NCLB: Act II

Thank you for the timely information and your public service. Education's administrative actions and practices seem to be on a continuum of evolution and sometimes it is difficult and confusing to keep abreast of what is actually going on. By the time we understand one concept it seems that concept has been "made over." Thanks to articles and publications such as these, I am able to send information on to my local BOE members and stay as informed as I am willing to!

As soon as the CEP report embargo is lifted, I’ll be printing it out, and I anticipate the same insights as their previous reports. The CEP, like others, have been showing that it is far harder to turn around high poverty schools than many had anticipated. They reenforce the conclusion of The Turnaround Challenge that instruction-driven reforms that may raise student performance in lower poverty schools are inherently incapable of addressing the complex ecosystem of high poverty schools. The only real advantage of curriculum-driven reforms is that they are much less expensive than comprehensive reforms that are required to build the respectful and trusting relationships that are the essential foundation of turnarounds.

With the economic crisis, we need to think anew, unless we want to continue to waste money on the conventional wisdom. Firstly, we need to redefine the challenge. Rather than create utopias in all of our schools, we should focus on creating a rich, holistic, humane (and accountable) culture in high poverty schools that gives every child a real opportunity to learn. We won’t be able to guarantee that every single child is proficient by 2014, and that the achievement gap will be closed by that date, but if we want to make things better for poor kids we need realism.

Under NCLB, schools have focused almost completely on their weaknesses, and we should ask whether any other institutions have turned themselves around using that approach. Wouldn’t it be far more effective to also focus on our schools strengths? The most obvious example is the narrowing of the curriculum, as opposed to building on the arts, music, outdoors education, and community-centered programs where we often produce excellence. But I’d like a “thought experiment” regarding reading comprehension. Typically, schools try the conventional wisdom of curriculum alignment, frequent assessment, and a greater or lesser amount of old-fashioned drills/worksheets/online tutorials etc. Arguments can be made for and against their benefits. Its hard to deny, however, that they are extremely costly and that we know very little about what a cost benefit analysis would reveal.

Ed Week had a wonderful Commentary on innovative digital media for the 21st century. What if we put our green eye-shades away, and go with the thrust of our creative culture investing in “video games, digital storytelling, fan fiction, music, political commentary, robotics, anime and nearly every other endeavor the human mind can think of?” What if we invested in a “Digital Teacher Corps?”

I’d like to also suggest one other more modest way of rethinking reform during the financial crisis. Stop treating educational problems as moral failures and seek ways to detour around road blocks. For instance, in my experience we’ve always had about 1/3rd of our students who are unable to make it to class for 1st Hour. So we try a complex and expensive system of detentions, after-school tutoring, and professional development focused on “high expectations.” Why not just change the schedules and create more opportunities to for kids to take classes when they can make it to school?

I suspect there is a common rationale for both issues. Too many people have been caught up in laying blame rather than devising practical solutions.

I do not know John Thompson, but I certainly hope that he is in a decision making position for somebody!

I appreciate and agree with his ideas and where he is going with his words. Perhaps when or if we can get parents to buy into it....
If the future is dismal for the primary caregiver, what can we expect from a child nurtured in such hopelessness? The hopelessness can be stressful, which can cause our brain to produce a chemical that adversely affects our well being.
Jobs....Jobs....Jobs....if there are none, what is the use of being educated in the first place? I believe we have to bring back jobs or create jobs through the very "curriculum Mr. Thompson" suggested.

Thank you, John Thompson, for your "out of the box" thinking. As a teacher and trained school administrator who currently stays at home raising my children, I applaud your creative mind.

As I have had time to rest up from the frantic life as an educator, I am better able to reflect on the big picture and my own mind runs to some very different possibilities for education than what we currently are doing today.

Keep it coming, John.

Thank you, John. Kids don't care what you know, until they know that you care!

I am ALL FOR forcing schools to have curriculum programs that offer ALL of their students relevant, standards based educations that truly meet them "where they are". As a former Special Education Teacher in a public High School, in South Carolina, I can tell you that our drop out rate was nearly 40%. It broke my heart, but we had nothing to offer the vast majority of students at our school, who did not learn on grade level (Regular education or Special Education). We did have a Technical Trade School, but even there the standards kept getting pushed higher, and higher until many students could no longer keep up...even with accommodations. If there were behavior issues, forget it!

We did have a local Vocational Rehabilitation Office that was eager to work out a feasible way to work with our students; however, our Special Services Department Director would not let us even suggest it. The only way that students could get involved was to drop out, and go there independently. Fortunately, several did choose to do that, and to this day, they are my most successful students. It saddens me so much that public schools can be given so much to help our kids, yet through poor planning, or selfish motives, do NOT PUT THE NEEDS OF THE CHILDREN FIRST. I applaud Mrs. Spellings for the stand she has taken, and I'm glad she chose Columbia, SC, to speak. I hope my county heard her LOUD AND CLEAR.

I am ALL FOR forcing schools to have curriculum programs that offer ALL of their students relevant, standards based educations that truly meet them "where they are". As a former Special Education Teacher in a public High School, in South Carolina, I can tell you that our drop out rate was nearly 40%. It broke my heart, but we had nothing to offer the vast majority of students at our school, who did not learn on grade level (Regular education or Special Education). We did have a Technical Trade School, but even there the standards kept getting pushed higher, and higher until many students could no longer keep up...even with accommodations. If there were behavior issues, forget it! We did have a local Vocational Rehabilitation Office that was eager to work out a feasible way to work with our students; however, our Special Services Department Director would not let us even suggest it. The only way that students could get involved was to drop out, and go there independently. Fortunately, several did choose to do that, and to this day, they are my most successful students. It saddens me so much that public schools can be given so much to help our kids, yet through poor planning, or selfish motives, do NOT PUT THE NEEDS OF THE CHILDREN FIRST. I applaud Mrs. Spellings for the stand she has taken, and I'm glad she chose Columbia, SC, to speak. I hope my county heard her LOUD AND CLEAR.