught. These portfolios could travel with the students from grade to grade. This idea would eliminate one of the major problems with standardized tests: the test date. Many are the stories told of students with the flu on the test date, or students who did not get enough sleep the night before. These variables can greatly effect the student’s performance. A portfolio would be a way to show true progress through the course of the year, not just what the student managed to pull out of his or her ass on the test date. Portfolio assessment will only work if the government creates adequate standards for learning. Currently, in Illinois, we are required to teach around 200 "benchmarks" in the course of one year of 8th grade American History (my subject). Here is a typical benchmark we are instructed to teach: Place events from a chronology on multiple tier timelines that are organized according to political, economic, environmental, and social history.Ok - you have 199 of these waiting to be taught and you have no other information than the sentence above. You have less than one class period to teach this benchmark. How do you do it? What part of this deep, deep question will be on the test? (you might wonder) Don't bother asking, they won't tell you. With clearer objectives, input into questioning and a copy of the test in my hand I might be able to get most of my kids to pass a standardized test. With hundreds of muddy objectives, not input into questioning, and no idea what the test will look like the job becomes next to impossible. This is the problem. There are other ideas out there, but I think the portfolio idea is helpful in showing the hypocrisy of NCLB. While the administration claims it wants to raise student achievement, it is not willing to really address the needs of individual students, as portfolio assessment would. To truly refuse to leave children “behind” requires energy, money, and dedication. It does not require more bureaucracy and homogenous performance standards.  
|
8 Comments:
Mr. Foley,
Thanks for the response.
First, I think there is a lot of waste in Federal spending, including in the military. But I would argue that the military is held accountable - on the battlefield - and they've alway exceeded expectations.
Who then would be responsible for judging the progress of each student's portfolio? If it's only thier teachers (who are admittedly in the best position to do so), then aren't the teachers really holding themselves accountable?
I know it's tough to swallow, but that's not enough accountability for most Americans.
No, it's not. But I think that is the point. The teachers are not truly accountable for the progress of their students. Think about it for a minute before you scoff. How much of education is about a good teacher, and how much is about a good student? Teachers make a difference, for sure, but there are so many other barriers to student performance that go unaddressed.
Families are the #1 issue. Socio-economic is the next. Teachers are way down the list. We've all earned A's from teachers we couldn't stand. I have successfully completed 18 years of schooling and I can count my "great" teachers on one hand.
It is acceptable to work on student achievement, and to toss around ideas about how to increase that achievement. As I've posted before, some good things have come from NCLB.
And there are some teachers who are a problem, for sure. But we should be reaching out to families, working to alleviate poverty, and creating alternatives to drugs and gangs for young people. These changes would have a HUGE effect on student achievement. Running standardized tests, removing administrators and intimidating teachers has negative consequences.
Vouchers are a great idea if you would like to return to segregated schools. What happens to the families who can't afford tuition? Are you recommending we have only private schools, with the best schools being reserved for the upper middle class, etc. and the worst schools be reserved for the lower classes?
What about mandatory schooling, should that be off the table? If you are talking about freely choosing your school then shouldn't you be able to choose not to pay for school, and have no requirements for the education of young people?
Vouchers may not be the answer. They are definitely very complicated and raise all sorts of equity issues. Perhaps a post on the merits of public schooling is in order?
Mr. Foley,
OK, as you said, "The teachers are not truly accountable for the progress of their students."
How then are active, involved parents to make an informed decision about the quality of the school district?
How then is the Federal Government to make an informed decision about how much money to spend on education? Once that's decided, how should they allocate it (towards which programs, districts, etc.?)
Vouchers are another issue, but intricately linked to this. If parents are a large factor in the quality of child's education, shouldn't active, informed parents be allowed some choices? If not vouchers, at least between schools? If there's no data on how schools are performing, how should active, informed parents make such decisions?
Thanks,
IP
If the question is really "how do we best measure the progress of a school?" then the answer is complicated, and expensive. Do you really want to know how well a school is doing, or do you just want to compare test scores? To get an actual feel for the make-up of a school you need to analyze a wide array of factors, of which tests are but a start.
Parents should come to the school at least once a week. Volunteer in a classroom, the library, etc. Meet with the teachers. Go to sports events, concerts, field trips, etc. Get involved.
I cannot remember a parent volunteer who has ever complained about our school. Maybe I never heard them but, honestly, all the volunteers, tutors, etc. love coming in and love our school. It's usually the folks who you never see that complain the loudest.
I'll concede that test scores may be a way to judge the effectiveness of a school, but not if you just look at the median score. Check out the sub categories and find your kid in there. Compare with schools the same size, SES (socio-economic status), and diversity levels. In other words, put the time into it to really judge the school effectively. Reading an article in the News-Gazette is not an effective way to really judge a school.
RSW - education is supposed to be about children, not business. If you wanted to add vouchers to the current levels of funding I think that might be acceptable. If you want to take away the pittance that is already spent on our schools and turn it into vouchers, then I think that's a recipe for disaster.
In other words, keep all public school funding levels the same, but add billions for voucher programs. Sounds fine to me. The middle class kids can go to Judah and turn into snotty Christian kids who hate Muslims and I'll take the Gangster Disciples from the hood in our class of 12 students.
Seriously, I'd do that in a minute, though I doubt that's what you meant.
$440 billion is a drop in the bucket my homie, and you know it. This country spends $50 billion on beer every year. Do you want to do comparisons? It's pretty depressing.
Only a supportive role in education? You might want to remind Mr. Bush about that consitutional interpretation.
Some of us believe a civilized country should focus on the education and health care of its citizens before focusing on conquering the oil fields of Arabia. But you know us - we're a bunch of liberal elitists.
Mr. Foley,
You wrote that "$440 billion is a drop in the bucket."
How much is enough funding, in your opinion? Where would you spend the increased funding? And, if you were the Federal or State government, how would you measure the success or failure of the extra spending? Would you try to measure it at all?
Thanks,
IP
You make a good point Tom, and it is rare that I agree with a business perspective when it comes to schooling. But, as usual, assessment is not an easy task and cannont be quanitified with numbers. But, of course, the plan is not to get accurate assessment. The plan is to get some negative numbers to justify the shifting of funds out of the public and into the private sector!
Post a Comment
<< Home