As our country’s population grows as never before, high schools in many of the most densely populated areas (and areas with the highest concentration of social ills) have become, in my opinion, “failure factories.” With upwards of 3 to 4 thousand students, those who aren’t lost in the shuffle are much more likely to stand out due to disciplinary problems than they are due to outstanding academics, sports prowess, or leadership.
In New York City, some leaders have recognized this phenomenon, and have responded by replacing over 20 failing high schools (each with student enrollment of around 4,000) with much smaller schools focused around a vocational theme. For example, the “Academy of Health Careers” and the “Law, Government, and Community Service Magnet High School” each have fewer than 550 students, and have proven to have higher graduation rates than the old “factories.”
While I am not a proponent of federal intervention in the particulars of education, I would like to see some type of federal incentive for districts that make extraordinary efforts to reduce class size and overall school size at the high school level. For every thousand “more” kids enrolled, the chance of the individual students thriving plummets substantially as they, quite literally, get ‘lost’ in the crowd.
I just read an article from the Washington Post describing how a middle school in Northern Virginia will be piloting a voluntary program wherein students will attend single sex classes in the core academic areas. I laud this effort. Many students, both boys and girls, will – in my opinion – likely flourish in this new setting. I hope that this growing trend in K-12 education keeps growing. Unlike some critics of the idea, I do not believe that single-sex instruction leads to a confirmation of stereotypes. Rather, teachers are less able to ‘gloss’ over divergent learning styles. If a teacher knows that she is facing a class of all girls, or all boys, each day, then she will tailor her teaching to their styles. This brings up my only concern with this program. I hope that those in charge who have made the decision to go forward with the single-sex instruction have not neglected to invest in appropriate training for the teachers to prepare them for the different methods that they will need to employ. I hope to hear more examples of this, and will update my blog as I find them. For those reading this, if you know of a program such as this, please let me know!
I don’t know when they began calling critical thinking skills “21st Century Skills” – I used them and taught them plenty during the 20th century, but no matter. It seems to be the educational buzzword of the day. And if the trend results in teachers and parents focusing more on communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, innovation and use of technology, then I’m all for it. One thing that articles and reports focusing on 21st century skills – as well as those focusing on No Child Left Behind and state assessments – tend to neglect is the concept of performance assessment. Performance assessments can help school divisions, private schools, and homeschooling parents determine not only their students’ mastery of basic knowledge and skills, but also their capacity with those skills deemed “21st century skills.” However, we rarely hear of performance assessment being used in a widespread manner.
It is not a new invention, either. In the mid to late 1990′s, some states used performance assessment measures to assess every student for all types of skills and capacities. These assessments can, however, be costly. Perhaps that is the issue during this time of ever tightening budgets. A performance assessment cannot be run through a scantron for scoring. It requires manpower. So while we may not see widespread performance assessment in the near future, we can all encourage the educators that we work with to use them in their own classrooms for formal and informal assessment of students. Before the end of the 21st century, they’ll thank you.
Engaging the student, utilizing knowledge of various senses, taking advantage of free online tools, my son’s fourth grade social studies teacher did all these things when she showed the kids the following in class today:
“I have a clutch of students who read for pleasure, yet bizarrely hand in assignments only sporadically. Let’s call them “Readers.” These are the kids who take home The Kite Runner and read the whole thing in two days—then never write any of their journal responses. Their grades do not reflect their abilities. However, these students always score at or near the very top of the class on these standardized tests.”
This hints at an even deeper gift that these students have – one that feeds their love of reading – and that is the innate (or is it taught? modeled? suggested?) gift of CURIOSITY. These people do not read because they have to – “have to” doesn’t factor in that heavily if they are not writing their journal responses and earning poor grades. They are reading because of something else. That SOMETHING is also leading them to score at the top of these assesments that Mr. Brown refers to. Freedom of thought, freedom from the slavish “do only what you are told to do and nothing more” and a freedom to pursue knowledge and adventure (what else?) through books fuels these students’ success. As a parent, how do you foster CURIOSITY?
I was talking with a parent of a fifth grader who is attending our local “gifted zone center” program. Her daughter was assigned a paper that needed to be two pages, double spaced. Her daughter does not type well, so this assignment was taking a while. At one juncture, the parent noticed that her daughter was not double-spacing the paper. “Oh yes, I am,” responded the student. “I am putting two spaces between each word.” Clearly, this student had not learned about basic formatting in a word processing program.
So this got me thinking – there are plenty of great typing programs out there for students, such as the BBC’s Dance Mat Typing, but are there resources (books, software programs, etc.?) that help teach word processing conventions and formatting ‘rules?’ If you know of any, I’d love to hear from you! If I come across any, I may do some field-testing and review them for you here.
I love this – it has all the elements of perfect learning:
1. Science tools.
2. Dirty kids.
3. Excitement.
4. Mystery.
5. Discovery.
6.Higher-Level Thinking.
In fact, one student said, “This is probably the best science class ever,” (Angus Stewart). What is all this referring to? One teacher teaching science the way it should be taught: in the field. Here’s an excerpt from Anderson, South Carolina’s Independent Mail:
Teacher Nancy Hughes said all of her third-grade students would be digging up the past as part of their science lessons. “We’ve just finished a unit on rocks and fossils, and we’re getting ready to start a unit on soil, so this exercise sort of bridges both of those units,” she said. “And we’ve talked about being paleontologists and archaeologists so this gives them a chance to see what it’s like to do a real dig.”
We all know how magic (or tragic) having the ‘right’ (or wrong) teacher can be for student learning. Professionalism, a sense of purpose and service, and a love for learning and teaching are all ‘must haves’ to ignite student learning. I recently read an interesting blog post that referenced a 1982 survey that contrasts the attitudes of Japanese and American teachers. The implications of that survey are clear even today.
What can a parent do to make the most of their child’s current learning situation in school, regardless of who the teacher or her attitudes is? Here are a few suggestions.
Always approach the teacher with the perspective of working together as a team for the benefit of your child’s education. If you have a problem or concern, think through your communication with the teacher prior to making contact.
See yourself as an important facet of your child’s education. More than anyone, parents are their children’s educators. No teacher or school can trump the influences of the home, for better or for worse.
Realize the contraints placed on the teacher, principal, and school. Be considerate of the educators’ time and be cognizant of her sphere of influence.
Show appreciation and give thanks. When things are going great, make sure the teacher still hears from you.
When communicating with your child about school, always frame the conversation so that the child understands that you are a part of a team working for his or her education.
Does anyone have any advice to add here? I’d love to see it!
Does your child have a ‘seed’ journal? This is a simple concept, but can grow into wonderful pieces of writing! Simply have your child keep a journal of interesting events, people, descriptions, ideas, etc. – any “seed” that he or she may one day use in a piece of writing. The seed journal can be a physical journal, or it can be a file on your computer. Either way, encourage your child to add ‘seeds’ regularly and to review their old ‘seeds’ when looking for ideas or ‘meat’ for their writing.
For a person to be well-rounded, it is important to not only have a strong general (classical) education, but also to have a vocation. The classical education stands as vocations change. But to start off in the workforce and in the adult world, the ideal is to have both a strong foundation in academics and the ability to do something marketable, whether that be program a computer, conduct genetic research, dig an oil well, or drive a backhoe. I love reading about programs such as the following, and wish I heard about more of them – have any to share? – Heather
A program in Arizona provides schools, day-care centers and nonprofit organizations with refurbished and recycled computers. The program, a nonprofit initiated by Intel and Motorola in 1997, gave about 2,000 refurbished computers to 349 Arizona schools last year. The program also teaches students technical skills as they refurbish the computers. “The students learn the social responsibility of properly disposing e-waste,” a high-school computer instructor said. “The students also gain the experience of using their skills to help others and contribute to their community.” The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
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