Create better schools by creating better societies

If you want to change the world, change the world of a child. – Pat Schroeder

I've always believed that one can create a better society by better educating the members of that society. I still do. But I wonder if the reverse isn't just as true and important: the only way we will create better schools is by first creating a better society. (OK, so I know this is not a new concept, but we are all entitled to our own little epiphanies.)

The Gates Foundation tackled school improvement head on by working to create small, project-based schools in areas of high poverty that focused on relevance. Didn't work.

It's time to try the alternative approach well-expressed by Kevin Riley on his El Milagro blog where he recommends these "school improvement" efforts to President-elect Obama:

1. Provide health care for all of my students [at his charter school] to address the scourge of childhood obesity, diabetes, and poor nutrition;

2. Ensure that every child has access to comprehensive eye exams and appropriate interventions when they are struggling just to see– let alone to read;

3. Ensure that every child has regular dental checkups and access to highly qualified dentists so that my students’ baby teeth aren’t rotting in their heads;

4. Provide the funding support and infrastructure so that all of my students can attend preschool like the affluent kids do;

5. Create a way for every child in America to have a laptop and access to the Internet so that poor children aren’t pushed further behind by the technology divide that favors their more affluent counterparts;

6. Divert the 10 billion dollars we are currently spending every month in Iraq and re-invest in the modernization and construction of state-of-the-art school buildings in every community in America;

7. Guarantee a college education of the highest quality for all children so they are motivated to apply themselves academically;

8. Eliminate unemployment so that the parents of my students can properly provide the basic necessities for their children-food, clothing shelter;

9. Significantly raise the minimum wage so that our parents are not forever struggling against the tide…fighting the unwinnable battle to stay ahead of a runaway economy and its stunning indifference to the working poor…

And… let’s see… I guess this is a big one…

10. Eliminate politically motivated accountability systemsthat, for the most part, test our students’ ability to test while ignoring all of their other assets: like their creativity and their critical thinking and problem solving and communication skills; and their proficiency with technology and their ability to speak in multiple languages or lead others or serve their community…”

Eight of the ten suggestions Mr. Riley makes are fixes to society, not schools. And I bet each suggestion would actually make a genuine improvement in how well kids do in school.

I would riff a bit on Riley's tenth suggestion:

"Make all state and national tests be "value-added" rather than "normed." Let's work on getting the personal best from each child, rather than continue to sort the winners from the losers."

What is the one suggestion you would make to the incoming Secretary of Education that would actually have a chance of improving education for all kids?

Image "Impoverished mother and children from an etching by Jacques Callot." Life Magazine images available on Google Image Search

Comments

[Jacquie Henry]

Have you read Outlier by Malcolm Gladwelll - especially the chapters that pertain to education? He shows some statistics about the gains that children in ALL economic situations make during the school year when children have more equal access to good food, books and adults who spend time helping them learn. He then goes on to contrast these gains with the losses experienced by many lower income children during the summer - a loss that is less likely to happen to more affluent children whose families are able to provide continuous support to learning via summer classes, camps, travel - not to mention health care and good nutrition. It's an interesting read. As always with this kind of book - the emphasis is on describing the problem and not so much what needs to be done to solve it. Kevin Riley's list certainly would move us towards a society where all children have what they need to develop their talents.

[Carl Anderson]

Expand parent education programs in poor neighborhoods.

[Susan]

Hi Doug,

I passed your post on to a cousin of mine who is connected to one of Obama's policy people. I hope to give them a chance to listen. Maybe you'll be on the President's feed reader! Or at least on one of his helpers. We can hope.

[Charlie A. Roy]

@Doug
In a previous stop I was the principal of an urban Catholic elementary school. Our students were rather diverse economically. As a suburban raised brat it was rather eye opening personally. At our first pizza party for our "students of the month" one of our poorer students shoved six pieces in his pockets. On his way out I asked him what he intended to do with all the pizza. He said it was Friday and he doesn't eat much on the weekend because they have no food. Kind of hard to focus on your studies when primal needs take the front seat.

[Libby]

Spend time in kindergarten and pre-K programs helping children learn to get along with each other, follow directions, and enjoy school instead of pushing academics so early--then they can be ready to focus on academics in first grade and above.

Make sure kids still get recess time! And PE, art, music, library visits...time in science class to do experiments...all the things that make school fun but don't get tested.

Help first year teachers succeed so they will come back again.

Involve community adults in mentoring students.

[teacherninja]

I say get rid of most of the standardized tests. We're spending as much on those things as we are on the war in Iraq for crying out loud.

"For those who argue that we need standardized tests in order to
compare student achievement over time and to compare subgroups of
students, we already have a good instrument for this, the NAEP. The
NAEP is administered to small groups of children, who each take a
portion of the test, every few years. Results are extrapolated to
estimate how the larger groups would score. No test prep is done, as
the tests are zero stakes: There are no (or should be no) consequences
for low or high scores. If we are interested in a general picture of
how children are doing, this is the way to do it. If we are interested
in finding out about a patient’s health, we only need to look at a
small sample of their blood, not all of it."

From :Geiser, S. and Santelices, M.V., 2007. Validity of high-school grades
in predicting student success beyond the freshman year: High-school
record vs. standardized tests as indicators of four-year college
outcomes. Research and Occasional Papers Series: CSHE 6.07, University
of California, Berkeley. http://cshe.berkeley.edu

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Jacquie,

I’ve read Gladwell’s other books and I suspect I will get around to this one as well.

Thanks for the recommendation and the comment.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Carl,

Yup. I was surprised when my daughter signed up for Early Childhood Education classes, thinking they were just for the economically disadvantaged. Turns out it is mostly middle class parents who take the classes!

All the best,

Doug

Hi Susan,

Thanks for passing this along. It is really Kevin Riley’s good work that I was sharing. But I’ll be watching for Obama to leave a comment. Yeah, right.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Charlie,

I appreciate the story. While I have worked in poor rural areas, I don’t think I have seen the degree of poverty many urban educators have. I don’t understand how a country as wealthy as ours allows kids to be hungry and ill.

Thanks for leaving the comment,

Doug

Hi Libby,

I like your suggestions, especially the second one. With budget cuts coming next year, I may be fighting for all the things you suggest!

All the best,

Doug

HI Ninja,

I am not "death on all tests" but I do think we should be measuring individual growth rather than doing normed comparison testing.

All the best,

Doug

[Allen]

I wish all the do-gooders would stop thinking it is all right to steal from the masses, to pay bureaucrats to take their cut to throw out entitlements to people who constantly demand it is their right because they are poor. That somehow bad behavior is eliminated if someone gives them a house, insurance or job. In turn, I'm declared wealthy because I am a teacher/librarian, who is constantly told by the same people, I have nothing to say, can not discipline their students without being called a bigot and by their children that they are going to do anything they want and they will do everything they can to incite or disrupt and find something to get you fired, then told by administrators to work all day for 1/2 time pay, because running a library and providing an authentic learning environment has no value.

It does not matter how inviting we make it, when those in charge will not allow input from those in the trenches because they are protecting their right to the highest pay in the districts and their need to justify their positions by demoralizing the underlings. This is what is actually happening in our school libraries and school classrooms. Until the majority of teachers join together and say enough is enough, these issues will never change. The unions support what is happening by their refusal to support what we are trying to do and that is to teach. Our district currently has 5 district personnel at each school constantly going into each classroom to denounce teaching practices in front of students, bringing bus loads of parents "community" during the school day to observe and telling us to keep students focused. This is supposedly accountability. This is an indication that no one is to be trusted to the point of scripted observations and denouncing word choices in lesson plans.

Time and time again, money is thrown into the pot stating that our communities are not spending enough. This country is bankrupt from doing that. It is about time to learn from the past 100 yrs of entitlements that it does not work. We are being regulated out of existence as a nation and classroom teachers. Our children are spoiled, undisciplined, and immoral. It is time to recognize what is happening and stop blaming the classroom teachers. It is the responsibility of the individual themselves.

The best way to change society is to stop letting parents abdicate their responsibilities. Just because a classroom teacher doesn't successfully get the information into their child's brain doesn't mean they don't have to do anything. You can teach your children also. Abuse in any form should not be tolerated, not even the abuse of those in the classrooms doing the best they can.

I appreciate the ideas and discussion you present with your support of the libraries in our schools. I've implemented many of those ideas in the various districts that I've worked. The sad truth is that nothing has changed and I've seen the workings in Hawaii, Arizona, Idaho and Utah for over thirty years and discussed these issues with others across the country. I've seen 50% turn over of the best, most wonderful teachers every year from these issues and the districts love it because it saves them money and they can state they have to train new ones.

What I would like to see it an actual unified effort to stop the nonsense.

[Kevin W. Riley]

Thanks for sharing my "recommendations" Doug. I think we definitely have similar viewpoints. If you get that hook-up with Barack, put in a good word for the good folks at El Milagro! :)

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Allen,

I guess all I can say is that I am glad I don't live in your world. Provifing basic health and care to all children will never be evil or misguided in mine.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Kevin,

Thanks again for your original post. I will indeed put in a good word for El Milagro!

Buenos suerte,

Doug

[devin baldwin]

this is very good information