ARE SCHOOLS DOING THE RIGHT THING?
We have to conclude that schools have a long way to go when we talk about dedicating enough time to direct teaching Why do you think that many school evaluations do not include a student satisfaction component? Why do we ask parents and local boards of education what should be included in the curriculum? Why all of a sudden boards of education and parents are curriculum experts? I thought that you needed at least a masters degree in curriculum to be able to identify, design and recommend the appropriate curriculum. What is your school curriculum specialist doing for a living? Why do we assume that because a curriculum is on paper it will be taught to each child in its entirety? Why do we assume that by purchasing thousands of dollars in computer hardware you have instatnt instruction or increase in student achievement scores? Why don't we ask the students if they think that school is serving them the right way? Why don't we get a non-biased independent evaluator to measure school effectiveness and tell you what really happens in the school building and publish it in the town's paper?
Many of our schools have become social training, baby sitting, daycare and reformatory centers in which teachers battle to make peace among students and the different social, racial and political groups in the school. Every day there is less time for teaching because there is more disruption, student fights, suspension, dropouts and more paperwork that is non-academic.
This phenomenon is created by the abandonment of our educational enterprise. The school condition has become a political infectious disease. The condition is accentuated if the school is in a poor tax base district and teachers are not paid enough to stay working.
Another question you should ask is, "Why do we have so many administrators in our schools when we are in an era of computerization." Computers have taken care of scheduling, planning, accounting and management for the past 15 years. Otherwise, we would still have managers and administrators scheduling your airport flights by hand and not by computers. Lets remember that many administrators go to this field because they hate teaching. Or maybe some good teachers wanted more money so the only alternative was to go into school administration.
Some teachers hate teaching. This becomes a serious problem for many schools. teachers use their unions to keep them from getting fired. As long as they show up for work and go into their rooms, they can colect a pay check regardless if they teach you child one iota.
What value is the administrator contributing to you school?
If the answer is very little, then my suggestions is that the school board should pay them little or have them go back to teaching. Or are they exempt from malpractice?
Do you think that the administrator is blocking instruction? Just figure out how much time is dedicated to student discipline instead of promoting instruction and teacher development. Recent studies show that administrators spend most of their time working with discipline than planning instruction.
What value is the teacher contributing to your school? If the answer is very little, then pay them little or remove them. We have to conclude that schools have a long way to go when we talk about dedicating enough time for direct teaching. It seems that teachers should be paid more if they teach more hours, are asked to do administrative work and additional overtime hours at home. This should not be at the expense of the child's education.
Our students should get all the teaching time from your teacher that is stated in the school schedule. If it is 50 minutes teaching, that should be the teaching time. If they teach 15 minutes and dedicate 35 minutes to complete administrative work for the principal, your child is being short changed and you will pay the consequences later.
Parents should ask for a diagram of the school staff including all administrators and teachers. Then they should request a job description for each of them to find out how this staff contributes to the education of your student. Finally, find out if they are really doing the work in the job description. If not, you have been fooled by your school.
Yes, I believe that the public school is capable of preparing your children to become better citizens in the future but this requires the effort of your local school system to change to an academic institution and not a social reformatory. Your son and daughter must not be given a grade just because he/she behaves well.
Students must be given grades for mastering course content. They must be taught the assigned curriculum. It does not make sense to shut the door to parents and then expect to receive a positive evaluation or endorsement for a tax increase. It does not make sense either to solely teach what the local school board wants their school to teach.
They should be thinking about a world market which includes all of us working together, trying to understand and respect our differences as human beings. They should study and learn to communicate with our immediate neighbors--Mexico and Canada. Children must be prepared to work on the basics before we put a computer in their hands. They should have concise and measurable objects to master. Mathematics, Social Studies, Physical Education, English, Science and Spanish must be taught in every school at all grades. Taught--should be understood as mastering the subjects in relation to the future and to realistic goals for the student community. If the student does not master the class, do not pass them to the next grade.
Expectations must be set high and not just based on some odd tests that have no relevant meaning to the student. Most students see tests as punishment for coming to school. Students are assessed for mastery but the school teachers and administrators should be the ones held accountable for the results and it is their teaching certificates and endorsements that should be at risk. We must be careful not to place blame on teachers that are doing a lot of paperwork because they want to be nice to the principal. Some teachers may not have an alternative but to play the game according to internal politics. We should have at risk staff, not students at risk.
Why blame the victim when, in fact, the children have not received the information from the teacher. We define at risk as a way of "blaming the student."
Many schools are using white standards as the norm to acculturate and force students of color to assimilate. This practice must come to an end because it is destroying the purpose of having a school. They should be institutions where we learn how to work with one another and understand that being different is not wrong. Schools must identify creative ways of teaching our children regardless of ethnic backgrounds. If you teach them all and make sure that all children to do well, you would not need to isolate your different groups for instruction. If the student does not speak English, don't blame the student for not knowing the language. Request a bilingual teacher from your school system.
We must start teaching our children to read, write and comprehend at home. This is easily done by having books available in your home and dedicating some time to read a book to your children. Just a nice bedtime story will make a big difference in the future. Let us hope we can wake up tomorrow and see this dream come true.
Dr. Edgar Leon works as a Migrant Education Consultant - Michigan Department of Education and also is a Visiting Scholar at the Julian Samora Research Institute Michigan State University