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Chris Fritz
East Lansing, MI
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Chris commented on the article |...continued...
SO WHY AREN'T WE THERE YET?
I do think real reform is possible - we just need that culture shift I was talking about. The general public needs to understand why we're doing something, if we want to do it in a public education system! Dan Pink is doing his part to bring about this shift in the business realm, with his latest book, Drive (http://bit.ly/1yAaFG). Dan Willingham also wrote about the same research, and what it means for the classroom, in Why Don't Students Like School? (http://bit.ly/cPMuMl). More people are starting to talk about this, and are talking about it outside of academic circles - but it'll take some time for the message to spread. It takes so long to escape from the old ideas, because they've been with us for so long - so long, that common misconceptions are now considered common sense. It's tough to argue against "common sense."If you're still unsatisfied, please challenge these ideas so I can provide a better argument or more evidence! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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Chris commented on the article |
Lisa, those are some really great questions. I'll try to answer them as best I can.
THE OPEN INNOVATION PORTAL
There's a lot we can do that's supported by decades of research and real results in real schools. As Keynes once said about economics, "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from the old ones." The problem is, we need a culture shift for the great ideas to be accepted by the general public. Unfortunately, education is very political, and it doesn't help that everyone seems to think they know what's best for education (without looking at the research or at practices in more successful school systems). So since we're not lacking great ideas (just trying to escape from the old ones), I'm not sure how the Open Innovation Portal can help very much. It seems like it just reinforces the idea that anyone can contribute an uninformed opinion, based on their own experience in a school culture that contradicts how people are really motivated and really learn.
REAL REFORM
I'll give an example of what I consider real reform, that even happens in real schools (http://bit.ly/cdXHea), and as I explain, I think you'll understand why it's so hard for people to embrace it. I'm going to talk about grades. Grades are extremely harmful to student motivation, provide very poor feedback to students, and don't even give future employers and educational institutions the information they need to effectively judge students (http://bit.ly/16OPTv). So why the heck do we use them, instead of other, more effective forms of assessment (http://bit.ly/b2mNfX)? Well, try telling most people, including policy makers, that you'd like to end grades, and they'll call it the end of accountability (even though it'd be the beginning of REAL accountability). Grades provide easily analyzed documentation. With grades, we can make charts and graphs, averages and medians, and easily rate students from best to worst. These numbers are really comforting to those far away from the action. If administrators and policy makers can't see what's going on in the classroom, they need a number to tell them we're meeting our education quota - even if getting that number adversely affects student motivation and isn't even representative of student ability....continued..
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Chris commented on the article |
I'd agree with you if the current ideas for reform constituted actual reform, and not just an intensification of the status quo (like even longer school days and an even heavier reliance on standardized tests).
"Use current technology to assist in teaching and learning. Fire teachers who can't teach and administrators who can't manage. Carve out consistent and reliable classroom funding from state and federal budgets."
To do any of these effectively, we need fundamental change in the education system - the current one stifles any real innovation.
Now keep this comment from getting too long, here's a great link to Alfie Kohn's thoughts on what passed (and still passes) for reform at the end of 2008.
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Chris commented on the article |@Jessica Shiller - But if the struggling, low income students are going to stick around instead of drop out, they need to be given something worth their time. For those that still want academic help (and think they can get it from their high school), why not make the last year optional?
@Andrea Amel - That sounds like a great idea. I'm thinking it might also motivate would-be-dropouts out to stick around. I also agree that there needs to be support available for aimless students (even after high school). Maybe if more were exposed to interesting, engaging material in high school, they wouldn't be so aimless though. I think it's astonishing that most educators and students haven't heard of TED Talks, for example. They're even the perfect length for the classroom - maximum 18 minutes for the video, then the rest of class time for discussion and reflection.
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Chris commented on the article |It's nice to see a school valuing the cultural capital of the minority population and bringing their staff together around a set of strong values. I'm in Michigan, so I think I might go visit one of these schools and see it in action!
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Chris commented on the article |
Some great discussion on this topic going on at a "Room for Debate" at the NY Times. I suggest that all check it out for the variety of opinions.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/a-diploma-in-10th-grade/
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Chris commented on the article |
I agree that there are fewer jobs available out there for those only with a high school diploma or two-year degree, but those who graduated a year earlier could still move on to a 4-year university. Are you worried that somehow, less would go to university? I'm a bit confused about whether this is an argument against the 12th grade cut or against the usefulness of anything less than a 4-year degree?
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Chris commented on the article |
This isn't the first time there's been talk of shortening high school. Many have argued that the general education students are getting in the later part of high school is simply unnecessary. Indeed, many confess to never use most of what they learn in high school, so why not cut some of that out? This would certainly give students a specialize earlier if they know what they want, but the article makes it sounds like they MUST know what they want right away.
If implemented thoughtfully, this could give youth a chance to explore their interests before choosing a direction, and perhaps make some money while getting some work experience if they can find work.
The following argument I also find unconvincing:
"Students who don't do well early in high school might be left with dead-end options. At least if those students have a couple more years, they can try and improve their grades for college, but under these grade elimination plans, there is no room for that."
First of all, high school isn't the last chance to turn things around if students have greater ambitions. They still have a chance to earn great grades and a 2-year degree at a community college, as well as valuable work experience that can score them some great recommendations. They can also always retake the SAT and other standardized tests (if those god-awful things are still around by the time this gets passed, if it does). Even if high school WAS their last chance, what about those students that would only turn things around in their 13th or 14th year of grade school? Students don't want to hang around forever. Many students drop out because they hate school, find what they're learning useless, and/or need to start making more money. Allowing them to specialize earlier or find work addresses these concerns before as many students get fed up and quit.
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Chris commented on the article |Mark, I'm curious now. You seem to be well aware that a significantly higher percentage of blacks live in poverty, even with both parents working. This is a trend that's continued for a VERY long time. If you don't think the cause is institutionalized racism, what do you think is the cause? Simply saying "it's a vicious cycle" doesn't cut it, since whites seem somehow more able to escape it. I look forward to your response.
Also, as someone who's been educated by teachers and alongside students with completely different cultural backgrounds from myself, I can tell you that the difference between a student's culture and the dominant one plays a HUGE role and the student always suffers.
White Americans rarely experience this though, so they decide it doesn't exist and that minorities are just blaming their problems on others to avoid responsibility.
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Chris commented on the article |
My elementary school and high school actually didn't have a Special Ed Department as far as I was aware, so my experience is based solely on my discussions with Special Ed teachers. However, if these accounts can be trusted, "resource rooms" seem to at least in some cases give students the opportunity to direct their own learning a little more and some times with the resources they might need. So in that light, they seem better than nothing, with our current system.
However, I am with you when you say the more optimal solution would be "special education for every student." I have no severe "disability", but I do have a different cultural background than almost everyone I learn with and I do have my own preferences for learning, like everyone else. I KNOW I could greatly benefit from more individualized learning, because like everyone else, I'm a unique individual.
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