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The EDifier

November 20, 2009

Walking in her father’s shoes

Filed under: 21st century education — Tags: — pkarwasinski @ 2:52 pm

I have the sweetest granddaughter in the world! At 20 months, she’s at that stage where she does the funniest things, like walking around the house with her eyes closed because she thinks we can’t see her.

Lately she has taken to putting on her father’s shoes and walking in them. But is that really possible? Will she really be able to walk in the same “educational shoes” as her father?

The Center’s report on how globalization is changing the world suggests that it is highly unlikely. The job market is extremely competitive now. Imagine what it will be like when she gets out of school.

So what will she need? There was a time that simply being an American made success possible. But no more. My granddaughter will need more advanced science, math, and reading courses than her father had. That’s just common sense. More to the point, the courses she takes will need to help her develop higher-order thinking skills.

But that’s not all. In order for my granddaughter (and your grandchildren) to succeed, public schools are going to need to offer not only rigorous high school courses and curricula, but also have the ability and capacity to adapt quickly to a changing economy and a changing world.

It’s hard to imagine what the future will hold. That’s why the Center for Public Education’s globalization piece is so important. Even with great information, though,  thinking about the future can be a little overwhelming. I think for now, I’ll just enjoy watching my granddaughter try to walk in her father’s shoes! — Pamela Karwasinski





November 19, 2009

Pushups on the battlefield

Filed under: 21st century education, Uncategorized — Tags: , , — rstandrie @ 12:39 pm

“When are we gonna use this, anyway?”

I know you’ve heard the complaint. Students pull it out for everything from math facts to adverbial phrases to history dates. Thankfully, our 21st century skills report provides the answer.

Here’s my own analogy to explain. A friend of mine recently went through boot camp. In order to prepare him for combat, the Army had him do a mind-numbing amount of pushups.

But what’s the point? If he’s in combat, he’s not going to do a pushup, is he? When’s he gonna use that, anyway?

You and I know the answer. He does the pushups to exercise his muscles, so that he can be strong enough to do the harder, more complex, and unpredictable physical challenges he’ll find on the battlefield.

The report on 21st century skills finds the same thing. It finds:

Along with the rhetoric about “21st century skills,” a myth has spread in some circles that students will no longer need to learn the academic content traditionally taught in the school curriculum. After all, why
do you need to know “that stuff” if you can look it up on Google? … But …cognitive scientists have found that a broad vocabulary and sufficient background knowledge about the world—the kind of things students learn in science and social studies classes, for example—are hugely important for strong reading comprehension. The more you know, the easier it is to learn new things…

And building that background knowledge often means doing a lot of basic exercises.

Sometimes doing the extra 10 math problems, like the extra 10 pushups, will be taxing. Sometimes it will be boring. But it’s always going to be useful. –Rebecca St. Andrie





November 18, 2009

What do Dell, Microsoft, and Apple have in common? . . . Besides computers

Filed under: 21st century education, Achievement Gaps, High school, college — Tags: , — Jim Hull @ 9:29 am

All three companies were founded and led by college dropouts. That’s right; Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs all dropped out of college to become three of the most successful businessmen of all time.

These are definitely three great American success stories. However, their successes are being used by some to argue that the need for a college education is overblown.

This argument typically comes in response to the movement to prepare all students for college and the workplace. Lately, it’s been heard again because the Obama administration, along with many others (including the Dell and Gates Foundations!), have been pushing hard to prepare more students for college and the workplace. The argument usually goes this way:

  • Not all students are meant to go to college
  • A college degree doesn’t guarantee a job
  • A college degree doesn’t guarantee a well-paying job right after college
  • Many jobs being done by college graduates don’t require a college degree
  • And of course: Bill Gates dropped out of college and is one of the richest men in the world

What makes this argument so dangerous is that it ignores the fact that many students don’t have the option of going onto college simply because they aren’t prepared to do so by their high school.

Yes, people can be quite successful in life without obtaining a college degree. Dell, Gates, and Jobs certainly are testaments to that argument. But keep in mind they didn’t drop out of college because they weren’t prepared; they dropped out to start businesses in an industry that really didn’t exist yet. It is quite possible that if they hadn’t had access to the high-caliber math, science and other courses they took in high school, they wouldn’t have had the knowledge and skills needed to start those companies.

So instead of using them as models of why college isn’t important, we should cite them as models of the importance of being prepared for college.

Sadly, today the students who are the least likely to be prepared to go on to college are poor and minority students. As an upcoming Center report will show, white students are nearly three times more likely than their minority classmates to earn the academic credentials in high school they need to have a decent chance of getting admitted into a selective four-year college.

Yes, college isn’t for every student. But that choice should be theirs, not something forced on them because they didn’t have the right preparation in high school.

Furthermore, a college-preparatory high school education is remarkably similar to the one needed to find a good, non-degree job. For example, the Center’s recent report on 21st Century skills shows that high school students who wish to become electricians or auto machanics would be better served by taking the same kind of higher-level math and science courses as colleges look for in their applicants.

For students to have the best chance of success after high school, they need the same high-quality preparation, whether they plan on entering the dorm room or the board room.  – Jim Hull





November 16, 2009

Time is on our side

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Patte Barth @ 4:38 pm

There’s been a lot of press recently on the call to lengthen the school year as one way to raise student achievement — an idea being promoted most visibly by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. We talked about the research on school time with Parade magazine. You can see the article here and participate in their readers’ poll. Last count, two-thirds for a longer school year, one-third against.

Key points to keep in mind: whether or not more time will help student learning depends on how that time is used; teachers themselves will need more time for opportunities to plan and collaborate; and community engagement at the outset will help ensure buy-in.

If you want the whole story on how school time relates to learning, check out the Center’s report, Making Time. – Patte Barth





November 11, 2009

Grading states on their innovation

Filed under: 21st century education, Data, Pay for Performance, Public education, Report Summary — Tags: , — Jim Hull @ 4:12 pm

On Monday I attended the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Education and Workforce Summit, where they released the second installment of their Leaders and Laggards report. The Chamber released the first installment two years ago which graded states on their education achievement. This installment, however, graded each state on their educational innovation in eight categories using 47 indicators.

The categories include:

  1. School management
  2. Finance
  3. Staffing: Hiring and evaluation
  4. Staffing: Removing ineffective teachers
  5. Data
  6. Technology
  7. Pipeline to postsecondary
  8. State reform environment

For each of these categories states were given a grade (A – F), mainly on the basis of whether a state had implemented a policy or not. In most of the cases, it didn’t matter if the policy was effective, it just mattered if there was one in place.

For example, part of a state’s Finance grade was based on whether states allow teachers to be paid based on their performance. However, the Center’s Teacher pay for performance report shows that such pay for performance plans have shown only modest gains in student achievement and that there is little evidence yet on what type of rewards are most effective.

Furthermore, the Center’s Wanted: Good teachers report also points out that the impact of alternative certification programs are quite mixed. Yet, part of each state’s Staffing: Hiring and Evaluation grade is based on the percent of teachers who entered the profession through an alternative certification program regardless of its quality. So the grades in these areas do not necessarily represent how effective state policies are at improving student learning.

Yes, our schools do need to be innovative. But just implementing policies with no track record of improving student learning isn’t exactly innovative. As a matter of fact, it is something that has been done for far too long in education.

What would be truly innovative is if states were graded on how successful they were at scaling up successful programs and eliminating those programs that aren’t effective. Another truly innovative approach to grading states and our schools would be to grade them on how much they improved their student’s learning. The Chamber didn’t give grades for either of these measures in either installment of their report. –Jim Hull





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