(This is a repost of the article I posted Friday - the original post was not visible to anyone using Internet Explorer. I believe the problem is now fixed.)
School Watch by Katherine Wagner
The Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows Times, January 22, 2010
As we enter the second decade of the new millennium, our public education system is still struggling to find and embrace its 21st Century role.
Over the last 30 years, information and technology have increased at an explosive pace. The skills and knowledge citizens require to minimally participate in society have more than doubled. There is almost no room to accommodate high school dropouts — currently two out of every 10 students — within the contemporary work world.
The undereducated who secure work are unlikely to command a living wage.
Public resources are stretched to the breaking point. Thirteen years is more than enough time to provide every child with basic skills and a well rounded public education. Still, many children fall through the cracks.
Insulated from pressures to modernize by a tangled web of contracts and legislation, endlessly hamstrung by political wars and timid provincial and local governance, public schools are mired in an innovation-choking quicksand.
The frustration of educators, support staff, administrators, parents and the public is palpable.
The barriers to improvement are mainly structural and sustainable solutions are multi-pronged. Change will require a collaborative effort by stakeholders and a level of trust currently just about non-existent.
Ten changes are required to ensure public education does not enter the third decade of the new millennium facing the same challenges:
1. Student learning must be the primary filter for every single decision within public education. Paying lip service to “putting students first” doesn’t cut it; it has to be a concrete measurable requirement. Decisions must be made as close to the classroom as possible. This means decentralizing decision-making and responsibility.
2. Stop expecting public institutions to improve from within without substantial guidance and oversight from the public. Delegating this duty to a handful of politicians is not a replacement for the attention and support of citizens.
3. Replace the factory model, adversarial bargaining system we use to settle public education union contracts. In 2004, Commissioner Don Wright made five recommendations in his report “Towards a Better Teacher Bargaining Model in British Columbia”. The recommendations were ignored in favour of a five year teacher contract which expires next year. The Wright report must be dusted off and revisited.
4. Make public education, particularly public education spending, very transparent. Public education funding is a hot topic but the smoke and mirrors make it exceedingly difficult for the public to understand current spending. Public reporting of spending in school districts should be standardized to allow accurate comparisons. Contextual information, including student achievement data, should also be made public in a standard format.
5. Quickly implement the findings of education research. The public has this expectation of the health system and must have the same expectation of the education system. Scientific, peer-reviewed, education research has produced a vast knowledge base over the last three decades.
6. By the end of grade four, 95 per cent of students should have basic reading, writing and math skills. Currently, our schools are falling short of this mark.
7. Legislation similar to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A) in place south of the border is required to ensure services to special needs students. All students should have individual education plans and differentiated learning should be standard classroom practice.
8. Reform public education governance and school district boundaries. Both are relics of the past and there are more responsive and effective models of governance which include a larger role for parents and the community.
9. 21st Century education is life-long-learning and therefore we must broaden our view of what public education looks like, how it is delivered and who delivers it.
10. British Columbia is part of a global community and therefore should be actively supporting access to education around the world. In a recent report, UNESCO estimates 71 million adolescents currently do not attend school and by 2015 the number of primary age children not attending school will be 56 million. According to UNESCO, developed countries provide little education aid. It is an opportunity for us to be world education leaders — a catalyst for positive change at home and abroad.
Loading ...
3 Comments
Re: Katherine Wagner’s ten commandments—They are mostly nonsense.
1. Student learning must be the primary filter for every single decision within public education. Nonsense: The first priority is to get clear about what it is we want students to learn. The current smorgasbord approach provides no direction and the range of choices is confusing.
2. Stop expecting public institutions to improve from within without substantial guidance and oversight from the public. Nonsense: Unless there is agreement on what students should learn, words like “improve,” “guidance,” and “oversight” are meaningless. Given the pluralistic nature of our society, we should not expect agreement on aims in education. Better for the government to get out of the education business altogether.
3. Replace the factory model, adversarial bargaining system we use to settle public education union contracts. Nonsense: Been there, done that—doesn’t work.
4. Make public education, particularly public education spending, very transparent. Nonsense: Once spending becomes very transparent, disagreements will become more entrenched because the various parties will see exactly what it is they don’t like and why they don’t like it.
5. Quickly implement the findings of education research. Most nonsensical of all? Empirical educational research is bogus—like psych research in general, it is based on pseudo science. You might as well to back to astrology, alchemy, and magic to solve the problems of education.
6. By the end of grade four, 95 per cent of students should have basic reading, writing and math skills. Now here is something that is worth considering—However, is this a proposal to get rid of all that fuzzy thinking about self-esteem and multiculturalism in favour of actually teaching something?
7. All students should have individual education plans and differentiated learning should be standard classroom practice. Nonsense: Try doing the arithmetic to calculate the time required to test-retest-evaluate-plan for one student. Multiply that by the number of students in a classroom.
8. Reform public education governance and school district boundaries. Both are relics of the past and there are more responsive and effective models of governance, which include a larger role for parents and the community. Nonsense: The problem is we have an educational institution founded during the industrial revolution—it is the system, not its boundaries that should be disbanded.
9. 21st Century education is life-long-learning and therefore we must broaden our view of what public education looks like, how it is delivered and who delivers it. Nonsense: The problem is that our view of education has been broadened too much—it now attempts to provide custodial care, implement government social policy, and provide psychotherapy. The view should be narrowed.
10. British Columbia is part of a global community and therefore should be actively supporting access to education around the world. Nonsense. Education, like charity begins at home.
Katherine Wagner has proposed 10 substantive and thoughtful ideas on how to improve public education. I would add a preamble calling on the Provincial Government to live up to its Constitutional responsibility to properly fund public education.
We can give our children a rich, varied and joyful education — we must. The future of our society, our economy and our democracy depend on this.
This culture of stinginess and negativity personified by Jerry Clarksons’ post above will get us nowhere.
Public education is a perfect idea. As it stands, there is much we can do to improve the system. But the idea itself, the idea that every child, no mattter what their background, income or situation, would receive a high-quality, rounded education that will prepare them to live a joyful and healthy life as an adult — now that is a perfect idea.
(due to a formatting glitch I have to delete the original post - so I am transferring the comment here. KW)
Submitted on 2010/01/25 at 10:58am from Leanne Regan
I really like what you have to say in this article. I have been the PAC chair at our children’s school for 1.5 yrs now. The more I learn about the education system, the more flawed I see it is and wonder what parents can do about it. I still know little about the system but it seems to me there’s a number of frustrated people about how the school system works. Correct me if I’m wrong, but are there a lot of teachers as well as parents who view the system as flawed or do most teachers see it all as a good system?
We have one child in grade 5 that has been struggling in school since grade 1. I fear for her future. We have done so much to help her and it still doesn’t seem to be enough.
Keep writing your articles, they’re wonderul!