SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Boy oh Boy!

Everyone agrees that boys are doing much worse than girls in school, but there is no agreement on how to solve this problem. We at School for Thought believe that one of the most important, if not THE most important, sources of boys’ difficulties is the way that they are being taught to read in school. After all, it is almost impossible for students with poor reading skills to succeed academically. Click here for a compelling explanation of why modern methods of teaching reading are worse for boys than for girls.

Better Teacher Training

Although Ontario doesn’t have the problem of new teachers with barely grade 8 literacy and math skills, they way they do in Arkansas and Mississippi, the province does share the US problem of faculties of education that focus on political correctness and trendy teaching fads. Ontario would do well to consider introducing the successful Teach for America program that recruits top university graduates and provides them with a context of shared values and mission that focuses on student achievement.

If It Ain’t Broke….

The Ontario government has announced planned to introduce full-day daycare/kindergarten for all Ontario three- to five-year-olds. As Kate Tennier points out, Ontarians already have access to a “rich tapestry of opportunities for care and education they are currently using”. If anyone thinks the Ontario government can operate a monolithic one-size-fits-all system that will serve parents and children better, then School for Thought has this really cool bridge we would like to sell him or her.

Questions for School Board Trustees

Discussion on other education-related blogs over the past few days surrounding the Ontario School Board Accomodation Reviews (ARC’s) got me thinking about the role of trustees in school board governance.  The recent introduction of Ontario’s Bill 177, which attempts to clarify the governance roles of various players in school boards, also spurred friendly debate on what the role of trustees should be.  Some thought they should represent parents.  Some thought they should behave as corporate board directors.  Many thought that accountability will be greatly reduced or that trustees would not be able to voice local concerns, perhaps in opposition to the whole board.

So, are trustees’ powers going to be eroded by the passage of Bill 177? What exactly is the role of a school board trustee?  Probably somewhere in between a corporate governor and a politico.

Frankly, voters (parents, non-parents, and taxpayers all) have a huge responsibility when they elect trustees.  The fact that some Ontario school board budgets are in the billion dollar range makes boards huge corporate entities that require specific skills in governance and oversight.  New challenges faced by enrolment pressures will require some entrepreneurial thinking as well.   At the same time, boards are governed by “politicians” who may or may not act in the best interests of the communities that elected them.

For too long, trustees -as well as many municipal politicians for that matter - have been elected because:

• They are either the first or last name on ballot.
• They are the candidate the local teachers’ federation endorses.
• No one votes for them at all because they get acclaimed.
• They are an incumbent who has been around for 30 years.

I propose that voters look at a short list of questions to ask potential trustees in the next round of municipal elections. Voters are entitled to know what skills a potential trustee brings to the board room table.  These sites are a pretty good start here, here, here, and here.  While some of the questions might not be relevant to your province or school board, most cover issues of curriculum, budgeting, parental rights, and staffing.  Here’s a brief sampling:

• Can you think of any district expenses that should be cut?
• Do you have any corporate board experience?  Do you know how to read a financial statement?
• Do you support merit pay?
• Are you in favour of phonics or whole-language instruction for reading in elementary schools?
• What endorsements, support or donations have you received from unions or other private organizations?
• Do/Did you have children that attended schools?  Where did they go to school?
• What are your long-range plans for the school board?  What are your top five objectives, if elected?
• Do you know how evaluate your board director’s perfomance?

Considering that voter turnout is miserably low for most municipal elections, the growing taxpayer money involved, school crowding or closures, and the risk of underachievement of students, these decisions become crucial at the local level.

Has Teaching Gone to the Dogs?

This just in from England where some teachers have found that their students read better if they are allowed to read to a dog. This discovery is of course just a natural extension of the Whole Language/Balanced Literacy philosophy whereby students are expected to gradually and naturally become readers by simply being immersed in a stimulating and literate environment. In fact, the role of dogs in teaching reading is so obvious that School for Thought is surprised it’s taken this long to be discovered.

We confidently expect that further development of this breakthrough will lead to huge savings on teacher salaries, as the role of canine reading teachers is expanded. Of course, taxpayers will still have to foot the bill for kibbles and vet bills, but perhaps even this expense can be minimized if further research finds that reading to the classroom wall is as effective as reading to a dog. Walls do have ears, don’t you know!

Summertime - and the Teaching is Easy

Afterschooling (compensating for schools’ teaching deficits) is really tough during the school year. Time is tight, plus it’s hard for students to learn when their teacher is telling them to do it one way and their tutor is telling them to do it a different way. So summer represents a chance to make hay while the sun shines - lots of time to teach and no need to swim against the tide.

Teaching is not rocket science. Anyone who follows these ten principles (especially #4 through #9) will have good success. Click here for recommended teaching materials and here to ask for help.

Still Stupid in America

Anyone who has watched 20-20 host John Stossel’s ABC TV special Stupid in America might be interested in this.  Stossel reports that a new Goldwater Institute study shows that only 3.5% of U.S. Arizona public high school students could pass the U.S. citizenship test.   In Canada, the Dominion Institute has published the results of their Canada Day survey for years with similar results. Their latest report card on history education in Canada did not give very good grades to provincial history curricula either. 

We still see huge literacy and numeracy issues with younger kids who have difficulty learning other subjects as they grow older.  With all the money and effort spent on education, why has little changed? 

Could the reason be, as Stossel’s documentary contends, that education “monoply kills innovation and cheats kids?” He writes:

“Competition inspires people to do what we didn’t think we could do. If people got to choose their kids’ school, education options would be endless. There could soon be technology schools, science schools, virtual schools where you learn at home on your computer, sports schools, music schools, schools that go all year, schools with uniforms, schools that open early and keep kids later, and, who knows what else. If there were competition, all kinds of new ideas would bloom.” 

You can watch a portion of Stossel’s Stupid in America on YouTube here. 

Trappings of Democracy

There has always been some ambiguity about whether school board trustees are elected to represent their constituents to the school board - or elected to represent the school board to their constituents. As Moira Macdonald points out in today’s Toronto Sun, the Ontario government’s new Bill 177 sets out to settle this issue. Although trustees will be allowed to bring their constituents’ concerns to the board, they will be bound to support every measure passed by the other trustees. Added to the bill’s prohibition of trustee interference in the day-to-day management of the school board, the effect is to render individual trustees powerless. The new bill codifies a reality that has existed for some time now - school board trustees serve to obscure the fact that students and parents are at the mercy of unelected education bureaucrats. Teachers would be at their mercy too, were it not for the teachers’ unions.

London Anti-Bullying Coalition

Any parent who has had a child be the target of bullying knows how heart-breaking it can be.  Bullying can range from schoolyard name-calling to serious emotional and physical harassment.  In rare cases, it may lead to suicide or tragic violence.

For parents in the Niagara Region of Ontario, the London Anti-Bullying Coalition will be in Niagara-on-the-Lake the weekend of July 18, 2009 advising parents who want to form their own regional anti-bullying coalitions.  Corina Morrison and Kathryn Wilkins, co-founders of LABC, will provide their expertise in how they formed the LABC and what worked for parents and children who face bullying issues.  For information about LABC, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Squirreling Away Knowledge

According to this web-site, “the quality of an institution of higher learning can often be determined by the size, health and behavior of the squirrel population on campus. The Campus Squirrel Listings document the critter quality at universities throughout the United States and Canada.