Are America's schools failing our children? Are the Chinese and Indians beating us right, left, and center? Dr. Yong Zhao says, "No!"
Dr. Zhao, University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, gave the keynote at a conference I attended this week. The presentation is taken from his book, and both are titled Catching Up or Keeping the Lead: American Education in the Age of Globalization. His ideas were fresh, forceful, encouraging, and data driven. You'll find his presentation slides here, but here's a brief recap of his argument:
- Americans have long been worried that our competitors are "beating us" at educating children, from post-Sputnik Cold War anxiety about the USSR, to concerns about Japan in the 1980s with the landmark report "A Nation at Risk," to the 2007 movie Two Million Minutes, which argues that we're falling far behind India and China.
- In spite of these anxieties, American creativity, productivity, and economic growth in the late 20th century are unparalleled by any other nation.
- Ironically enough, Asian countries including China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea are implementing education reforms to make their systems more like ours, with less emphasis on rote memorization, constant testing, and a narrow focus, and more on developing creativity, problem-solving, and entrepreneurial thinking.
Dr. Zhao believes the trend in the U.S. toward national standards (see my post below) and constant assessment are reforms in the wrong direction, taking us away from what has made the U.S. a great creative power. What I would like to have been able to ask him is what kinds of changes or reforms he would like to see in American education. Something tells me I may be buying his book!
The Indiana School Boards Association (ISBA) is a professional organization for school board members. Their annual fall conference attracted hundreds of board members and administrators from around the state. I attended seven sessions over two days and learned about better school board governance, the media, and pending changes in federal education legislation among other topics. It was more interesting than that probably sounds! I came away as usual with a headful of ideas and inspiration.
The idea of national standards for high school curriculum seems to be gaining ground. With a country increasingly mobile and information-based this may well be a good idea, but it certainly runs counter to American traditions of "local control" of education.
Local control has already gone out the window in many respects with the adoption of state standards for K-12 curriculum and increasing state control of school funding. (Not to mention federal No Child Left Behind legislation.) Advocates of national standards argue that state standards have created an unwieldy "patchwork" effect, and that states can game the system by writing tests that are too easy and then reporting very high pass rates to receive federal recognition and support.
Today's New York Times has a roundtable-type blog post on the topic, with several expert contributors.
The Washington Post has coverage of recent developments as well.
And of course the Common Core Standards Initiative itself.
Does the diversity of our nation (geographically, economically, culturally) make national standards unrealistic or undesirable? Or should we attempt some form of "one size fits all" curriculum for the twenty-first century?
Congratulations to Mr. Ernest and the staff of Lebanon High School on this wonderful recognition! Mr. Ernest will go on to the National Teacher of the Year competition in Washington, D.C.
Here's the link to some coverage:http://www.indystar.com/article/20090923/LOCAL0202/909230367/1013/NEWS04/Top+teacher+encourages+devotion+to+agriculturehttp://www.reporter.net/local/local_story_265212608.html
Confession: I love fooling around with test score data--something I carry with me from my first professional job. I can spend a long time looking at numbers, percentages, comparisons, and all the ways these data are sliced and diced. So when new test scores come out, I usually spend some time looking them over.
The ISTEP+, Indiana's state test for students in grades 3-8, was changed last year, with the new spring-testing format launched (in two parts) in March and April. There were widespread anecdotal reports that these tests were much harder than the previous tests, but the Indiana Dept. of Education stands behind the tests as a fair measure after examining them further.
Still and all, they're only one measuring stick for looking at school quality. Not surprisingly, some of the highest test scores (ISTEP+, SAT, you name it) consistently come from some of the most affluent communities--like our neighbors in Hamilton and Hendricks counties, and also Zionsville here in Boone County.
Because of the new format and test window it's hard to compare these new scores to previous testing. But we can get a snapshot of how the Lebanon schools did compared to the state.
Here's a little information on the percentage of students to pass (or pass plus) both the English/language arts and the math sections of the test, in Lebanon and statewide: | grade | LCSC | Indiana |
| 3 | 73 | 65 |
| 4 | 77 | 62 |
| 5 | 74 | 64 |
| 6 | 64 | 62 |
| 7 | 70 | 58 |
| 8 | 63 | 57 |
If you are also a testing data geek, here's a handy link to the Indianapolis Star database of this information, where you can get much more detail: http://www.indystar.com/data/education/ISTEP.shtmlAnd the Indiana Dept. of Education link for an even more data, which can be a little unwieldy but interesting for those with the inclination:http://www.doe.in.gov/istep/2009/I believe at the board's regular meeting in October we can look for a report from Dr. Taylor on these new test results, and what they mean going forward.
Most people have an opinion about school calendars. Many adults recall a school year framed by Labor Day and Memorial Day, but memory is not very reliable. I'm pretty sure I went to school through mid-June, in Michigan in the '70s.The school year in Lebanon starts pretty early--August 10 this year, August 9 in 2010. Mr. Bob Ross will present potential school calendars for the next few years at the October board meeting. He works with a group of people to accommodate complex calendar demands.Indiana mandates 180 days of instruction, and schools take federal holidays off. Those are the most basic parameters we have. Here are some other questions to think about:- When would you like to see school begin?
- Lebanon currently schedules a one-week break in the fall and another in the spring. What do you think of these breaks?
- How much time do students/staff/families need off at Christmas? Lebanon usually schedules a full two weeks (10 school days)
- ISTEP+ and ECA (End of Course Assessment) testing takes place in late March and April. Students are tested over their curriculum at this time, e.g., 5th-graders are tested over 5th-grade standards. We want as much instruction as possible before this testing date, so there's sufficient time for teaching and learning the material. (As LHS principal Kevin O'Rourke pointed out to me, if school A has 130 instructional days prior to the testing and school B has 150, it puts school B at a big advantage. Like it or not, the consequences of these tests are significant.)
- Is it important for the first semester to end before the Christmas break? We want to keep the number of days in each semester roughly equal (this year the Fall semester is 87 days and Spring is 93 days).
I've enabled comments below, because I'd like feedback on these issues. Play nice, please!
Last night's monthly meeting included the final budget approval and plenty of other news. Here are some highlights:- Mrs. Sue Hipple, custodian extraordinaire at Central Elementary, was honored as the corporation's first "Employee of the Month." This award will recognize an outstanding classified employee (those who aren't teachers or administrators). Mrs. Hipple is a cheerful, efficient, hard-working presence at Central, and the recognition is well-deserved.
- Will Pullins reported on LHS SAT results. Seniors from the class of 2009 scored an average of 64 points higher on the SAT than the previous year's group. This is a great gain, in a year when statewide scores were flat. We're seeing fewer LHS students take the SAT, but more are taking the ACT.
- I asked Kevin O'Rourke to report soon on LHS student results on the AP (Advanced Placement) exams, which can earn college credit for high school students. Bryan Passwater, the LHS calculus teacher, told me that 26 LHS students took the AP Calculus exam last Spring, and 22 of them scored high enough to qualify for college credit.
- Superintendent Bob Taylor reported that a fence is going to be installed around the playground at Harney Elementary, starting this week. The green space at Harney borders Camp St., which carries plenty of traffic. The fence is a safety precaution, and is being paid for out of capital projects funds.
- The board approved Dr. Taylor's recommendation that we purchase "Skyward," a web-based student data system that will replace the aging STI next year. Skyward was chosen after a two-year review of various options. It will expand on the features of STI, and will also integrate functions for food services and the school alert system. Parents should be able to check student grades, attendance, and discipline, and also look at their students' lunch account, e-mail teachers, and update their own information through this one portal.
- Dr. Taylor recapped the situation with President Obama's speech to American school children last Tuesday. The schools did not get much information about the talk from state or federal sources until the Thursday before, leaving little time for planning going into the three-day weekend. The talk took place at noon, when many students were at lunch. After watching it, Dr. Taylor thought it was excellent, and encouraged teachers to have students view it at their discretion. Central Elementary showed the speech as a school event; several other teachers have shown it to their classes as well. Parents have the choice to opt their student out of viewing the president's talk. Community feedback on the decision to delay showing the speech has been mixed. I heard from people on both sides of the issues as well, but more people indicated they wanted their children to see it. If you'd like to view it, here's a link to the video at the White House web site:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/video/President-Obamas-Message-for-Americas-Students/ - My colleague Dave Herr asked about class sizes in the elementary schools. Dr. Taylor reported that the 4th-grade classes at Harney are a concern, with 29, 29, and 30 students in them, and that the kindergarten classes at Central are in the high 20s, although each of these classrooms has a full-time aide. After Friday's official state count of students (called the ADM), which has a great deal to do with how much funding we get from the state, the corporation can make some decisions about the need for more aides or possibly more teachers.
Thanks for reading! My current question is about the school calendar. What do you think of starting school in mid-August and finishing by late May? Do you like week-long breaks in Fall and Spring, and two weeks at Christmas? Remember, schools are required to have 180 days of instruction, and students are tested on state standards in the Spring (you want as much instruction prior to that testing as possible.) I'll post on some of the factors going into the calendar next time. Drop me an e-mail with your thoughts or questions!
Tomorrow President Obama will address students at a high school in Arlington, Va., and his talk will be broadcast live on the internet. It is being made available to every school corporation in the nation. There has been a bit of a kerfuffle about this, with some claiming the president will try to indoctrinate schoolchildren with his ideas about some political matter.
Today the White House made the text of the talk, which is about personal responsibility and the importance of staying in school, available. Here's the link:http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
Dr. Bob Taylor, LCSC superintendent, talked with his administrative team and decided not to have the Lebanon schools show the broadcast live tomorrow. Teachers will have the option to show it later if they think it's appropriate. Students will need a parental permission slip to view the president's talk; students who don't watch it will have another educational activity at that time.
