Post Grad

So I just finished watching Davis Guggenheim’s documentary “Waiting for Superman,” twice.

Yes, I watched it two times in a row. Because I was afraid I had missed some things in the beginning.  I am now all sorts of fired up about Education reform.

I have always claimed I have never been big on politics. If someone asks me if I’m democrat or republican, I get incredibly vague and say it depends on the issue, or I go into something about how my mother always taught me to not discuss politics or religion.

Those things were always true for me. I mostly, didn’t want to talk about poltics or religion though, because I felt incredibly uninformed. But taking little or no interest in either is what makes me uninformed.

I want to change that. I want to be informed. I don’t want to be someone who talks public policy or political issues constantly and to everyone, but I want to have an opinion that I can back up. I want to feel confident, that I know the issues, and this is my stance.

I have always had somewhat of an opinion of Education in our country, I know that things need to change. But I didn’t know a whole lot about what was being discussed or had any ideas on how it could ever improve.

Then I watched this movie. It’s just one documentary. I understand it’s one side of the story. This didn’t give me the solution, not everything presented here is the answer I’m sure, but you know what it did, it inspired me. I’ve always started  more researching. My mind has been going a mile a minute about people I want to talk to, things I want to read.

I even have decided I need to officially change my residency so that I can vote for the area that I have decided to live in. I want to do everything I can, to be more engaged in making change happen.

Right now I still have a million questions. The first one I jotted down while watching the film for the second time was:

What makes a good school?

What do schools that have the highest graduation rates, literacy rates, etc have? From what I’ve read, they have the best teachers… Throughout the documentary, this theme was presented again and again. We need quality educators for our children to have quality education.

So what’s wrong with education? Lack of funding?

So many people complain about funding in education. I have been one of those people. Especially for someone like me, who works in an arts organization that is devastated by budget cuts, schools can always use more money. But what shocked me in the documentary was:

·      Since 1971 , funding for schools has increased $4300 to $9000 per student (this has inflation taken into account). We have doubled what we spend on each child. Since 1971 reading and math scores have flat lined.

So is more funding the answer? This is a hard question. What is the increased spending used on? Is it extracurriculars such as sports and the arts? I’m not a proponent of taking any of that away, believe me. I think these things are needed for a well rounded education. Studies prove that involvement in music increase test scores… But how is it that we have doubled funding but scores stay the same? I don’t believe that funding should be taken away, but I don’t believe that throwing money at schools will improve education.

The documentary also brought up No Child Left Behind, that’s basic principle was testing to see if children have basic education.  I’m not going to claim to know much about the nitty gritty with this. I know my uncle, who was a teacher until he retired a few years back HATED this.

I know a lot of teachers dislike No Child Left Behind because it has left a lot of districts that just worry about passing standardized test. They encourage teachers to just teacher for what’s on the test, and nothing else.

I don’t know what the answer is here either. I think that teaching just what is going to be on a test is wrong. I think it cheats students out of a real education. But I do think there has to be something in place that you CAN compare schools, nation wide, to hold schools accountable and to make sure all children ARE getting quality education. I think what we currently have IS broken. For one thing, each state has a different standardized test so you can’t even accurately compare from state to state.

I am not sure how you still have tests like this, and be able to have teachers and schools not focus on teaching for a test, but just teaching. In a perfect world, people would just love their jobs, teach, and the rest would follow. How do we make that happen?

Another point brought up in the film was that in the past people have blamed failing schools on failing neighborhoods. But maybe it’s quite the opposite. Could failing schools be causing failing neighborhoods?  

What about the concept that all kids are different, some are going to test well and some won’t? Some kids are smart and some arnt? Isn’t this true? There has always been a huge achievement gap between poor students and rich students. Is it possible that the poor students just have to much going on in their outside life to be able to learn? Well even if you’ve ever thought this was true. Havn’t there been schools now that have proved this wrong?

Michelle Rhee- D.C. Chancellor of Schools seems to think there is a way to reform Education. But who is she? With her 3 years of being a teacher, never being a principal or a superintendent before. Who is she to come in and say, “ I know the majority of students in D.C. are getting a crappy education.”

But I think Michelle may be on to something. One of the things she talked about was the “Lack of accountability for producing results for kids.”

With the big problem being tenure.  Tenure was originally meant to protect professors at Universities for getting fired for arbitrary reasons. For public school teachers, tenure has been automatic. I am not sure exactly but I have read that it takes 4 years in the public school system to become tenure. After that it’s incredibly hard to fire you. Just four years.

Even if it’s proven you are a lousy teacher, tenure saves you. How in the world does this make sense?

The teacher’s unions are protecting teachers. But who is protecting the kids?  I also find it very interesting that teachers unions are the largest campaign contributors in the country? More than teamsters, NRA… majority of this money goes to democrats. How can you not say that everything that goes into education is politics with facts like that?

So one of Michelle Rhee’s proposals to improve education was to not eliminate tenure, because that proved to be a massive fight, but to give teachers a choice. Either you keep tenure, and get a modest raise. Or you don’t take tenure, and you earn raises based on merit with the potential to double your salary. A novel concept right? To earn raises based on merit.

But the teacher’s union has said, you shouldn’t make a distinction among teachers. A teacher is a teacher. Really?  You know what I call this? ENTITLMENT!  How can you say you shouldn’t make distinctions among teachers? Are the teachers not making distinctions among students currently by labeling some as honors, and some as remedial… giving some a better education, while knowingly having others fall further and further behind by keeping them in lower level classes with less effective teachers….

It sounds like to me that the teacher’s union is just a huge obstacle that does more harm than good. Again, I don’t know everything, but this is my thought at this current time.

Tenure just doesn’t make sense to me. Pretty much every other job you can have, if you do a bad job, you will get fired.

Doctors: 1 in 57 lose license

1 in 97 attorneys

But only 1 in 2500 have ever lost their teaching credentials

How do we let this happen? Bureaucracy is the impendent to reform. No one thing is what’s wrong.

So then finally some people got tired of all the bureaucracy and created provisional charters schools that weren’t bound my union contracts.  It’s a controversial concept. Public schools with public money, but independently run.

Then a charter school was created in worst performing school district in New York state.  Experts thought even most passionate of educators couldn’t turn this around because of the problems these students faced, low income, foster care ,etc. Kipp Academy- one in Houston, one in the Bronx. Their philosophy was “What if we never let our kids get behind. Follow them throughout their development. Increase classroom hours, even class on Saturdays. No excuse we expect you to perform at high levels from the start.”

Results have been staggering. This school turned all of that around. They bridged the achievement gap and became one of the top scoring schools, not just against other underprivileged schools, but against all schools.

Experts refused to accept this is anything more than a few charismatic leaders. This cant be done on a large scale.

Another school that really got me thing was Summit Prep (another school that kids were in a lottery to try to get into!)

They don’t track the students. They all take the same classes. They are all held to the same high standards.

Tracks in traditional schools are determined by test results, also by arbitrary factors like neatness, how they react to authority, politeness. So some kids, get into high performing tracks (I happened to be an honors student, and I would say I got a decent education). These students usually get the best teachers in the district and they get by. They usually have high enough scores where they will “Even out” the average of the school so nobody sees anything wrong.

But the kids who really get hurt, are the ones in the middle. These kids in the lower tracks are running fast and falling behind, they have a hard time catching up as years go by. They get the lowest performing teachers. They become that 50-60% of incoming freshman in college that have to remediate to take college level courses, they are behind.

But this is the way our school system was built. When this was established, not all student were going to go to college, a smaller percentage would go on.

Our schools haven’t changed, but the world around us has.

I am not sure how to fix all of the problems in education. But I strongly agree that, you can’t have a great school without great teachers. Nothing will change without them.

This documentary shows kids with parents who want so much for them, who are fighting and doing everything they can to give their children the best education. Some of them still can’t accomplish this. And what of the kids who don’t have parents fighting for them. What about the kids who have parents who don’t understand the importance of a good education?

We need to fight for the education of the future leaders. I don’t have kids yet, but I’m worried. More people need to really take a look at what is happening in education and take a stand.

We need good teachers. Teachers need to be rewarded for being excellent, and we need to get rid of the ones that are under performing.

We need to cut through all the bureaucracy and make things happen. NOBODY should be entitled to a job. No teacher, no doctor, no lawyer, no senator, no congress man.

If anybody is reading this, I am not here saying these are all the answers. It’s not. I have some strong opinions, but I also have a lot to learn. But you know what, I’m going to do it. I’m going to keep reading and keep learning because the education of our youth is too important to ignore. If every citizen took a stand on education reform, maybe we could actually make a difference. Here’s hoping that one day we can.