According to Darling-Hammond the US educational system trails badly behind many countries in terms of the quality of education that American students receive. There is lack of funding, discrepancies from area to area as to the quality of teachers & amount of funding received, lack of training for teachers, low wages and lack of time for teachers to collaborate, plan or attend professional development. She defines the areas where improvement is needed - these are the 5 main topics:
1)Meaningful learning goals 2)Intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems 3)Equitable sources 4)Strong professional standards and supports 5)Schools organized for student and teacher learning I will address each in turn. When talking about the meaningful learning goals she suggests that we need to adopt high quality standards with regard to curriculum and assessment and these standards should draw on national standards. When teaching curriculum we as teachers should cover less but in more depth and we should foster students' own creativity and originality. The types of assessments should be open-ended and focus on higher-order skills, problem solving and data analysis. Gone should be the days of teaching students a pile of facts which they have to learn by heart and then be tested on using a multiple choice scantron test. Students should be taught about real world problems and then tested on what they actually can do, not what they can recognize from choices. There should be many different types of assessments - projects, portfolios, observations, self-evaluations and students should be taught in sophisticated ways by well-trained teachers so that the needs of diverse learners are met. We are still very much in the factory style mode of teacher where one size fits all, but this does not work for many students and every child is entitled to an education which is relevant to them and addresses their own needs. We are so far behind on what other nations are doing. With regard to the topic of intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems the most important thing that struck me was her suggestion for an overhaul of the preparation and licensing standards. This I think is probably key - developing from the inside out. Students need to be taught by competent teachers who have received the in depth and thorough training before entering the classroom. Teachers need to be flexible and "client-orientated and knowledge-based" as opposed to "rule-based". Teachers & schools should be regularly evaluated and tenure should be earned on performance. Back in the UK where I taught before coming here we had regular inspections where a whole team of people would observe classes, talk to students, talk to teachers and administrators and then they would write a report which was available to the public so that they could be well-informed on the type of education their son/daughter was receiving and the type of improvements that needed to be made. For a teacher it was a lot of preparation before the inspectors came, but I believe it was important from the point of view of accountability, to make sure we were all on track and teaching in the best way possible. We would all each receive feedback on each individual lesson observed as to the quality of the lesson given. If you had a good report this would occur every 4/5 years, but more frequently if improvements were needed. The government also went on to develop performance-related pay to motivate good teachers to stay in the profession. Her third topic "equitable and adequate resources" I think is probably one of the most important. In the US there seems to be very high discrepancies with regard to the amount of money schools receive. It is imperative that high poverty states receive more money so that they can provide what students actually need. She suggests that the dollar amount per students should be adjusted according to specific student needs. Students in poor areas have so many other problems to deal with including access to health care, quality housing, it is so important that they receive an education that is going to enable them to improve their quality of life. To achieve this schools will need to attract good quality teachers, have good leaders within the school together with salary improvements. Teachers are attracted and want to work in schools which are well-led and have people who have similar mindsets and teaching philosophies. She says that "expert teaching needs to be the rule not the exception." For this to happen teachers need guidance, an improved teaching preparation program and should be encouraged and rewarded. Finally her last topic - "schools organized for student and teacher learning" discusses how teachers "need time for collaborative and collective planning, lesson study, peer coaching and to develop curriculum and assessment." Her idea of for teachers to have 10 hours per week for joint planning and collaborative learning and that investment is needed in technology and new systems of assessment. Teachers need freedom to incorporate these new practices into their classrooms, equal access to school resources and the time and training to build thoughtful assessments. We need to ensure to all of our people "a rich and inalienable right to learn." It seems that we have so much to do and so much to learn from other nations who seem way ahead of the game. Our system is so fragmented, probably because the country is divided up into 50 states and policy makers have so many conflicting opinions as to what is needed to improve this country's education system. More funds are needed and fast. They need to be foremost directed to deprived areas and then a revamp of the whole system of how we teach and what we teach needs to be addressed. Our students have the right to an education that works for them and addresses their needs, and our country needs to get its leaders together to investigate and figure out how we can do that most effectively.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am a French & Spanish teacher at Justin-Siena High School wanting to get new ideas to motivate my students. Archives
March 2019
Categories |