Pat Kossan of The Arizona Republic comments that emerging changes in United States high schools appear to lead to tomorrow’s high schools resembling today’s colleges.
Americans are mustering a new political will that could lead to the educational equivalent of a moon shot … To work, schools must provide a multitude of courses. They must push the brightest students to move quickly into challenging work and all students into college-level work.
She argues that “The whiff of panic among experts and leaders” exists, reminiscent of 1957, when the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite scared the United States into the space race.
That era included new major curriculum and instruction projects as well as support for refocused teacher preparation programs, both originating in higher education.
Today’s school reform efforts appear anchored in schooling. That is, in public and private schools as well as in homeschooling.
School reform experiments include small, specialized high schools as in North Carolina, high school career tracks as in Florida, and the use of technology as a key communication tool as in Bishop Hartley High School and in homeschooling. Hundreds if not thousands of high schools continue making adjustments.
I wonder, though, what it will take for documented student learning today to overcome administrative and curricular reforms, with or without advanced electronic technologies?
Stated another way, when will prompt individual student learning increases receive priority over massive changes of massive numbers of people who are being paid to see that student learning increases today? As educators, we know what to do and we have authorization to do it. Why don’t we as individual educators increase the performance rates of students assigned to us?
Educators using direct instruction and other 1960s educational reforms with millions of students documented learning increases.
Why don’t educators just use these procedures today? Why don’t teachers Stand and Deliver?
School reform assumes that the problem resides in the way paid personnel conduct daily routines. OK, let’s accept that assumption for a moment.
Now, why not supervise paid personnel more closely to insure that they increase student learning today instead of waiting until yet another grand plan goes into operation tomorrow?
When was the last time you had a supervisor stay in your classroom long enough to suggest specific changes that helped you could document changed student learning rates? Why don’t supervisors appear in classrooms more frequently and measure student performance more closely? Supervisors know that people respond to what they inspect, not just what they expect.
Here’s an often used answer given by educators and our supporters: the new money is in trying to implement grand plans, not in immediately adjusting existing schooling practices for which we already receive funding.
Kossan concludes, Business leaders are helping to drive the (high school reform) trend, as they see the current situation as a “matter of crisis,” because schools have grown complacent (bold added) and haven’t been able to produce graduates who can keep up with the global demand for creative workers…
I’m not sure anyone gains from high schools becoming more like colleges, except if students graduate into entrepreneurship, inventing, and other vocations earlier.
This sounds crass. Maybe it is. I think it’s straight talk from a different view.
As a former business owner, I understand the drive to reform schools. We had a difficult time finding qualified employees, even college graduates, who would follow simple, direct business and technology practices routinely as well as think on their feet. It wasn’t because of the money we offered. Prospective employees and young business partners said they didn’t want to work so hard: “I want time for me and to have fun with my friends. Just pay me. I’ll decide when and if I’ll work.” That’s attitude, not schooled aptitude speaking.
Do you agree with business leaders’ conclusions that educators have grown complacent? What do you think future high schools in your community will look like by 2010? Do educators in your local school agency need to change schools or do we need to change our behavior with students in whatever schooling venue we find each other?
Posted on Tablet PC Education Blog, June 2, 2006 @ 12:28.