Last week, I outlined the first half of a set of ideas to improve education in the United States. Today, I'm wrapping up those thoughts with the rest of my desired reforms.
More teaching, less administration. Our resources must be used to put more teachers into more classrooms. Principals can set the tone for a school and work to get resources where they are most needed, but the administrative overhead in public schools goes well beyond that. We need less administration and those who remain must also be regular classroom teachers. If they teach, they will understand what students need. And student needs must drive our eduction system.
Teacher autonomy. Most teachers are effective classroom planners and they value autonomy in getting the job done. Successful learning requires flexible teachers who adapt their lessons to their students. I know this first-hand. On a year to year basis, I may focus on different elements of the subjects I teach. That's not to say there is no goal; no endpoint. In fact, all of my courses have objectives, but my school is flexible enough to permit me to map my course to student interests while working toward that goal. This means greater engagement for everyone in my classroom. We all win.
Eliminate tenure. Though experience is valuable and should be rewarded, we must acknowledge that the "job for life" model of teaching in no longer useful. Job security is important, of course, and elimination of tenure should not serve as a license for schools to get rid of experienced teachers. But the current tenure system is not serving our students well and we must acknowledge that fact.
Let the state run the show. I'm not always a fan of state government, but local control of our schools has proven a disaster, especially in terms of funding. Local control means that local taxes are used to pay for the schools. And where the tax base isn't up to the job, local schools (and the children enrolled in them) suffer mightily. Our haphazard system of local control rewards well-off children while leaving the rest of our youth to muddle through. If the state collected the money and then doled it out to districts, we'd have much greater equality in the system. And if the state is footing the bill, then they should set the standards. Then we could quit pretending that the petty fiefdoms that we call school boards are a good idea.
I am convinced that this is the recipe for educational success. Innovative, successful programs like the Harlem's Children's Zone and KIPP are getting the job done. But, for all their success, they are still rare bright lights. I fear that we lack the national commitment to provide a system that will succeed for all of our children. The price of this neglect is steep, and that it is paid by the most vulnerable among us is deeply shameful. We can do better.
Showing posts with label The Road Ahead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Road Ahead. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Road Ahead: Education Reform, part I
For the last three months, I've been reading about education reform. And let me just say that plenty of ink has been spilled on this topic. Thinking about education in the first place got me thinking about my own approach to teaching, and I wrote about that a few months back. Today's posting isn't about me in the classroom, it's about classrooms and our kids.
President Obama's Race to the Top proposal interests me, not because I think it's brilliant, but because at this point in the game I'm intrigued by any serious proposal that aims to shake things up. It's not that all American schools are in trouble; far from it. Our problem is that the poor kids in at-risk schools are suffering. We have a 75% high school graduation rate in the United States, much of it due to the abysmal completion rate in our poorest schools. In a nation like ours, with an unacknowledged but powerful class system shaping so many of our children's lives, a good education can still create better life opportunities. Our most needy children are most in need of a real education if they are to have any chance of getting ahead.
I write from my perspective as a teacher, not a teacher in a large system or government-run school, but rather a teacher at an independent school, one with the ability to be innovative and with the luxury of well-cared for children. My job can be demanding, but I would be the first to acknowledge that my challenge is not the same as the challenge present in places like Camden, Newark, Los Angeles or Washington D.C. But it is those children to whom we owe a real commitment. And frankly, we need to spend some money to give them what they deserve.
I'm not convinced that teacher salaries are where we need to spend the money, by the way. Teachers should be well-compensated, of course, and by and large the last 40 years have seen to it that teacher's salaries and benefits place them squarely in the middle class. For example, the average public school teacher in New Jersey makes $65,000 a year, plus benefits and a pension plan. Those folks may not be living the dream, but they are doing okay.
But we must spend money on some very important things. Today, I'll outline a couple of the ideas on my list. Later on this week, I'll finish up.
Nutrition and social services for children. Hungry children from unstable family environments cannot learn. What these children require is food, health services, stability, and security in the company of adults who care. Schools can provide breakfast and lunch, but that's just the beginning. Schools need to open early and close late, providing after school enrichment, activities, and fun, and most of all the stability that children crave and deserve. It will take more caring staff to make this happen.
Smaller classes. The very best teachers I know are people who have a complete handle on their classrooms and their students. They know how to challenge a child and move them forward; they teach with a focus on learning autonomy but with the sure knowledge that children benefit from guidance. A teacher can do this most effectively with 15 - 18 students in her care. Classrooms at that size allow for plenty of quality work to be assigned (and assessed to measure progress); they allow a teacher to develop assignments and activities that target the child's learning needs. They ensure that a child has a meaningful relationship with his classroom teacher, a teacher who is neither over-worked nor under-valued. The average class size in American schools today ranges from 22 to 30. That's not good enough.
Don't scrimp on the "extras." There is a growing amount of scholarship that demonstrates what good teachers already know: Learning across diverse disciplines is connected. Children with regular gym class have better math scores. Children who receive regular art instruction are better thinkers and writers. Children in regular music classes learn to be adept problem-solvers. Math and reading are essential, of course, but these skills don't develop without a full serving of learning in fields as diverse as science, history, foreign language, and so much more. This learning must be in the hands of professionals who are committed to their subjects. Among other things, that means that students are working with many caring adults who are teaching subjects they love. It's a recipe for lifelong learning.
Subject Training. My exposure to schools of education has convinced me that pedagogy is not nearly as useful as content. There is simply no substitute for content and more is always better. 'Nuf said.
These ideas are a start, but they aren't the whole story. Later this week, I'll outline the rest of my reform agenda.
President Obama's Race to the Top proposal interests me, not because I think it's brilliant, but because at this point in the game I'm intrigued by any serious proposal that aims to shake things up. It's not that all American schools are in trouble; far from it. Our problem is that the poor kids in at-risk schools are suffering. We have a 75% high school graduation rate in the United States, much of it due to the abysmal completion rate in our poorest schools. In a nation like ours, with an unacknowledged but powerful class system shaping so many of our children's lives, a good education can still create better life opportunities. Our most needy children are most in need of a real education if they are to have any chance of getting ahead.
I write from my perspective as a teacher, not a teacher in a large system or government-run school, but rather a teacher at an independent school, one with the ability to be innovative and with the luxury of well-cared for children. My job can be demanding, but I would be the first to acknowledge that my challenge is not the same as the challenge present in places like Camden, Newark, Los Angeles or Washington D.C. But it is those children to whom we owe a real commitment. And frankly, we need to spend some money to give them what they deserve.
I'm not convinced that teacher salaries are where we need to spend the money, by the way. Teachers should be well-compensated, of course, and by and large the last 40 years have seen to it that teacher's salaries and benefits place them squarely in the middle class. For example, the average public school teacher in New Jersey makes $65,000 a year, plus benefits and a pension plan. Those folks may not be living the dream, but they are doing okay.
But we must spend money on some very important things. Today, I'll outline a couple of the ideas on my list. Later on this week, I'll finish up.
Nutrition and social services for children. Hungry children from unstable family environments cannot learn. What these children require is food, health services, stability, and security in the company of adults who care. Schools can provide breakfast and lunch, but that's just the beginning. Schools need to open early and close late, providing after school enrichment, activities, and fun, and most of all the stability that children crave and deserve. It will take more caring staff to make this happen.
Smaller classes. The very best teachers I know are people who have a complete handle on their classrooms and their students. They know how to challenge a child and move them forward; they teach with a focus on learning autonomy but with the sure knowledge that children benefit from guidance. A teacher can do this most effectively with 15 - 18 students in her care. Classrooms at that size allow for plenty of quality work to be assigned (and assessed to measure progress); they allow a teacher to develop assignments and activities that target the child's learning needs. They ensure that a child has a meaningful relationship with his classroom teacher, a teacher who is neither over-worked nor under-valued. The average class size in American schools today ranges from 22 to 30. That's not good enough.
Don't scrimp on the "extras." There is a growing amount of scholarship that demonstrates what good teachers already know: Learning across diverse disciplines is connected. Children with regular gym class have better math scores. Children who receive regular art instruction are better thinkers and writers. Children in regular music classes learn to be adept problem-solvers. Math and reading are essential, of course, but these skills don't develop without a full serving of learning in fields as diverse as science, history, foreign language, and so much more. This learning must be in the hands of professionals who are committed to their subjects. Among other things, that means that students are working with many caring adults who are teaching subjects they love. It's a recipe for lifelong learning.
Subject Training. My exposure to schools of education has convinced me that pedagogy is not nearly as useful as content. There is simply no substitute for content and more is always better. 'Nuf said.
These ideas are a start, but they aren't the whole story. Later this week, I'll outline the rest of my reform agenda.
Saturday, April 03, 2010
My Education Philosophy
In the run up to another feature in my Road Ahead series, I've been reading about education reform. This is more than idle speculation for me because I am a teacher with more than 15 years of experience in various classroom settings (preschool, high school, and college). I'm not quite ready to write about education reform but all the reading has got me thinking about my own philosophy when it comes to the classroom. And all that thinking means that there must be some writing. So this weekend I offer some thoughts about how I teach.
1. Care About the Subject
I love what I teach and it shows. My students may or may not walk out of my classroom filled with the fire of inspiration for the study of history and politics. But they will know that I am inspired; they will know that their time is spent with a teacher who is passionate about the discipline and our mutual knowledge of it.
2. Care About the Students
For me, teaching is about the relationship I form with the students and with the class. As a group of students comes together, a class develops a personality and a groove. The basis of that relationship has to be my investment in the members of the group. Their learning matters to me, of course. But I also care about them as individuals and I signal that fact in every way possible. In my view, students who know that I am invested in them will take greater risks and learn more. As much as possible, I want to make that happen. So I care and they know it.
3. Meet them where they are; move forward
One of the things I have the least patience for is the teacher who announces that his or her students aren't up to muster. It's true that some groups of students are more accomplished and more capable than others. While each group's skill set varies, what they have in common is the ability to move forward. I start every year by identifying a group's strengths and weaknesses and then I seek to move them forward.
4. Content matters
These days, I teach high-school age students at a college prep school; I teach in specific subject areas (History and American Government). In my experience, there is nothing a teacher needs more than content. And more is always better. I refer to this as growing my fact hump and I am passionate about it. With new facts and ideas comes the room to think and explore new ways of understanding my disciplines. I teach at a school with an ethos that supports professional development that is content based and I am so grateful for that shared value. In the last year, I have taken classes or workshops on Mark Twain in the Gilded Age, the state of democracy in the world, and the life and times of Thomas Edison. History, Economics, Politics, Literature, Philosophy....it all has something to offer my classroom and me. The teachers whom I most admire are folks who are looking for a new ways to inform themselves and their students. I want to be in that crowd of folks.
5. Be Human
One day last fall, in a discussion about heathcare reform and end-of-life care (remember Sarah Palin and her death panels? That's what got us started), I unexpectedly got tearful. It wasn't caused by anything in particular. And those of you who know me well know that I am not afraid to cry. But the students were a bit startled. I got command of myself in short order and our discussion moved forward as we sorted out truth from fiction in the healthcare debate. In the next few days, nearly every student in that class came by my classroom to talk some more about healthcare reform. Countless times I have learned this lesson: share a bit of yourself and your experience and the students will find a connection that adds greater meaning to their understanding. And so I am not afraid to be myself.
6. Make room to fail
One of the things that is least understood about teaching is the ways in which every year is a new year. This is also true on a daily basis. I may find that yesterday's seemingly brilliant lesson about political behavior is a flop today. Last year's inspirational discussion of Jim Crow laws is this year's yawner. It works in the other direction as well: last week's confusing discussion of Congress is this week's nuanced command of the same. In short, a successful teacher will succeed and fail all the time and must be willing to roll with the punches. Perfection can't last because there will be a new crop of students next year. Failures can be amended and re-tooled into successes. But the job is more exciting when I am challenged and that means I must make room to try new ideas; new methods, and new tools. That means taking risks.......failure must be an option.
That's it. My educational philosophy. As I've been thinking about my approach to the classroom, I've been considering which of my experiences translate to the larger education world and which ones don't. Later this month I will offer up my thoughts on education reform.
You've been warned.
1. Care About the Subject
I love what I teach and it shows. My students may or may not walk out of my classroom filled with the fire of inspiration for the study of history and politics. But they will know that I am inspired; they will know that their time is spent with a teacher who is passionate about the discipline and our mutual knowledge of it.
2. Care About the Students
For me, teaching is about the relationship I form with the students and with the class. As a group of students comes together, a class develops a personality and a groove. The basis of that relationship has to be my investment in the members of the group. Their learning matters to me, of course. But I also care about them as individuals and I signal that fact in every way possible. In my view, students who know that I am invested in them will take greater risks and learn more. As much as possible, I want to make that happen. So I care and they know it.
3. Meet them where they are; move forward
One of the things I have the least patience for is the teacher who announces that his or her students aren't up to muster. It's true that some groups of students are more accomplished and more capable than others. While each group's skill set varies, what they have in common is the ability to move forward. I start every year by identifying a group's strengths and weaknesses and then I seek to move them forward.
4. Content matters
These days, I teach high-school age students at a college prep school; I teach in specific subject areas (History and American Government). In my experience, there is nothing a teacher needs more than content. And more is always better. I refer to this as growing my fact hump and I am passionate about it. With new facts and ideas comes the room to think and explore new ways of understanding my disciplines. I teach at a school with an ethos that supports professional development that is content based and I am so grateful for that shared value. In the last year, I have taken classes or workshops on Mark Twain in the Gilded Age, the state of democracy in the world, and the life and times of Thomas Edison. History, Economics, Politics, Literature, Philosophy....it all has something to offer my classroom and me. The teachers whom I most admire are folks who are looking for a new ways to inform themselves and their students. I want to be in that crowd of folks.
5. Be Human
One day last fall, in a discussion about heathcare reform and end-of-life care (remember Sarah Palin and her death panels? That's what got us started), I unexpectedly got tearful. It wasn't caused by anything in particular. And those of you who know me well know that I am not afraid to cry. But the students were a bit startled. I got command of myself in short order and our discussion moved forward as we sorted out truth from fiction in the healthcare debate. In the next few days, nearly every student in that class came by my classroom to talk some more about healthcare reform. Countless times I have learned this lesson: share a bit of yourself and your experience and the students will find a connection that adds greater meaning to their understanding. And so I am not afraid to be myself.
6. Make room to fail
One of the things that is least understood about teaching is the ways in which every year is a new year. This is also true on a daily basis. I may find that yesterday's seemingly brilliant lesson about political behavior is a flop today. Last year's inspirational discussion of Jim Crow laws is this year's yawner. It works in the other direction as well: last week's confusing discussion of Congress is this week's nuanced command of the same. In short, a successful teacher will succeed and fail all the time and must be willing to roll with the punches. Perfection can't last because there will be a new crop of students next year. Failures can be amended and re-tooled into successes. But the job is more exciting when I am challenged and that means I must make room to try new ideas; new methods, and new tools. That means taking risks.......failure must be an option.
That's it. My educational philosophy. As I've been thinking about my approach to the classroom, I've been considering which of my experiences translate to the larger education world and which ones don't. Later this month I will offer up my thoughts on education reform.
You've been warned.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The Road Ahead: Healthcare Cost Containment
At the start of the year, I came as close to a New Year's Resolution as I am willing to get by planning some posts on political issues for the next decade. I've written about cynicism and food security. This month, I'm thinking about healthcare cost containment.
In the interests of complete transparency, my preference is for universal healthcare using a single-payer system. If I were in charge, I'd shut down the current private insurance system, organize government ownership of American hospitals, and open government-financed clinics staffed by well-paid physicians and medical specialists for the provision of healthcare. I am convinced that this would lower costs and improve care. But I'm not in charge and I've given up hope that the majority of my nation actually considers healthcare a right and a common good that we must provide for one another.
Sigh.
Short of the Sassafras Takeover, we must engage in some cost control of the current multi-heahed hydra that is the American healthcare system. I have some thoughts.
1. Wellness Programs
Let's set aside the tyranny of nutrition and instead concentrate on teaching folks how to enjoy food made from things grown in the ground. Let's make life-long fitness something we pass on to our children. Let's concentrate on that old-adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And for the love of God, let's teach ourselves that just because big Pharma says our lives would be better if we take Drug X, doesn't mean we should immediately demand a prescription from our doctor.
2. Evidence-Based Medicine
There is a lot of research that suggests treatment protocols for various diseases and disorders range so significantly in the United States that we are often providing care that is neither necessary nor recommended. It may even be dangerous. In short, because of the balkanization of the practice of medicine and our focus on physician-autonomy, we over-treat in so many regions of the country that we are spending billions treating nothing. A recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine spells it out. We could cut our healthcare costs by one-third if we would just stop over-treating people.
3. Tort Reform
I am not convinced that tort reform will actually lower costs much. I am convinced that physicians believe tort reform is necessary. And we need physicians on our side. So let's engage in setting some reasonable limits on the damages people can collect from suing their doctor. At its best, this will help to reduce some of the backside-covering over-treating that doctors who fear lawsuits engage in. And at it's worst, well, it won't make things any worse.
4. Consumer Cost Control
People who do not pay for their health insurance benefits treat it as some sort of free service whose costs do not exist. This is just ridiculous. The frank reality is that employer-sponsored healthcare costs an employer at least $10,000 per year per employee (more if family members are also covered). Healthcare economists agree that Americans who bear some costs of their insurance (paying a share of their premiums and also reasonable co-pays) will become more responsible consumers; attentive to costs and cost-control. Let's insist upon doing right by ourselves. The predominant expert on this issue is Henry J. Aaron, a scholar at the Brookings Institution. He has a lot to say on this and many other issues. Read him here.
5. Pass Obama's Healthcare Legislation
I was among the Obama voters who hoped that the President and Congress would come together to provide healthcare for the 45 million uninsured people in America. I now realize that many of the 250 million of us who have insurance don't give a fig about those who don't. I am profoundly disappointed in my nation.
The bill before Congress is imperfect. But the Congressional Budget Office reports that it will lower costs over the next ten years. It will cover some of the uninsured; it helps parents to provide insurance for their twenty-something offspring (thus keeping healthy people in the insurance pool and helping to lower costs); it creates some incentives for lower-cost insurance pools. To be sure, it is only a start. But it is a start. President Obama made a strong case yesterday and the final push is on. Failure this time will leave millions of people with nothing. Contact your member of Congress and let them know you support the legislation.
In the interests of complete transparency, my preference is for universal healthcare using a single-payer system. If I were in charge, I'd shut down the current private insurance system, organize government ownership of American hospitals, and open government-financed clinics staffed by well-paid physicians and medical specialists for the provision of healthcare. I am convinced that this would lower costs and improve care. But I'm not in charge and I've given up hope that the majority of my nation actually considers healthcare a right and a common good that we must provide for one another.
Sigh.
Short of the Sassafras Takeover, we must engage in some cost control of the current multi-heahed hydra that is the American healthcare system. I have some thoughts.
1. Wellness Programs
Let's set aside the tyranny of nutrition and instead concentrate on teaching folks how to enjoy food made from things grown in the ground. Let's make life-long fitness something we pass on to our children. Let's concentrate on that old-adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And for the love of God, let's teach ourselves that just because big Pharma says our lives would be better if we take Drug X, doesn't mean we should immediately demand a prescription from our doctor.
2. Evidence-Based Medicine
There is a lot of research that suggests treatment protocols for various diseases and disorders range so significantly in the United States that we are often providing care that is neither necessary nor recommended. It may even be dangerous. In short, because of the balkanization of the practice of medicine and our focus on physician-autonomy, we over-treat in so many regions of the country that we are spending billions treating nothing. A recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine spells it out. We could cut our healthcare costs by one-third if we would just stop over-treating people.
3. Tort Reform
I am not convinced that tort reform will actually lower costs much. I am convinced that physicians believe tort reform is necessary. And we need physicians on our side. So let's engage in setting some reasonable limits on the damages people can collect from suing their doctor. At its best, this will help to reduce some of the backside-covering over-treating that doctors who fear lawsuits engage in. And at it's worst, well, it won't make things any worse.
4. Consumer Cost Control
People who do not pay for their health insurance benefits treat it as some sort of free service whose costs do not exist. This is just ridiculous. The frank reality is that employer-sponsored healthcare costs an employer at least $10,000 per year per employee (more if family members are also covered). Healthcare economists agree that Americans who bear some costs of their insurance (paying a share of their premiums and also reasonable co-pays) will become more responsible consumers; attentive to costs and cost-control. Let's insist upon doing right by ourselves. The predominant expert on this issue is Henry J. Aaron, a scholar at the Brookings Institution. He has a lot to say on this and many other issues. Read him here.
5. Pass Obama's Healthcare Legislation
I was among the Obama voters who hoped that the President and Congress would come together to provide healthcare for the 45 million uninsured people in America. I now realize that many of the 250 million of us who have insurance don't give a fig about those who don't. I am profoundly disappointed in my nation.
The bill before Congress is imperfect. But the Congressional Budget Office reports that it will lower costs over the next ten years. It will cover some of the uninsured; it helps parents to provide insurance for their twenty-something offspring (thus keeping healthy people in the insurance pool and helping to lower costs); it creates some incentives for lower-cost insurance pools. To be sure, it is only a start. But it is a start. President Obama made a strong case yesterday and the final push is on. Failure this time will leave millions of people with nothing. Contact your member of Congress and let them know you support the legislation.
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