Get Schooled - "a ground breaking initiative to DISCUSS the challenges facing America's public education system"
After 30 years and six Blue Ribbon panels how can that discussion be "ground breaking". Have some new, unknown challenges suddenly sprung up??
As Intel CEO Craig Barrett - who served on 4 of the 6 Blue Ribbon panel - has stated publicly, all the reports say the same thing. There has not been a fresh idea in 30 years. We know the problems - we just don't have the guts to address them.
Unless you consider it gutsy to use celebrity influencers as the way to "maximize the potential of our nation's young minds - expensive, yes. Gutsy...I think not.
If America would just listen to Craig Barrett we'd be half way to a world class education. The steps are simple:
1- set the curriculum to the same level of difficulty as your economic competitors (sort of like training to win in a globally competitive sport - train as intensely as your competitors and you may have a shot)
2- hire teachers with Masters degrees in the discipline they are to teach and then coach them on being effective teachers. It is much easier to coach an MS in Physics on how to teach, than to coach an Education major to be a physicist. Try it at home; see for yourself.
3- measure results - use the AP exams as national standards and test to see how students and teachers are progressing.
Has anyone other than a few US Charter schools (and 400 million Indians and Chinese) tried that simple formula?
Foundations like Gates and Broad, I've come to think, actually perpetuate the "challenges" facing American education - because all they want to do is talk. If they actually solved the problem they wouldn't have jobs. So, hey kids, let's put on a show in Hollywood...OMG!
Bill Gates should come to Memphis and teach 8th grade math at East High School - once one of the best schools in Memphis - where dozens of bright, but poor African American kids got a solid education and full ride scholarships to places like Washington U in St. Louis. Now, colleges don't even send representatives.
But gosh, Get Schooled has Hollywood panache and a "surprise special performance" at the end. Oh boy - I like surprises. In fact, without promising a surprise special performance, I doubt people would go. What could be more fun than a Hollywood show, with celebrity influencers and still give the illusion of helping American kids. A perfect evening!
You know what "surprise" performance I'd recommend - have the 5th grade math teacher I watched in a Memphis City Elementary school teach for 15 minutes on stage -- he will actually make arithmetic mistakes while teaching math. It would be a memorable performance !!
GET SCHOOLED? GET REAL....
BTW- cool, catchy idea on the invitation graphics - looks like a school notebook...get it?
oh my gosh, this is hilarious!
tour de force
Posted by: Catherine Johnson | August 11, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Re: "...hire teachers with Masters degrees in the discipline they are to teach and then coach them on being effective teachers." I agree; there's only one barrier: the NEA, its affiliates, and the bureaucrates at the various state Departments of Education. No problem there...
As an English Department Chair, I have had, for many years, the honor of approving and supervising student teachers from the local colleges...Education majors with a "minor" in English. They are strong on "social justice" but don't know grammar or MLA research conventions. They haven't read Moby Dick, and are insufferably weak on Shakespeare. They are deer in the headlights if you mention Plato. Their degrees (B.S.) are aptly named. Give me a true English major, with real courses in English, and I'll teach him how to teach in eight weeks.
Posted by: Bob Ballentine | August 05, 2009 at 04:54 PM
Good intentions only get one so far. I do sincerely doubt anyone in the education arena is out to make our schools worse. There are certainly those with vested interests such as many on the writing team for the national so-called math curriculum, but one can easily dismiss financial conflicts with the Gates Foundation.
However, the Gates Foundation, not only well endowed financially, is also academically advantaged and has a track record of putting its money where its mouth is. Take malaria. This foundation has done more than any government alone in decreasing this serious killer.
However, the Gates Foundation has done nothing ,enless to make the situation worse, with regard to education. Perhaps it is taking the initial step forward to state that the educational path we are on is not in the best interest of our children. If the Gates Foundation had not taken the steps it did with malaria, we might not be applauding the Foundation's efforts. So, too, must this powerful Foundation step to the plate and make the necessary effort to develop an internationally competitive curriculum, incentivize teachers and develop better measures of success. Anything less is just talk.
www.uscoalitionforworldclassmath.org
Posted by: Laura | August 05, 2009 at 07:16 AM
I have taught in the inner city for 20 years. I have seen and heard just about every idea for "fixing" what ails our urban schools. I truly believe that my idea, "English Matters: Dot", would be a crucial step in that direction. This idea is so simple, yet would require many changes in educating our teachers to be and in those already teaching, regardless of content.
I think it's time to take a simple step in the right direction. Let us not make change so difficult, let's do it right!
www.aarisa.webs.com
Posted by: Susan Stack | August 04, 2009 at 01:41 PM