It seems like school and the children who attend them have gotten a lot of attention lately. Everybody agrees that schools are not as good as they could be. Nobody agrees what to do about it.
Schools in this nation took a long time to get where they are now. They will take some years of diligent retooling to become world class. The educational fad of the month club will not suffice, nor will feel-good strategies with no supporting research. This does not mean we should give up on today’s high school students, but rather recognize that today’s incremental improvements will be most visible when today’s kindergarteners are in high school. We will not know for several years whether current reforms work. Some evidence already suggests that Leave No Child Behind is not as effective as it should be.
Schools will improve, and improve dramatically, but not until we as a nation declare that the number one priority of our schools from grade school to grad school is to educate children. That sounds stupidly simple until you understand that if education is the first priority, then athletics and other extracurriculars and even University level research can at best be second.
Some will argue correctly that it is difficult if not impossible to educate children who are worried about where thier next meal is coming from, or whether one parent is getting drunk/high today yet, or getting home without encountering bullies/gangs/drug dealers. As one young woman interviewed on a Detroit news program said, “It’s hard to concentrate on your papers when part of the ceiling is falling on them.” So of course there must be adequate investment in such areas as facilities, referrals to social services, nutritious school lunches, and age appropriate discipline. However, this does not mean turning schools into million dollar nannyvilles.
Studies have shown that although throwing money at schools improves them, beyond a certain point costs outstrip benefits. Some people have suggested that money mismanagement is rampant in some school districts, and thus more money is very likely to mean more waste if not more outright fraud. Waste and fraud do not educate children.
If we have high school students who cannot read a newspaper or an instruction manual, who cannot do enough math to balance a checkbook or figure out how much X they will need for project Y, who do not understand the Bill of Rights or how we elect Presidents and pass laws, then we cannot give that student a diploma. If they have been getting good grades and still do not know basic stuff every high school graduate should be expected to know, that is the fault of the teacher who gave good grades rather than face reality (and possibly angry parents). Students, Parents, Communities, and Employers all have a vested interest in the High School Diploma representing a basic proficiency in these and several other areas.
All this being said, allow me to offer a few ideas on real Educational Reform. First, recognize that testing is an important way to find out where kids are and what if anything they have learned. However, tests do not teach kids anything. All standardized student testing — state, federal, and everything else throughout the year — should take up no more than one school week. Such tests should keep in mind age/grade appropriate standards and skills. Thus, teaching to the test should be replaced with teaching to and exceeding the standards. “Improvement” is not a sufficient goal: this goal assumes that there are no good schools, that every school is by nature deficient. There needs to be a clear, attainable minimum standard, and the understanding that some schools will exceed them. That’s okay. Excellence is good.
Second, all teachers and school administrators should be encouraged to look at each activity and expense and ask “How does this educate children?” Everything, from the morning announcements on the loudspeaker on up to the last extracurricular at the end of the day should be open to scrutiny. Be honest about actual costs in time and money. Entire programs might be labeled “non-educational” and cut, leaving more money for things that do work. In a related vein, consider whether the costs are worth the benefits. Such analysis may well lead some schools to eschew “free” government money because it simply costs too much. Yeah, that may mean that such schools don’t get “their fair share” of tax dollars, paid from within their district. Encourage parents to vote.
Finally, what if I told you there was one simple thing we could do, particularly in our high schools, that would raise comprehension and achievement levels within a year? There would furthermore probably be incremental improvements for about 5 years before leveling off. Test scores would improve not because of coaching or teaching to the test, but rather because the kids would know and understand more. And what if I were to tell you that this same change would have other beneficial effects? This same change has the potential to reduce crime both by and against teenagers, reduce gang activity and drug/alcohol use, reduce truancy rates, and reduce teen pregnancy.
What is this educational miracle, and why aren’t we doing it already? It is the idea of starting High School no earlier than 8:30 or 9:00 AM, and letting classes run until at least 3:00 PM. Researchers agree that teenager’s brains just flatly aren’t fully awake before then. It should be obvious that kids who are not awake cannot perform as well academically. And you have falsely been told that classes must start by 7:30 and be out by 1:30 because of money. The official reason teenagers are let out of school so early is so they can take care of younger siblings they don’t have, and take part time jobs which are increasingly being taken by grown-ups trying to make ends meet, and to facilitate the school bus schedule which can be changed. The real reason is so student athletes have more time on the playing field before dark. That’s right, the performance of every student has been compromised so the jocks don’t have to use light bulbs.
Honestly, I would have thought academics for everyone were more important than sports practice for a chosen elite.
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