Tuesday, October 31, 2023

AV#265 - Mission, priorities, goals – Academics

  A frequent topic of Another View: the mission of K-12 education. (See nine previous newsletters.[i]) 

A challenge - from David M. Steiner's A Nation at Thought  

   Is our mission clear? Most will say that, here in November of 2023, our country, and Colorado, are divided and uncertain of our goals for K-12 education. A year ago (AV #252 & #253) I asked if we would not benefit from efforts to articulate what they could be. But maybe what we most need is a challenge, not some mealy-mouthed consensus.

   Statements that hope to provide a national agenda seek to appease all. They lack substance. This year’s example: “A Generation at Risk: A Call to Action,”[ii] a report produced by education advocates of many stripes. Nicely done—but too nice, too familiar, to rouse us to action.

   What about each state? In AV #253, I included two recent efforts in Colorado to define essential goals for K-12 education, from the Colorado Education Leadership Council and from Building a Better Colorado. But is either document guiding or inspiring anyone today? Perhaps already collecting dust.

   

   The most helpful work I read this year on the purpose of public education is David M. Steiner’s A Nation at Thought - Restoring Wisdom in America’s Schools (2023). Helpful in part because it takes a stand. It does not set out to “find common ground.” 


Used with permission of Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., from A Nation at Thought, by David M. Steiner, 2023; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

   Steiner is the former Commissioner of Education in New York. While his book is national in scope, it addresses many issues relevant to us here in Colorado. As you will see, many are concerns raised in Another View. This reader quibbled with many details, but given our pattern of low academic expectations, I believe Colorado would do well to heed his arguments. And so, a few examples:

 

1.      Graduation Guidelines (and District Capstones) – “… look at what’s happening to graduation tests in the United States. States have been steadily abandoning the use of such tests: an ever-increasing number no longer require students to pass any tests to graduate… there is a plethora of ‘alternative’ pathways to graduation... the most common are known by the name of ‘credit recovery’—a pathway to high school graduation that involves the student making up for a failure on the state test or required coursework… there are plenty of indications that these practices are being used in shoddy ways.” (pp 3-4)

 

2.      Grades and Graduation rates rise, test scores do not – “… as grades and graduation have risen, ACT scores have decreased…” 

    “… GPA and graduation rates are deeply unreliable measurements of academic achievement. If we compare high-school graduation rates with two other external measures of achievement—the SAT/ACT scores and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—it becomes clear that the same academic performance that would have previously indicated failure now counts as success…” (p.5)

 

3.      Graduation rates and “de-valuing measures of educational outcomes” – Steiner is sympathetic to the bind educators find themselves in regarding graduation.  “… teachers want their students to succeed even when they are falling short. When students from low-income families—often students of color—fail to graduate, teachers understand that financial implications may be lifelong. The easiest way to try to prevent the cycle of poverty from repeating itself is to pass students on to the next stage of life with little education, but without the public stigma of failing to graduate high school.” (pp. 7-8)

        I have heard Colorado principals and teachers speak of this dilemma. No easy answers.

        Steiner believes—I hope this is not a controversial idea—that “what is required are reliable measures by which to judge success.” But by “de-valuing objective measures of individual achievement,” we show that “we aren’t serious about ensuring meaningful academic proficiency for our children.” (p. 7-8)

 

4.    Career and Technical Education (pages 9-17) – Steiner sees greater value in CTE than I do. (AV #197 - #200 – “The business of education – is education.”) Gov. John Hickenlooper’s CTE push looked to Switzerland as a model. Steiner also commends the Swiss. “But to reach anything close to the Swiss model,” Steiner argues, “the United States will have to confront an enormous obstacle: Most American students aren’t academically prepared to choose most of the offerings that a strong set of CTE offering options would provide.” His example: Maryland. My example: Colorado. CDE reports that over 9,000 high school students were on a READ plan in 2020-21. Do we help them read, or send them off to a “job”?

    “When most people think about career readiness, academic study is not what they have in mind. Rather they are talking about opportunities—as early as middle school but certainly in high school—for students to gain experience and proficiency in preprofessional skills.” (p.11)

 

5.    In chapter 2, titled “The Great Distractors,” Steiner looks at the ‘shiny new things’ in education that can have value, but that pull us away from our academic focus. He questions the claims made for these “strategies” - or buzzwords. He may dismiss their merits too quickly, but we cannot dismiss Steiner’s point. 

    “‘Critical thinking,’ ‘Grit,’ ‘SEL,’ ‘growth mindset’—when correctly understood as common sense terms, have all been taught for a long time… they aren’t new, and the research support for putting them at the center of schooling is simply not there… At its heart, the new learning isn’t new and it isn’t about learning. Instead, it is a powerful and seductive effort to circumvent the tough challenge of providing effective, discipline-based academic instruction.” (p. 53)

6.    Chapter 3 criticizes the “fragmented academic core” and “fragmented curriculum” in our schools. In one masterful sentence, he presents what he sees as fundamental: what we teach, and how we teach.  

   “The findings of volumes of research on effective schooling show at a national level, successful school systems are those in which teachers consistently teach a knowledge-heavy curriculum to all students, assess students on their mastery of that curriculum, use metrics carefully to pinpoint where individual attention is needed, and do so with the strong support of a positive leader and in regular communications with students’ families. In terms of delivering the foundation of an effective education, that’s about it.” (Italics are his.) (p. 58)

    This brief overview fails to reflect the book’s title—AT THOUGHT. Or the nuances. I encourage you to note his criticism of a class on Macbeth in high-performing charter school in Newark: the teacher “kept the conversations at a surface level.” (xi) Or this uplifting phrase: “We need to recognize that academic study … can be the demanding, empowering, and indispensable path to human flourishing.” (xvi) Or jump to the final chapter, “Learning to Think,” and read his praise for teachers “who love their subject ... and display a combination of infectious passion and exacting standards for good work.” (p.128) Steiner’s emphasis on what we teach and learn is part of a compelling vision – in contrast to what we hear, ad nauseam, from those who claim that our goal should be to “train students for the workplace.”[iii] To wit:

    “Ultimately the education of our children,” he writes, “revolves around this core question: ‘What does it mean to have achieved a well-lived life?’” (p. 106)

 


Endnotes


[i] AV #91 - Education and the Economy – Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Workforce? (Nov. 2012)

AV #171 - #174 - The business of education - is education. 2017 gave us plenty of evidence: mission of public education is changing. (Jan. 2018)

AV #180: Mission statements from 10 high-performing schools – education for LIFE -Character, Values, Citizenship, and - no surprise - not a word about training for the workplace. (June 2018)

AV #197 – Colorado’s Academic Standards – A 30-year review … Are they no longer a priority? (July 2019)

AV #252-#253 - K-12 education: In what direction are we headed? Do we share common goals? (Oct.-Nov. 2022)

All at the website for Another View - http://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/                                                

[ii] The Building Bridges Initiative, https://buildingbridgesineducation.org/a-generation-at-risk-report/ (Sept. 2023).

The first three recommended “actions” give a flavor of the 10-page report.

1.      Set goals aligned to recovery and our evolving understanding of educational outcomes and report on them clearly and accurately.

2.      Ensure that schools and educators use evidence-based strategies and interventions to meet all students’ needs. 

3.      Rethink how time and staff are used to improve impact with students and to improve quality of life for educators.

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