SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

The biggest bang for our bucks

We live in a real world where resources are limited. Much as we might like to, say, make it possible for every medical condition to get optimum treatment or ensure that no child goes hungry, there isn't enough money to do this. Therefore, we have to prioritize and spend wisely.

New Zealand's John Hattie stands ready to help governments make wise choices when it comes to education spending. Dr. Hattie has analyzed dozens of possible reforms in terms of which ones have been found to increase student learning, have no effect, or decrease student learning (yes, some do).  more

Reducing class sizes? Very small effect. Labelling kids? Negative effect. Constructivism and discovery learning? Very limited effect. Curriculum re-writes? No effect. Transformational principals? Negative effect.

Unfortunately, these are the sorts of policies that look good and appeal to politicians. Even more unfortunately, the single reform with the biggest pay-off when it comes to student learning is ... better teachers - something that politicians don't seem to be able to wrap their minds around. However, it's not rocket science.

Given that almost all Canadian teacher and principal recruitment and training, both pre-service and in-service, is dreadful, governments should be developing alternative routes to teacher and principal certification and in-service training. This is a reform that would actually save money while enormously increasing student learning.

Curriculum Guidelines

GUEST BLOG BY BARRY KAVANAGH, RETIRED COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSOR

I was visiting a Head-of-Math at a Scarborough high school in the early 1990’s; he knew that two of his last-year graduates had enrolled at our college that fall and he asked how they were doing. I told him that they were two nice young men, but they didn’t appear to know any Trigonometry. He looked shocked and apologized sincerely; he said he had to guess which subjects the grads would need for further education and he had not taught them Trigonometry. I responded: “How could you not teach Trigonometry when it was clearly listed in the curriculum”, and had been since I started teaching in 1969. For our part, the Civil/Resources programs were designed to build on the abilities supposedly gained by the students in the high schools. No one at the Ministry had told us, at the colleges, that the curriculum was now only a “guideline’'.

The Head-of Math gentleman replied that “the Ministry document (curriculum), was not a curriculum, but only a guideline”. He further explained that when the province introduced the “child-centered” approach to education, elementary school grads came to the high school with very little preparation and could not work at the level needed for success in high school – the high school teachers were then told to consider the curriculum only as a guideline, and “just do the best you can” – this was in the 1970’s.

Without a background knowledge in Trigonometry – which included Statics, the students, at college, had little hope of passing subjects such as surveying, highway geometrics, statics and subjects in the structural design option. Other programs in the Engineering Technology Division had the same problems we did and the Division’s failure rates sky-rocketed as the years went on.

Finally, The Conservative Party, responding to suggestions from groups like the one I belonged to (EAQE), reduced Ontario’s elementary/secondary education to 12 years - as it was in most of the countries on earth. The logical way to reduce the number of years was to replace Grade 12 with the Grade 13 subjects down to Grade 8 which would become a variation of the old Grade 9. The old Grades 1 to 8 would be compressed to seven years. What actually happened? It seems to me that they simply lopped off Grade 13 and did very little to replace it. We never dreamed that something like that could happen in this day and age or we wouldn’t have suggested it.

This nonsense has to stop before we completely ruin our ability to compete with other countries  - who do value effective education (including learning how to think) .

All Kids Should Have the Same Opportunities in Education

GUEST BLOG BY ERNIE FERGUSON

Malkin's latest article in the Huffington Post is right on. Why is it so difficult for the heads of our system to understand that equality in the economic market begins with support for every individual according to their requirements! Not what some "authority" thinks is sufficient. Check out some very successful persons in our society and you discover they had to leave "the system" in order to become successful.

It is my belief and that of many professional people that failure to spend the time and effort early is the main reason for criminals. Two police officers spoke to some young people at our church and stated most teachers can identify future problem children by Grade 3. However, teachers claim they don't have the time, money and resources to deal with those problems.

Then why are we able to spend thousands of dollars later when the child comes in contact with the law. First, to make sure they get a "fair" trial and second, keep them in prison for years at $80,000 to $110,000 annually. Does that make sense? Why is that so difficult to see and understand?

Remembering to Learn

Although drill is a four-letter word to educators, here is conclusive proof that children should be drilled to automaticity in their number facts. By having their number facts at their fingertips, the children's brains are freed up for higher-order thinking. In a terrible irony, progressive educators try to justify their abandonment of drill by saying that a focus on drill and memorization detracts from conceptual understanding and higher-order thinking. Here are some examples of their drivel.

And we needn't stop at number facts either. There are other facets of math, like many formulas and algorithms, that benefit from memorization to automaticity. In language arts, children benefit from memorizing things like spelling and punctuation, leaving their brains free to focus on the content of their writing. In history, dates should be memorized, in science, formulas, and so it goes.

Quoting from the article, "while the study focuses on math, Mann Koepke said cognitive development in general probably works the same way. After all, kids who match sounds to letters earlier learn to read faster."

Is this too much to ask?

There is an interesting discussion going on in the comments to yesterday's posting about the limits of parental influence. According to Doug, "the education system is not an à la carte menu where you choose your own curriculum and pedagogy".

So I thought it might be useful to look at a situation somewhat analagous to the situation of a child who is struggling in school. Suppose you are the parent of a child who has a mysterious illness. You take him to your family doctor, who tries various things, but nothing works - and your kid keeps getting sicker. You consult Dr. Google, and you find a medical condition that seems to be exactly what your child has. So you go back to your family doctor and ask him to prescribe the indicated medicine. Your doctor refuses, because he resents your using Dr. Google and anyway he doesn't approve of that particular medicine. What do you do?

Here the analogy with the intransigent classroom teacher breaks down, because all you have to do is ask your doctor for a referral, which he is duty-bound to give, and soon you find a doctor who agrees with you, prescribes the medicine, your child recovers, and all is well. 

The difference is, of course, that you're stuck with your intransigent classroom teacher for the rest of the year - unless you have enough savvy to work the system or enough money to move to a different catchment area or pay for private school. 

It seems to me that because of this crucial difference the school system should have a built-in safety net for parents whereby they can ask for a referral, just as medical patients can. 

Various Matters Arising from the BC Teachers’ Strike

There has been a flurry of comments about the BC teachers' strike, and so I thought I would provide some information about the issues.  According to this opinion piece, here is the situation as of last June.

"Neither side will say what's currently on the table, but in June the BC Public School Employers' Association offered a seven per cent wage increase over six years -- or 8.5 per cent over seven years -- and tied the Learning Improvement Fund, meant to fund oversized classes and other education issues, to the teachers' contract with a guarantee of keeping it at $75 million/year during the contract.

"The BC Teachers' Federation asked for an eight per cent wage increase over five years; a cap of three special needs students per class; reintroduction of teacher-to-student ratios for librarians, counsellors, and other specialist teachers; and smaller class size limits."

Doug, here's a question for you: is the remuneration of BCTF officials affected in any way by the number of BCTF members and/or their salaries? I will hold off writing about most of the issues until I know the answer to my question.

However, the cap of three special needs students per class is an interesting demand, one that on the surface has nothing to do with increasing the number of BCTF members. There is no question but that special needs students make it difficult for classroom teachers to do their job, and the more special needs students there are, the more difficult the job. There is also no question but that there are hordes of special needs students these days. My question is - where are they coming from? When I went to school, some years there was one kid in the class with severe learning difficulties (he or she sat at the back of the classroom and was warehoused), but everybody else was able to keep up. Obviously, this was a bad policy - those were unenlightened days - but my point is - there was never more than one kid with severe learning difficulties. Why are there so many more now?

Sunday at the Movies (Blindness)

This is a fascinating project about what happens when children's vision is restored. There are insights into neuroscience, engineering, and even autism.

Striking Out

In BC, the teachers have been on strike since the first of June. In recognition of all the school time kids have lost already, the BC government has promised to pay parents $40 per child hasn't been settled by the time school starts.That may not sound like much, but for parents of three children, it starts to add up - $600 a week, $2400 a month. 

This CBC blog includes comments from parents who are mostly opposed to the government's policy. They tend to think that giving the money to the parents is a total waste, and that the money should instead be spent on ending the strike and improving the public education system by, for example, reducing class sizes and spending more on special education programs.

Another point of view is expressed in this AIMS commentary (although it doesn't reference the BC teachers' strike). Here's the gist: "All Canadians deserve access to excellent public services. However, attempting to ensure this outcome by trapping citizens in government-run systems that either do not meet their needs or are simply underperforming is misguided. Limiting private alternatives doesn’t improve the quality of crucial public services such as education and health; rather, it weakens government-run institutions by protecting them from private competition that would otherwise compel them to improve."

So..............  what do you think of the BC government's policy of giving parents $40 per child as long as the strike lasts?

H/T TH

More Ketchup

Yet another study confirming the effectiveness of home education   H/T CT

Yet another study confirming the effectiveness of KIPP   H/T TB

An Atlantic Monthly article about the importance of teacher collaboration  H/T TB

A study on why Finns have high IQ's but few Nobel prizes   H/T JE

A study on whether e-readers are affecting comprehension   H/T CC

A Toronto Sun report on the pending crisis over Ontario teachers' contracts   H/T DW

More evidence that teachers are underpaid

I reproduce the following Jay Greene post because of its incredible importance. I expect a lot of comments, and I expect our new sheriff will have a tough time with his moderating chores. For myself, I blame Mike Harris.

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I know it’s early August but in some areas of the country they are already heading back to school.  And in Wagoner, Oklahoma we have a report of a special education teacher who was arrested on the first day back “after she showed up at school under the influence of alcohol and without her pants.“

Andy Rotherham dryly observed: “I blame Common Core.“

But hasn’t Oklahoma committed to withdrawing from Common Core?  Maybe he means that he blames the absence of Common Core.  I, as a believer in incentives, blame the relatively low cost of booze and the relatively high cost of pants. Or something like that.