Do Public Schools, Umm, Suck?

[proud2BlibKansan]

Recently, my friend and IDEA colleague John Dubie, a high school senior, posted a personal, autobiographical blog entitled "Big Picture Saved My Life." John meant that statement literally. It's his story to tell--and I urge you to read it--but I was stunned by the aftermath of the piece, which was picked up, reprinted and dissected in a number of other blogs. I was especially surprised by those commentaries bearing titles indicating that John's life was saved by leaving traditional public school.

The irony? Dubie spent much of the blog describing the first eight years of his education in a Catholic school, where he was generally seen as a disruptive loser by the faculty. And-- the Big Picture Learning program he credits with making all the difference is housed in a traditional public school, in Burlington, Vermont, and very much supported by the principal there.

Because I'm the person who suggested John tell his story in public, this re-interpretation of his autobiography made me see red. I said as much, in the comments, noting that his generosity shouldn't become a cheap excuse to slam public education again. I said: What I'm worried about here is protecting a young man who graciously shared a deeply personal reflection having his story--and his face-- used to promote the idea that public education sucks.

The response I got: Seriously? Of course public education sucks.

more . . . http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2013/01/do_public_schools_umm_suck.html

[Flashmann]

1. Seriously? Of course public education sucks.

It's probably painting with a very broad brush,to claim public education sucks across the board,but overall,maybe it does....When I compare the things I was taught,and HOW I was taught them,between 1957 and 1971,to what my 3 kids,and now 2 of my grandkids were/are offered.it's obvious much has been lost....

Just one example I'll use for it's relevance today,is Civics.It was required for me.Elective for my oldest 2 kids,unavailable for my 3rd.My grandkids literally have no clue what Civics might be.Defundings of specific programs,geared toward transitioning students to responsible adulthood,tinkerings with curricula,and the rewritings of textbooks,reshaping history,reshaping reality,mesh together with other factors to create the big suck..

This by design..The "powers that be",(I really am loathe to use that term),have been working towards this aim for decades.Now,pointing to problems and deficiencies they created,or helped to create,they call for more defundings,more home schooling.Vouchers.More money for charter schools to teach about Jesus riding dinosaurs into the sunset,on a flat 6000 year old earth.

So yeah...Of course public education sucks,but not because of the reasons many people think..

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Some do, many don't

There are serious systemic issues that the good people in the system fight daily. The results are mixed at best.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Test scores are up, graduation rates are up, dropout rates are down.

That doesn't quite spell suck to me.

[Recursion]

5. That's the fun thing about being a stats wonk

Alarmist: "Public schools are in a crisis!"
Me: "By what metric? Graduation rates? Test scores? Test scores among minorities? Accession to college? School safety and crime? All of which we're doing better at than we ever have."

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Not all schools are showing that improvement

There are bad apples in any system as large as the public schools in the US. To me it is mostly a leadership/admin failure. The good folks (teachers and others) try daily, but sometimes they cannot overcome it.

[Igel]

10. And are those significant?

Test scores in Texas plummet every time there's a new test. Even if the standards are the same.

Conclusion: As schools learn what the test covers and how it's constructed they better prepare the students for the test. They have no more time, no greater resources, but they tailor their instruction to the testing instrument.

Which is a repeat of the great Finnish PISA results. Their curriculum and teaching methods were aligned to the test better than many other countries'. They scored higher. People assumed it's because Finland has a better teaching establishment. In fact, they're just more aligned to the test. On other tests that Finland doesn't happen to be aligned with they score much, much lower. The PISA results are an artefact, an accident.

One teacher I know cynically has commented concerning TX's new standardized test that it's to avoid the penalty of NCLB. New test, new baseline against which to measure improvement. Schools that were scoring 96 and 97% pass rates on the old test had no chance of getting to 100%. That's just not going to happen. Now the baseline will drop and as they adapt to the test they'll quickly get back up to the 90s, making the NCLB heads-up-their-butts number watchers swoon with dull-witted joy.


Graduation rates are up. That's easy to finagle. I know a teacher with a 100% pass rate. His scores were no better than other teachers with an 87% pass rate. All that differed was the willingness of the teacher to override the automatically calculated grades or to pitch softball assignments. Their standardized test scores come back and the teacher with the higher report-card fail rate has higher standardized test scores. Yet the guy who simply won't fail students is a better teacher. Obviously the #s can't lie. And the principals have every reason not to undermine the #s that make them look good.


"Drop out rates are down" is just restating "graduation rates are up."

[Recursion]

4. Some do. Overall they're better than they've ever been

But that's to be expected; education is a surprisingly cumulative enterprise.

[LWolf]

7. Public education reflects the public.

When the public supports the kinds of deforms currently destroying the system, then it's going to suck.

Unfortunately, the public keeps electing education deformers to office, so the public is getting exactly what it has asked for.

There are still plenty of good things happening in public education. The vast majority of those good things happen in spite of education policy and reform, not because of it. They happen because teachers work to find ways around, over, under, and through the obstacles that the public, through their votes, have thrown in the way of a vibrant, healthy system.

Just this last week, I reminded one of my classes that THEY are the reason I show up, that everything we do is supposed to be about them, and that, when I see them smile, see their faces light up, it makes me glad to be in the classroom. That was the morning after another demoralizing, depressing, divisive staff meeting about teacher evaluations, test scores, and VAM. Demoralizing, depressing, and divisive, even though our fucking test scores were the best in our district.

It being a term deadline, another class wished me a good 3-day weekend as they left yesterday. I pointed to the 600 papers stacked to take home, that must be done so that I can get their report cards done, and said, "that's my weekend." One student responded: "That's why I'll never be a teacher."

I haven't procrastinated. That over-large stack of work all came in this week; our "proficiency-based" system says that they keep trying until they meet benchmarks. Right before the reporting period, a bunch of procrastinators decided that they wanted to produce work that would meet benchmarks. Fancy that.

Another student asked me, as we were on our way to lunch, "Do you like being a teacher?" My answer? I love students. I love teaching students. I love sharing my love of literacy, of thinking, of learning, with students. If I'd known how much of what we do to foster that love would be limited, if I'd known that I'd be forced to narrow learning down to teaching to standardized tests, if I'd known that I would be forced to worship at the testing altar, if I'd known that I would be forced to treat my students like products on an assembly line in a factory, I would have run far, far away from the profession.

I am so grateful for students who, in spite of everything, show up with those smiles, with eagerness to learn. They keep me finding ways to sneak some fun, some variety, some interest into the day. I am grateful to parents and students who return from high school to thank me for helping them be ready, and who return to ask me to attend their graduations when it's time.

Does public education suck? The bipartisan authoritarian system evolving right now does, indeed, suck. Educators who resist, who know better, are holding the line. When we retire, leaving the field to those younger teachers who've never known any different, the final nail will be hammered into the coffin.

Unless the public decides to step up to the plate and SUPPORT public education, instead of attacking it by word and deed. As this article points out, it can be done.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. This

[Igel]

11. Some administrators where I work want the same kind of grading policy.

It's already possible to retake any test, redo major grades.

If you're failing because you turned in nothing for 5 weeks just get your parent to complain to an administrator. They'll get the responsibility lecture, and the teacher will then be told to reward irresponsibility and take all the work late. What some administrators want is just to formalize this.

Others want mastery-based protocols. You go through the content, have all the work due, give the test. A kid fails. You have to give him the choice to void the test results, give him additional, supplemental, parallel work with self-assessments until he feels confident he'll pass the summative assessment. He takes it and fails, and you have to have a second set of fall-back materials.

I can just imagine trying to get all the work out of the kids, most of whom fail the first time around because they simply didn't do the work.

"Please, sir, may I have another beating?"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Schools in the U.S. are locally controlled

Anyone who thinks their local public schools suck should look in the mirror.