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SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Texas and the 49 dwarves
Not really an education story perhaps - although Texas has been working hard to improve its schools - but the story told by this graph is so amazing that I wanted to share it with you. Go west, young man!
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
New Poll Question on Accountability
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Sunday at the Movies (Math Miseducation II)
Here`s more on the fuzzy math problem. (YouTube link)
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
School for Thought reaches the Second Year Mark
As we celebrate our second anniversary of ruminating on the state of education in Canada, I'd like to share this piece (c/o our friend and director Gerry Nicholls) from the Morning Bell: School Choice is the New Normal.
Well, at least in the U.S. it is.
"School choice, which saves taxpayers money and simultaneously offers children a higher quality education, is sweeping the nation. And it's an idea whose time has come. Instead of funding school buildings, the philosophy behind school choice says we should fund students instead and allow education dollars to follow a child to the school of his or her choice.
In places like Washington, D.C. [SFT note - spearheaded by Virginia Walden-Ford who spoke at our Measuring Up Conference], where the now-revived D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program is providing low-income children with vouchers to attend a private school of their choice, dramatic results have been achieved. These children, who once attended the poorest-performing public schools in the country, are thriving in schools chosen by their parents - not assigned based on their zip code. Academic achievement has risen, and impressively, students who received a voucher and used it to attend private schools of their choice had a 91 percent graduation rate."...
..."And yet, education special interest groups - teachers' unions - are dead set against such options for children and the state as a whole. They consistently lobby to stop the school choice movement in its tracks, because they know it poses a threat to their power. But the union stranglehold over education is beginning to crumble - thanks to efforts in Wisconsin and elsewhere - and policies that are in the best interests of children - not adults - are being pursued."
The task ahead of SQE is to achieve the same for Canadian children.
You can help us do this by supporting the Society for Quality Education with a DONATION, joining Friends of SQE on Facebook, or following us on Twitter.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Zap that App in the Bud
Following up on Malkin's post about "smart" phone use in the classroom, I came across this editorial written by an IT teacher. What may surprise you is that he is against the idea because he knows that they will be a distraction and a time-waster:
"The simple truth is adolescent students overwhelmingly use personal electronic devices as entertainment and a distraction away from their duty to concentrate and learn in school.
I have never confiscated an iPhone or BlackBerry in the classroom and found the student was taking in a few lines of Chaucer or trying to get the latest news on what is happening in the world.
But I have certainly stumbled on material completely and utterly unrelated to what was going on in class.
I have caught students cheating on tests by trying to access classroom notes from their iPhone."
and he points out:
"Whether it be at the local fast-food restaurant or clothing store, I have never seen any of my students text message, access their iPhone apps, or listen to music on their mp3 player while on duty at their part-time jobs. Could it be the "real world of business" also believes these devices are counterproductive and a distraction?"
I would add, when videos of teachers in various unflattering situations pop up on the web, you may see this policy zapped faster than you can text the words "dumb and dumber".
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Wednesday at the Movies (The teachers’ unions)
This short video exposes some of the contradictions in the positions taken by teachers' unions. YouTube link
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A flutter in the education dovecotes
Normally, salacious gossip is far beneath us, and those with no interest in silly tittle-tattle should stop reading now. Still reading? I thought so.
The scandale du jour concerns historian Diane Ravitch who, until a short time ago, was a perfectly respectable professor of history and supporter of education reforms like standardized testing and school choice. Then Dr. Ravitch apparently had some sort of conversion on the road to Damascus, publishing a book that strongly repudiated everything she had previously supported. Predictably, Dr. Ravitch immediately became the darling of the teachers' unions and other status quo educators. Her book became a surprise best seller, and she hit the talk show circuit with a vengeance. To give you an idea, here's her published schedule for the next while: May 24 - Washington, DC; May 26 Connecticut Skype conference; June 2 - New York; June 9 - Tampa, FL; June 17 - Savannah, GA; June 27-29 Aspen, CO.
However, sometimes there are strange things done 'neath the midnight sun, and Dr. Ravitch recently made a huge fuss, accusing the Rhode Island education commissioner of very rude behaviour in the course of a meeting which included the governor of the state. Dr. Ravitch loudly complained that she had never before "encountered such rudeness and incivility", and that she was waiting for an apology. The education commissioner, however, remembers the meeting very differently, calling the session "productive and a good conversation". The governor, not normally an ally of the education commissioner, agreed with this assessment. You can read more about it here.
Fortunately for those of us with enquiring minds, the session happened to be videotaped. The videotaper, who is reluctant to get into the middle of the fray, will release the videotapes only if all parties agree. The education commissioner and the governor gave permission immediately, but Dr. Ravitch asked to review the tapes before granting permission. It's now Day 7 and, given Dr. Ravitch's aforementioned busy schedule, it's starting to look as if she will never find time to review those tapes.
Do you suppose Dr. Ravitch didn't notice the camera? What was she thinking? Was she thinking?
BREAKING NEWS: Diane Ravitch has apologized to the Rhode Island education commissioner. Sort of.
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Through a glass darkly
In a comment to yesterday's blog, fromEurope drew our attention to a very interesting discussion over at Kitchen Table Math. The topic is the widespread dominance of "fuzzy math" even in charter and private schools. This is unfortunately all too true and, of course, the phenomenon extends to subject areas other than math.
Sadly, charter schools and private schools are being dragged down by the same handicaps as conventional public schools. Most of their teachers have been trained at the same woefully-inadequate faculties of education. They draw from the same pool of dreadful textbooks and other teaching materials. They are constrained by many of the same cloying provincial or state policies and regulations. And, inevitably, they are influenced by the same erroneous philosophy and a culture of low expectations.
Worst of all, charter and private schools have little incentive to do much better than conventional public schools, since the conventional schools practically hand deliver students to them. Private and charter schools are in competition with a very weak competitor, and all they have to do is offer a service that is just a little bit better than lousy. And, for the most part, that is what they do offer.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Sunday at the Movies (Math Miseducation)
This video illustrates one of the fundamental flaws in the way math is being taught in Ontario. Although the video refers to two American textbooks, the main texts used in Ontario (Math Makes Sense and Nelson Math) suffer from the same flaws. This should not come as a surprise, since the Ontario curriculum mandates the same flawed approach. For example, the grade 4 curriculum (p. 67) requires that students "divide two-digit whole numbers by one-digit whole numbers, using a variety of tools (eg., concrete materials, drawings) and student-generated algorithms". LINK IF VIDEO WON'T PLAY
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Trojan cellphones
So..... what do you think of the Toronto District School Board's decision to allow kids to bring their cellphones to class? The main justification seems to be that they are necessary for 21st-century learning.
To me, the advantages of cellphones (indeed any of the new technology) would have to be pretty enormous to offset the obvious disadvantage of the huge temptation for kids to text and surf and even take calls. So far, the 21st-century thing looks to me like so much smoke and mirrors. Or am I missing something?