The Future of Education?
Let's start with a stat: 67% fourth graders in the capitol city of the most powerful nation on earth cannot read. Frightened yet? How about the fact that Only 17% of 12th-graders scored at or above the "proficient" level? Me upon hearing this news. "The Future of Education: Effective Solutions to the Challenges Facing America's Public Schools," six luminaries in the education field discussed the future of education in the U.S. and what needs to be done to improve the system.
Teacher Quality
Teacher quality is by far the most important part of the education experience that education officials can control. According to Lew Solomon it is ten times more important than class size and only slightly less important than family support. What does this mean for education and our children? According to Lew, we need to stop running the inner-city school system like a farm team for the more affluent suburbs: "Most of the least experienced teachers in the public school system end up in the worst-performing schools." Follow that up with the stat that nearly 46% of teachers quit after five years and you have a bad recipe for baking fully developed young minds.
Charter Schools
"Competition improves schools and student achievement." Nina Rees promotes this idea that charter schools are the answer, or at least a step in the right direction, to our educational woes. The theory here is that if parents and students have a larger role in where and what they are being taught they become more active participants.
Educational Technology
Ron Packard: "Education has been less impacted by information technology than any other segment of our society." Fantastic. According to this panel education could be greatly improved at a relatively cheap cost by implementing a more interactive, engaging educational technology system. According to Mr. Packard, "virtual charter schools" might be the answer.
So, is this system beyond repair? No. Although there are no magic bullets to slay this particular monster, the educational system in the United States can be improved. The single biggest thing we can do as a society is become more actively involved - Rod Paige encouraged us all to pay attention to school board elections and Lowell Milken implored the audience to get the word out about the real state of education in this country. Wake up America. Remember, these kids are going to be the ones that take care of you when you're old.
For more information on this panel click here.
Teacher Quality
Teacher quality is by far the most important part of the education experience that education officials can control. According to Lew Solomon it is ten times more important than class size and only slightly less important than family support. What does this mean for education and our children? According to Lew, we need to stop running the inner-city school system like a farm team for the more affluent suburbs: "Most of the least experienced teachers in the public school system end up in the worst-performing schools." Follow that up with the stat that nearly 46% of teachers quit after five years and you have a bad recipe for baking fully developed young minds.
Charter Schools
"Competition improves schools and student achievement." Nina Rees promotes this idea that charter schools are the answer, or at least a step in the right direction, to our educational woes. The theory here is that if parents and students have a larger role in where and what they are being taught they become more active participants.
Educational Technology
Ron Packard: "Education has been less impacted by information technology than any other segment of our society." Fantastic. According to this panel education could be greatly improved at a relatively cheap cost by implementing a more interactive, engaging educational technology system. According to Mr. Packard, "virtual charter schools" might be the answer.
So, is this system beyond repair? No. Although there are no magic bullets to slay this particular monster, the educational system in the United States can be improved. The single biggest thing we can do as a society is become more actively involved - Rod Paige encouraged us all to pay attention to school board elections and Lowell Milken implored the audience to get the word out about the real state of education in this country. Wake up America. Remember, these kids are going to be the ones that take care of you when you're old.
For more information on this panel click here.
posted by SpencerMP at 2:27 PM
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1 Comments:
I will not quibble about the numbers, and indeed the DC Public Schools are a mess, but I think you have misinterpreted what the results of NAEP mean. I do not believe you are correct when you state that 67% of 4th graders in DC cannot read. They may not read well, but I think lots of them can read.
I am not surprised that any of the esteemed panelist stated the obvious - that is the connection between poverty and low academic achievement. We've known this for decades and NCLB or testing doesn't change any of this.
If you look at the demographics of the DC school population on that same NAEP website, you'll see some sobering statistics. For example:
86% of DC student are in Title I schools - these are schools that qualify for special federal funding based upon poverty which is measureed by free/reduced lunch. Which, BTW, 51.4% of the DC student qualitfy for.
As for Coach Paige's recommendation to open charter schools, the NAEP website indicates there are 37 charter school in DC out of a total of 207 schools - that's almost 18%.
Take a look at some of the other states for comparison. Virginia has 30.2% of its kids getting free/reduced lunch, only 29.4% Title I schools, 2074 schools of which 7 are charter schools and the NAEP reading scores are only 28% in the "below Basic" category.
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