Education Reform: A Path to Equipping Students for the Future

1. How Should Education Be Reformed?Chapter 12 Dr. Paul A. Rodriguez

2. The current educational reform movement is being fueled by a widespread belief that U.S. schools are not educating many students adequately for the demands of the present, let alone the future • Although most people agree that school should educate students to be good citizens, workers and people, differing educational philosophies and beliefs about the purposes of schooling lead to a variety of approaches to schooling • Some key educational ideas ought to be at the heart of this current reform movement • It lies primarily on the state and local educational agencies, with the federal government and national associations also making significant contributions • Teachers are the crucial element in meaningful reform • Debate about need for reform—report of 1983, by the National Commission on Excellence in Education entitled A Nation At Risk. It described a “rising tide of mediocrity” in the schools • Major motivations for reform— To Develop a Democratic Citizen • There are dramatic differences between the schools serving the children of the rich and those serving the children of the poor • Disturbing high percentage of students know nothing about our democratic traditions and how our government functions • There is little understanding of the world and the global role and responsibility of the United States

3. To Develop the Good Worker • Our way of life and our individual standard of living are closely linked to the United States’ ability to maintain its economic leadership—a leadership that is seriously threatened by the comparatively low level of knowledge and skills in mathematics, science and vocational education demonstrated by the graduates of our schools • The world of work is highly being transformed, and schools are not keeping pace. As Americans struggle to cope with the every-changing demands of the information age, many of our schools remain trapped in a factory or industrial approach to teaching and learning To Develop the Good Person • Many children seem to be failing to develop a “moral compass” and the personal habits of responsibility, diligence, kindness and courage that are associated with mature adulthood • Too many students are concerned with personal gain and individual rights rather than the well-being of their community and society • The call for excellence—while the current reform movement has been energized by the recent trend toward globalization and economic concerns, the call for excellence has always been part of parents’ goals for their children’s education • High standards—earning self-esteem, is seen as the direct by-product of student achievement. Helping children achieve high standards is a challenge for the teacher. It demands that teachers not only know their subject matter, but also know how to engage students of many different abilities, interest levels and learning styles

4. Accountability—some form of accountability is usually required, and it most often comes in the form of standardized tests. In effect, teachers began teaching to the test—what was tested became what was taught Teach to a student and not to a test --Erin Gruwell, Teacher and Co-Author of The Freedom Writer’s Diary • Increase in standardized testing—many educators and parents express grave concerns about what they perceive as an overemphasis on high-stakes testing. Relying on tests developed by external sources can be unduly limiting if schools organize their curricula solely to conform to the content of the tests We must put knowledge directly in the hands of teachers and seek accountability that will focus attention on “doing the right things” rather than on “doing things right” --Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education • Authentic or Performance Assessment—involves performance test that get closer to how student apply knowledge rather than how they store it in their minds • Portfolios—might showcase students’ best work, much like an artist’s portfolio. They can be evaluated by students and teachers to determine learning progress • Rubrics—use of rubrics that specify criteria and standards of assessment, the subjectivity of the human evaluator is an important consideration • Any educational reform needs to include some way of knowing if students are actually meeting the standards set and becoming the well-educated individuals that society wants

5. Constructivism—is a theory of knowledge acquisition built on the idea that the learner interacts with new information to “construct” meaning from it. Constructivism provides a frame of reference for organizing classroom practices so that students learn in all content areas • Active learning—learners build and add to their understanding of concepts, rules and strategies through direct, hands-on experimentation • Scaffolding—the teacher uses clues, questions and hints to extend students’ understanding • Characteristics of constructivist classrooms—learner who takes responsibility for his or her own learning. Ideally, constructivist classrooms foster experiential, inquiry-based learning in an atmosphere of intellectual play • Criticisms of constructivism—this approach are quick to point out that students can “construct” incorrect answers. Also, it is a formidable task to regularly put constructivism into practice, to translate this theory of learning into a theory of teaching. “Tell me and I forget. Show me and I will remember. Make me do it and I learn.” • Disengagement of students—some large schools have an aura of impersonality that results in the disengagement of many students. Large schools are often equally overwhelming for parents, who then tend to remain at a distance and uninvolved in their children’s school lives • “Houses” of students—new schools are purposely kept small. Teachers and students interact, they function as schools-within-schools. Each student is a known person rather than a name on a class roster

6. Need for learning throughout life—schools must attend to the habits of mind and the skills that will keep people learning throughout their lives, making them lifelong learners. Not only must students become good learners, but they must also be enthusiastic learners. In other words, students must know how to learn, and they must want to learn • Training the brain—to teach people how to manage and use their brains effectively. Even after you leave the schools, we must continue to make use of our important tool, our brain • Intellectual capital—students need to learn how to learn. Teachers must give students the necessary tools for learning: advanced reading, remembering, recording, researching, test taking, analyzing and creating • Definition of character—the effort to help the young acquire a moral compass—that is, a sense of right and wrong and the enduring habits necessary to live a good life. Character education, then, involves helping the child to know the good, love the good and to do the good Formal education is the playing field on which society vies over values --Theodore Sizer, Educator Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing --Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States

7. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trail and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved --Helen Keller, Author • A Nation at Risk—most educators agree that the current reform started with the 1983 federal report. National Education Goals for the Year 2000 • No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 • The main goal of NCLB is to close the “achievement gap” between students who perform well in schools and those who perform poorly • Annual testing, academic improvement and teacher and paraprofessional qualifications • Mixed reactions to NCLB—State standards lack uniformity • National Standards—advocacy for a national curriculum standards have been developed by discipline-specific national groups of scholars and educators as part of larger attempts to bring about curriculum reform. In some cases how students should be taught • Schools banding together—Coalition of Essential Schools try to put into practice the Ten Common Principles.

8. Helping adolescents use their minds well • Teaching for the mastery of essential skills and acceleration in certain areas of knowledge • Recognizing the student as worker rather than the teacher as deliverer of information • Provoking student to learn how to learn • Reflecting values of trust, decency, tolerance and generosity in tone of the school • Expecting much from students without threatening them High School Reform • Raising high school standards to the level needed for success in college or the work force • Requiring all students to take a rigorous college and work-ready curriculum • Developing a test of college and work readiness that all students will take in high school • Holding high schools accountable for making sure all students graduate ready for college and work , and holding colleges accountable for the success of the students they admit • An increase in Graduation requirements—students are required to take three and four years in core subjects • More Academic Learning Time—quality instruction time increased

9. Year-round education has attracted the attention of educators • Standards-based education—schools should be held to certain standards in the education of students • Increase in statewide tests—accountability is focused in the form of state-mandated assessments Ideas move fast when their time comes Carolyn Heilbrun, Literacy Scholar and Novelist • Socioeconomic status and high-stakes test—some critics suggest that high-stakes tests may ultimately lead to even greater socioeconomic disparity because failing students will be unable to attend college or get anything but a low-paying job • Higher Expectation for Teachers—teacher competency testing and career ladder programs • Career ladders—mentor teacher and team leader, have been opened to teachers who want new challenges but also want to stay in the classroom, close to students • Rising salaries—closely linked has been a significant move to make teaching more attractive by increasing the starting salaries of teachers • Performance pay—all across the U. S., the lock-step pay scale under which teachers were rewarded only for years of service and number of courses taken has been altered to allow for “performance pay (pay-for-performance), a form o recognition and reward for acquiring new knowledge or skills, or for increasing student achievement

10. Constraints on parental choice—another increasingly popular option is for parents to teach their own children at home • School of choice—many people are touting this ideas as an important aspect of access and educational opportunity • Public school monopoly—the advocates of school choice see the current system as monopolistic. School choice advocates want to redesign the way we organize education, shifting the decision of where a child must go to school from the school system to the child’s parents. They want market forces to regulate the schools, instead of the educational monopoly that they claim currently operate • Arguments for school choice—if parents can act as consumers, schools will have real incentives to improve. They suggest, “more choice equals more competition equals better products at lower prices.” here, “better products” means better-educated students • Benefits for minorities—poor families that would have had little or no choice under the previous system now have some options • Within-district choice—allows, parents to choose from among the various public schools with different goals and purposes, and allow parents to select the one they want their child to attend. A more controversial kind of school choice is the “charter school” concept, and the most controversial kind is “school voucher plans.”

11. Magnet schools—are alternative schools designed to provide high-quality instruction both in specific areas and in the basic skills. • Magnet schools have a unified curriculum based on a special theme or method of instruction • Enrollment is open to students beyond the geographic attendance zone • Students and parents choose the school • Magnet schools popular—have been established with considerable success in many areas of the country • Diversity among magnets—are highly diverse. Some emphasize academics, science, social studies, foreign languages, college preparation and so on. Others stress fine arts or performing arts • Charter schools—are public schools that usually belong to a particular school district but have been given a charter that provides them with a large degree of independence • School autonomy—as long as they meet the specifications of their charters, these schools are free to control their own budgets, hire their own consultants, design their own curriculum, and infuse the school with their own educational flavor. These schools are, in effect, independent public schools. Typically, students are chosen randomly from those who apply to attend the particular charter school • Site-based decision making—in participatory decision making is the mode of operation. Charter schools are judged on how well they meet the student achievement goals established by their charter, or contract

12. Vouchers—give the parent-consumer the widest array of choices. This type of plan gives parents a piece of paper, a voucher worth a certain dollar amount, that they can use to help pay the costs for their child to attend the public or private school of their choice • Arguments for vouchers—still relatively novel, and no really thorough test has been conducted to see whether they can deliver on these heady promises of student success • Salvation or disaster • Voucher plans bring false hopes of school choice because the private schools, not the parents, do the choosing • Some vouchers are worth very little and limit the choices of the schools • Vouchers are being used to education children in religious schools • Many voucher opponents, will lose much needed revenue and be forced to educate children in great needs, whom the private schools would not accept, while lacking the resources to do a good job • Applying market forces to educational institutions doesn’t make sense, schools should be driven by the need to serve the public good, not the desire of individuals and corporations to earn profits • Religious schools already get some public money—both federal and state monies, have been used to provide scholarship aid to students attending religious universities and colleges

13. Private schools relieve burden on public schools—lighten the burden of the public schools • For-profit schools—also known as educational maintenance organizations (EMOs—modeled on health maintenance organizations [HMOs]). • Shortage of local funding for reform—locally initiated reform efforts have slowed down, partly because of a shortage of local funds • Ideas emerge at local levels—more innovative ideas will undoubtedly continue to bubble up from our schools in the future • Piecemeal reform—the school experience of the first-grader or the high school senior is in many ways pretty much the same today as it was n 1983, when the current reform era began

14. Key Terms Accountability Character education Charter schools School choice Lifelong learners Magnet school teacher competency testing National curricular standards teaching to the test National Education Goals for the Year 2000 tools for learning Performance pay (pay-for-performance) voucher plans Portfolios within-district choice rubrics Year-round education scaffolding

15. Key Terms, continued career ladders active learning Authentic (performance) assessment Constructivism Call for excellence For-profit schools Schools-within-schools Intellectual capital Site-based decision making