Debating the School-Reform Debate

One-room Schoolhouse, Fruita, Utah c. 1900 Photo © 2002, Mitch Bleier

No, I have not seen the new education “reform” film, Waiting for Superman, so I will refrain from having or expressing an opinion on any content other than what I have seen in the trailer. My familiarity with some of the players in the film does, however, push me to respond quickly with a call for those engaging in the school-reform debate to inform themselves about the facts used in the arguments and about the motives of those who are most vocal in these arguments, and to examine their own assumptions about public schools and those who attend and work in them.

At the dawn of the 19th century, a group of wealthy, charitable New Yorkers sought and received a charter from New York State for the Public School Society of New York, whose intention it was to provide education for poor children not served by charitable and religious institutions, who might otherwise fall prey to “immorality and vice,” and, presumably, begin to prey upon the decent people of New York City. These early education-reform efforts took the form of monitorial or Lancasterian methods of schooling in which one teacher, assisted by a number of monitors drawn from the most capable of students, could educate hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand children.

Much recent reform, including the pervasive standards movement has been driven by the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk. Decentralization, NCLB, re-assertion of mayoral control, RTTT, and the charter school movement have brought us to where we are today. Public schools are in trouble. Funding, public confidence, and political support, so necessary for success and improvement are eroding at an alarming rate. This is a call for educators to keep themselves informed of the issues, and the arguments on all sides of these important education debates…and to be clear about their own stance on these issues. This may require a rethinking  of the purpose(s) of public education, and a reassertion of the rights of children and the benefits to society of a well-educated population well-equipped to question and challenge the status quo.

Here are links to some resources to help us all keep on top of things:
Please feel free to respond to this post and to add resources here.

• Bridging Differences – a long-running back-and-forth conversation between Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch about education issues and education policy
• Waiting for Superman – the official website of the film
• The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman – the official website of the response to Waiting for Superman
• Not Waiting for Superman – another response to the film–this one initiated by Rethinking Schools.
• New York City Charter School Center
• Stories from School – National Board certified teacher leaders share how education policy impacts classrooms

Lancasterian Schooling for the Poor

Living Together…but not really

Photographer Eric Fischer has produced maps of 40 major American cities that show the distribution of Asian, Black, Latino and White residents. The maps, in which each dot represents twenty-five people, reveal interesting , and

Racial distribution in New York City by Eric Fischer

sometimes remarkable patterns of racial distribution.  Because Fischer departs from the usual practice of representing areas in solid colors to use dots, diversely populated areas are visible as multi-colored patterns…but diversely populated areas are not very common.

These maps might be presented to a group without any framing information.  A discussion might be begin with participants speculating about what the dots and colors signify.  Then, the conversation could turn toward interpretation and analysis.  This might be especially powerful as local residents examine the area where they live.

Although Fischer has mapped forty cities, New York is one of the most striking for its patterns of population distribution.

Let us know if you have any interesting experiences with these maps.

Note:  These pictures are available in several resolutions.  I have found that  the “large” size has the most impact on a computer screen or on an interactive white board.

If you want to read more about Eric Fischer and these maps, there is an article in New York Magazine and another on the Fast Company website.

What Would MacGyver Do?

An exercise that I do with my (mostly adult) students is The Science Toolkit.  I give them an iron nail and one meter of cotton postal string in a Ziploc bag and have them go outside for twenty minutes and see what they can use these items for.

They always are surprised at how useful this simple toolkit can be.  They use the nail to dig, and the string to mark off a study area; tie the string to the nail and use their newly made device to scratch circles on pavement or in soil; collect samples in the Ziploc bag; and lots more.

The exercise concludes with participants suggesting additional items to include in their kits.  A magnifier, a permanent marker to mark their strings to be used for linear measurements, and other items are proposed and participants customize the kits for their own purposes.

These toolkits become part of our equipment and we carry them everywhere.  I once gave a class the task of exploring the flora and fauna around a brand new school building in the Mojave Desert. The building had not even been around long enough to be populated by spiders, lizards and the other common life forms that make the human habitat their own.  One particularly resourceful group of students searched and searched until they heard water flowing in a storm drain below their feet.  They took the thimble-like cap off of a water bottle, untwined the strands of the cotton string and made a basket that they lowered down into the drain to collect a sample of water.  Once inside, they examined the water with a microscope and discovered a rich array of microorganisms to study.

When to introduce the toolkit is a critical decision.  It may be a great introduction to the creative and accessible activities of the scientist that we all can do, but it may require some rapport to be established between teacher and students to ensure buy-in and willingness to try something that may seem a little silly when you hand them a bag with a nail and a string.  We often finish by constructing a list of additional items that participants would include in their own kits for their own needs (e.g., a mirror, a magnet, a hand lens, waterproof paper and pencil).

[Note:  The toolkit was suggested by a hydrologist from the Clark County (Nevada) Water District–it is similar to one he carries with him at all times.  The activity was developed by Bradley Iverson, of the Clark County School District, and me.]

High-Tech Low-Stress Resource for Educators

Thinkfinity.org contains 55,000 standards-based K-12 lesson plans, student materials, interactive tools and reference materials from its eleven consortium partners that are reviewed by the nation’s leading education organizations to ensure that content is accurate, up-to-date, unbiased and appropriate for students.

Thinkfinity’s consortium partners are:

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Council for Economic Education
• International Reading Association
• National Center for Family Literacy
• National Council of Teachers of English
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Geographic Society
• ProLiteracy
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts