The Daily Star is reporting that 42 southern Arizona schools received failing grades. While I believe that there should be standards that need to be met, our punitive education system, codified with No Child Left Behind and state education laws, sets schools, teachers and students up for failure.

It's absurd that we allow these labels to be handed out based on one week of testing each year. Instead of teaching life lessons and hands-on useful information, educators must teach to tests. That's incredibly boring. No wonder students aren't showing up to school on test day.

I've spent some time as an educator for a local non-profit organization, so I've had the opportunity to go into a variety of middle and high schools in the greater Tucson area. My impression is probably a little skewed since I generally only spend about 3 hours in each class that invites me. What I see in our schools though are a whole lot of students just not caring about the education they are receiving. That's not to say they don't care about education or receiving an education. A lot of the problem has to do with the messengers.

That said, I think teachers have the rawest end of the deal. They have enormous pressures to deliver and fewer and fewer resources with which to deliver. It's difficult to be creative and engaging when you're using textbooks that refer to the civil rights movement as "trouble ahead." (What's that from? I just heard that line on TV somewhere...an episode of Buffy, perhaps?)

My mom was a teacher "B.C." (before children) and served on our local school board for 16 years. She was president of her county school board and was one of New Jersey's first 12 Master Board Members, a certification that she had to pass a lengthy, complex test to earn. She speaks from successful experience when she talks about improving student performance. New Jersey (our home state) consistently outperforms most other states in the education arena.

There are four major elements that NCLB doesn't really address but are critical for it to succeed:

1. Smaller class sizes. Call them "Smaller Learning Communities" or whatever you want to call them, but the fact remains that students do better and are more engaged when their teachers can dedicate some one-on-one time to them.

2. Encourage participation in extra-curriculur activities, but let the football team pay for their own uniforms. Students who are involved with clubs and teams outperform their peers who go right home after school. They are more engaged with their school community and are more likely to continue showing up to classes.

3. Motivate parents to motivate their children. When parents show that they value education and are interested in their children's success, starting with pre-K, that sends an incredibly positive, powerful message to those kids that makes education a priority in their lives. Staying interested and involved in their kids' school careers is the most important effort parents can make.

4. Eliminate the link between property tax levies and school funding. The largest segment of the voting population are the elderly, who don't have a direct stake in the education system anymore, their children having long since left public school. If quality education is the birthright of every American - as it should be - then it should be fully funded by the government without reservation. School funding should also not be tied to property values, which further perpetuates the disparities in school performance based on location.

That last one especially is a radical concept. Why invest in textbooks when we can invest in bomb? The "local control" red herring can easily be addressed by giving every school district in the country the exact same amount of money per pupil, but leaving how to spend that money up to each district to decide.

If I was a cynical lefty, I'd argue that the powers-that-be have a vested interest in supporting an educational system that continues to fail students because an educated workforce is bad for business and would further put a dent in the military's recruiting efforts. Lucky for you I'm not that cynical.

Education, good nutrition and home stability are the keys to reducing poverty and crime rates. We could make a lasting difference if we worked to radically shift the nation's education systems rather than paying lip service with ethnocentric standardized tests. Too bad many of our state and federal legislators never got to take a class in logic when they were in school...

// permalink | posted by Michael @ 12:31 AM |