The Future of High School Reform
Education experts voiced their ideas at U.S. News's education summit
That's what we need. If we set out to get those in every state, we will also have standards that are common across states. And the reason for that is because when you sit down with business leaders, with employers, with college faculty in any state and ask the question, what's the evidence about what's essential for young people to know when they leave high school in order to succeed, the answer does not depend on what state you live in. College-level work, while it has got lots of variation at some level, you know, the math you need to succeed in college is the same whether you're in New York or New Hampshire, whether you're in Arkansas or Alaska. And so, if states ask the right question about their standards, they will get answers that are consistent across states.
You look at high schools—in U.S. News, they celebrate this list, but that it's certainly not a universal list. It's a tough bar, and only some schools make it. That states, even with the standards as they are, which I think you all would argue are too low, they're not really enforcing those and reforming their high schools, and we heard about this. W hat's going to be the incentive under a system of presumably much more ambitious national standards to actually take that on?
JAMES: I would say that we've got to create a larger sense of urgency than we have. I don't think the understanding is there that we are really where—with respect to the lack of international comparison to competition—we need to understand that our failure to act has consequences. And if we fail to realize where we are not only as a state but as a country in terms of losing ground here, we need to make sure that we understand clearly that that failure to act will have consequences for our respective state and globally, as our country, as we continue to move ahead.
MICHAEL COHEN: Yeah, I just think there is some real-world discipline that's important here. I mean that in two ways. Ken talked about the global competition. So, if you're a governor and you care about developing a workforce in your state, if you don't set standards that actually reflect the real-world demand the students need to meet, you're not going to have the workforce that you need. You're not going to be able to bring jobs to the state. Governors pay a price when they can't do that.
In a similar vein, think about what's going on right now under NCLB. States are telling growing numbers but not enough yet—growing numbers of students in each state that they're proficient. But they haven't defined proficient so that it means the students are actually well prepared. At some point, it's going to get really uncomfortable for state leaders to keep telling they're proficient, and then they go to college and they need to take remedial courses. Thirty percent of them need to do that now. Parents are paying, kids are paying, and taxpayers are paying. At some point, the real-world discipline about the demands that students need to be prepared to meet is going to drive this more than I think any regulatory regime will.
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Reader Comments
Reformers Who Know the Reality of Public Education
It never ceases to amaze me that we allow people to design educational programs who either have never taught in a classroom or haven't been there for a really long time. As I read the article in which "experts" gave their opinions on what is wrong with public education, I just kept waiting to for someone to say something about the challenge of directing classrooms of 25-35 children with varying backgrounds and abilities. Of course, it never happened.
I have been teaching high school for ten years and the issues that I have witnessed are:
1.Poor support and training for educators
2.Unrealistic child to teacher ratios
3.Attempts to lump children with overwhelming challenges and need for remediation with average to above average students. This creates one of two situations - a class that must move so slowly that the more advanced students get bored, or a significant percentage of the class that just can't keep up. Either way, those not receiving appropriate attention become tuned out and often become behavioral problems.
4.The unrealistic expectation that every child will go to college. Not all students aspire to become an academic. What ever happened to trade school training? Students want and need this in their middle and high schools. I know this because they tell me so.
5. The overreliance on standardized testing. Teach a child to bubble, and that is all they will know how to do. What ever happened to teaching them to think and to be independent?
In short, we have to stop trying to streamline education. It is not a business, it is a social institution.
Finally, and this is the saddest fact of them all, our country does not value education and it does not value children. What we seem to focus on as a culture is production and fast results. This attitude that we can churn out little academics if we just find the right system is archaic. We are no longer dealing with the Industrial Revolution, it is the age of Technology and Innovation. We need a variety of thinking styles and aptitudes.
When America finally decides to start investing in the big picture and the long-term future of its citizens, we may see change. Until then,the jargon will change but the dance will remain the same and we will continue ignore the obvious - that people are not all the same and the work force needs that diversity. There is a place for everyone and a way to fill every job with well-trained, competent people, but it is going to take more than throwing money and tests at the problem. It will take a change in the attitudes of the entire population.
when equality holds true for all students
brown vs. board of education still exist today in a world of plenty and the race card is a precursor to acceptance. I left the teaching arena because i got tired of the expectations being lowered based on race and geography, I got tired of my graduate education being undermined because I was not white or hispanic so I left and now my I am on a crusade for the betterment of my grandchildren. I am traveling across the states teaching humanness so that we can find equity education for the masses still in the margins.
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