The Failure of School Reform
posted at 3:31 am on March 15, 2010 by The Other McCain
[ Education ]
Years ago — about the time my wife and I pulled our kids out of school and started homeschooling — I gave up on the idea of “school reform.” This is simply the triumph of experience over hope. For as long as I can remember, people have been promoting “reform” that was supposed to make schools better, yet the schools only get worse and worse.
Donald Douglas has a long, sad post about erstwhile “reform” advocate Diane Ravitch, who seems to be sobering up to the hopelessness of trying to fix the existing system.
Any real understanding of what’s gone wrong — and will continue to go wrong — must begin with a basic fact: There is no such thing as group learning.
You can teach a group, but all learning takes place at the individual level. Ergo, aggregating standardized test scores and measuring trends among groups of students — while perhaps an interesting exercise in statistics — doesn’t actually accomplish anything in terms of learning.
It was as a young reporter in the Atlanta suburbs during the late 1980s that I first noticed the phenomenon of people trying to buy their way into “good” school districts, as defined by aggregated test scores. If School X had a median SAT score of 840 and School Y had a median SAT score of 890, there would be a housing boom in the School Y district. This was utterly illogical, as if a 50-point difference in the performance of students — measured as a group average — were a function of the school itself, rather than a matter of selection.
Selection effects is one of those basic problems in social statistics that causes people to misinterpret stuff like this, so that they can’t distinguish the actual cause of a phenomenon (in this case, higher aggregate scores) from spurious associations.
It’s not the school.
That is to say, the brick-and-mortar space has no magical effect in terms of educational outcomes. People sometimes talk about “run-down inner-city schools” as if chipped paint or weeds on the playground were the problem. And they sometimes talk about getting better teachers or better textbooks, as if those were the problem.
It’s not the books. It’s not the teachers.
It’s the system.
The American public education system is built on false premises, and has become an ossified bureaucratic mess by decades of accretions — accumulated layers of “reforms” that were intended to patch this or that observable problem. None of these “reforms,” however, contemplated the possibility that the structure of the system itself (i.e., the provision of “free” education by the government on the basis of residency in a particular school district) was the essential problem.
There has been no general improvement in academic results because this system is inherently closed and limited. There is no choice and no flexibility because the structures of the system prevent such things and, realistically, these structures cannot be reformed in any meaningful way. The system is what it is, and so long as it exists, the problems are what they are.
There is only one ”reform” that works: Get your kids out of the system.
That won’t fix the system, but it will prevent your child from being victimized by the system. And every child saved from the system is a victory.
Read Donald Douglas’s post. It’s kind of depressing. Sober discussion of the American public education system is always depressing, and should be.
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Thanks for the link, McCain … And I have tremendous respect for you and your wife, who have taught your kids at home. That’s walking the walk. Right on …
Donald Douglas on March 15, 2010 at 6:18 AM
Stacy,
Upon completion of 7th grade at Our Lady of Lourdes in South Seattle, Washington, my parents decided that they could no longer afford to send me, and the rest of my siblings to private school. The year was 1971, and the economy was in pretty bad shape. Actually the Pacific Northwest had been in somewhat of a recession for a couple of years. Anyway, to make a long story short, when I transferred to the public junior high school starting 8th grade, I found out from the school councilor that I could have skipped a grade if I so desired. I had already taken, and passed the academic equivalence of the public 8th grade courses while attending 7th grade in the aforementioned private school.
What was the difference between private & public schools in the 1970′s? In a word, discipline. We were taught to respect our elders. Oh yeah, we were full of mischief, a little horseplay, but there were also boundaries, unspoken boundaries, you learned either the hard way, or from your elders, and subsequently passed them on yourself.
What’s the difference nowadays? Who knows? It could be they don’t care to achieve the proper levels of respect, or maybe they’re not encouraged to provide the bare minimum required levels of discipline. Is this because of the perceived uselessness and lackadaisical federal Department of Education? How about the bloated individual state board of educations? No? Hmm, could it be the top heavy number of district administrators / administration officials, or maybe the teachers have become extemporized, [some anyway, not all] and want to be seen as being cool, or God forbid, their wish is to be friends of the students for all the wrong reasons?
I’m not getting to where I want to get to fast enough with this topic. I mean, I hope you know where I was headed, but if you don’t, here it is –\/
No matter what grade I was in, or school I was attending, my parents asked how my day was, and offered to help me with my homework assignments. My parents were passing on what they learned from their parents, get involved in your kids lives, you only have a finite time with them to get it right, so mine did. Let’s just call this activity what it really is “after school” home schooling by responsible parents. The shirking of responsibilities starts and ends at home. You see Stacy, I partially agree with you. Publicly, Privately, Home-School Run Schools are not the whole solution to the education problem, meaning we, the adults who decided to bring children into this world can either be the problem not recognizing the solution, or we can be the built in home remedy solution to the problem of seeing to our childrens education. Learn it, live it, and pass it along.
Don’t forget to visit this wild and crazy Calvinist believers site. For some odd reason he is absolutely nuts about Alyssa Milano, guesses? Hit his tip jar while your there, it really is an entertaining site.
BTW, How is that Inspector General Gerald Walpin story progressing? Ready to take anybody to court yet?
Americannodash on March 15, 2010 at 6:38 AM
As bad as the schools are they are not quite as bad as they seem from the test scores. Here’s what no one ever discusses. The kids hate the standardized tests, know they have absolutely no effect on their individual grades and do not make a serious effort to score well.
Here’s a typical conversation between a teacher and student as the test is being passed out:
Student: What’s this test for?
Teacher: It’s to determine how well you are learning the information we are teaching.
Student: What happens if I don’t pass it?
Teacher: There is no pass or fail for this test. It’s to rate the school. There is no penalty for wrong answers. Just do your best.
Followed by the student bubbling a creative pattern on the test scantron.
Disturb the Universe on March 15, 2010 at 7:02 AM
This is an out of hand condemnation lumping achieving schools with those that don’t. In the cities, mainly, many public schools no longer work. Fix? Damned if I know. But in the rural and suburban areas many, if not most, do. If I still had kids in my public school system here, I would most certainly leave them there because I’m confident they would be gettting a good education. Let’s not turn education into health care. Fix, if possible, the broken parts and leave the rest as is please.
jeanie on March 15, 2010 at 7:34 AM
You’re right that learning takes place in individual heads, but don’t discount peer pressure. If average scores in a particular school are high, that means that more kids take their studies seriously and that will affect your kids attitude toward their studies. Party school are so because a lot of the kids there party instead of study.
It’s also correct that learning doesn’t require a park-like campus or up to date textbooks, a computer lab or any of those niceties, but it does require teachers who have the energy and devotion to make sure their students behave in class and do their work even those with short attention spans and a lack of aptitude.
Done right, teaching is only second to parenting in being the toughest job in the world.
erp on March 15, 2010 at 8:36 AM
The biggest problem with schools is micromanagement. And maybe the multiple layers of that management. But imagine you have gone to school for 4 years to learn how to teach, a lot of teachers then go on for Masters Degrees. Then you take a state test that qualifies you to teach. So supposedly you know what you are doing. When you get to your school, you are told what to teach, how to teach it, what books to use, and you will submit your lesson plans for every single day, every week and we will come in and observer and evaluate how you teach twice a year. Basically even though you have 6 years, two degrees we really don’t trust you to know what the heck you doing and will guide you, monitor you every step of the way. Would you put up with that in your job? Could your business afford that kind of over sight. I couldn’t put up with it and went into the corporate world. My bosses, think I know what I am doing, and frankly don’t have them time to baby step me through everything or be sure I am doing every single task. If by the end of the quarter I haven’t done what need to be done I am gone.
odannyboy on March 15, 2010 at 9:59 AM
Republicans need to abolish the Department of Education.
astonerii on March 15, 2010 at 11:25 AM
The referenced article gives a couple of examples of classroom problems as illustrations of the situation. From these, two things appear to be obvious:
One – a great deal of the issue is attributable to a lack of leadership on the part of the teacher, and or the inability, due to inclination or administrative interference, to govern the classroom with the authority and discipline necessary.
Two – children are being sent to school by their parents/guardians without the expectation that they are there to put forth their best efforts and respect both the teachers and the educational process.
One answer to both these problems might be to do away with the compulsory nature of the entire process, and only admit into the schools those children who can demonstrate a desire to learn and a willingness to do what is necessary to progress through the system. Do not allow any student to remain who refuses to contribute to their own education.
At first glance, this might appear to lead to a host of uneducated children and a disaster for our future, with illiterate people homeless and out on the streets. Upon further consideration, you will realize that there are some beneficial aspects to this approach. First, this will serve to remove disruptive influences from the classrooms, providing those who remain with a better and more effective educational experience. Second, the schools will no longer be used as a “free” babysitting service for those parents who are choosing not to participate in, or at least emphasize the importance of, the education of their children.
These principles are a large part of the principles behind charter and private schools whose successes are largely unquestionable. For too long, a segment of the public has viewed education as a right, without any accompanying responsibility. If it is a right, the corresponding responsibility is to use the resources we have committed to it wisely and with respect for its goals. If it is instead a privilege, it must be earned by demonstrating a respect for its goals and an effort toward achieving progress. Either way, participation requires a commitment from both the parent(s) and the student.
This does not address any of the well-known problems resulting from teachers’ unions and their policies that appear to put teachers’ interests ahead of students’, but it would go a long way toward removing their excuses for poor teacher performance. Maybe then we could achieve some reforms on that front.
Radical? Perhaps, but the system as it is now is broken. We may need to resort to drastic measures such as this if we are to rescue our children from the tyranny of the present public school system.
LooseCannon on March 15, 2010 at 1:49 PM
FWIW, Diane Ravitch is a cousin of mine. I have read almost everything she has written. I haven’t read this latest yet, but I’m not too surprised with her conclusions.
I think my kids have gotten a good education so far in their public schools. But we were fortunate in our location and timing, we are committed to education and enforcing homework rules and study habits, and we have been active advocates with teachers when necessary. When we moved five years ago, we spent hours reviewing school districts and visiting open houses before deciding where to live, and we bought probably more house than we should have to get our kids into the best schools. We pay pretty high taxes now where we live and our school district has one of the lowest per-pupil expenditures in the state, yet is in the top 10 in test scores and college admissions. So we know it CAN be done.
My son is now in 11th grade and my daughter in 7th, and I can honestly say that we have had only one really poor or even below-average teacher in all those years. In their very early years they went to a small neighborhood school and had only 15-16 kids in their classes. Now they go to very large schools but the quality of the teaching and curriculum is excellent.
My husband taught in a public high school for 2 years and we both went to public schools. We got good educations, good enough for me to eventually get a Master’s from Harvard and him to get a law degree.
I don’t think we should ever give up on public schools. In fact, if I could do anything really radical I would close all private scholol,s and not allow homeschooling. If all parents had to send their kids to public schools, most of them would improve overnight. What we have now is a system of growing adverse selection, with wealthier and better edcuated parents leaving the public system and the public system ending up with parents and kids who are dumber to begin with, less motivated, and more difficult to teach. It’s becoming Idiocracy unless you live in a wealthy upscale suburb like I do.
rockmom on March 15, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Half of students are boys, in the beginning. That changes by university of course.
Boys are being destroyed. There is no mystery about this fact.
Is the highly feminine, feminist and politically correct teaching industry prepared to do whatever it takes to empower boys? Of course not. The opposite is the case. The industry wants its own interests and its own agenda, which is proving inimical to the best interests of boys.
Parents who don’t save their boys from the system might as well throw them to crocodiles.
David Blue on March 16, 2010 at 6:31 AM
What do you think those kids will do in their newfound expanded free time? Ruh roh.
Black Yoshi on March 16, 2010 at 1:40 PM
“What do you think those kids will do in their newfound expanded free time? Ruh roh.”
Don’t care.
That becomes the responsibility of their parent(s)/guardians. Let them pay to put their kids into a babysitting service (good for the economy), or hold them legally and/or financially responsible for any wrongdoing their kids do if they exhibit juvenile-delinquent behavior. Either way, there’s a direct cost imposed on the parent(s)/guardians for not making sure their kids take school seriously. That’s what I mean by having a responsibility in regard to the perceived “right” to a public education up through age 17 or 18.
LooseCannon on March 16, 2010 at 3:58 PM