Unit Cycle 5

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When looking over the readings to do for this unit I had decided early on that I would be interested in writing about the goals of education.  After completing all of the readings I decided to focus more on school improvement and how reform is structured.

The skills that are stressed in most public schools today are vastly unnecessary for students’ post-secondary lives.  I think it is easy to recognize that our, “ schools will surely be failures if students graduate knowing how to choose the right option from four bubbles on a multiple-choice test, but unprepared to lead fulfilling lives, to be responsible citizens, and to make good choices for themselves, their families, and our society (Ravitch, 168).”  Knowing miscellaneous facts or processes because it will be on the MME, will not help our students in college or future employment.  The amount of pressure that states and NCLB has placed on a school’s test scores have forced schools to overlook the curriculum and skills that would normally be taught, and to focus on test preparation seven months of the school year.  Most proponents of using testing, often referring to it (incorrectly) as data-driven evaluation, have little to no background in education and strive to run schools like businesses.  This approach can seem effective, getting rid of the ‘ineffective’ teachers and limiting costs.  What this approach fails to take into perspective is that schools do not produce widgets, they teach people.  Under this approach how should schools view students with diverse needs or a difference in funding? 

Ravitch recognizes that, “the most durable way to improve curriculum and instruction and to improve the conditions in which teachers work and children learn, rather than endlessly squabbling over how school systems should be organized, managed, and controlled (Ravitch, 169).”  Instead of money being given to schools to help them improve, under programs like NCLB, money is taken away the worse that schools do, which does nothing but further any problems. 

One of the problems that plagues our society the most is that, “our schools will not improve if elected officials intrude into pedagogical territory and make decisions that properly should be made by professional educators (Ravitch, 170).”  Teachers are not looked at as professionals, and teaching in general is treated as a profession that anyone can do.  Elected officials in, “Congress and state legislatures should not tell teachers how to teach, any more than they should tell surgeons how to perform operations (Ravitch, 170).”  Until educators and others who had some experience in the education field are allowed to make decisions the shape and mold educational policies, little real improvement will be seen. 

One of the new fads in education is charter schools.  While they are not necessarily new, any news commentator or politician that seem to tout the ‘successes’ of charter schools and compare them to public schools to further show how much change is needed.  This further shows how,  “our schools cannot improve if charter schools siphon away the most motivated students and their families in the poorest communities from the regular public schools (Ravitch, 171).”  Furthermore, most charter schools require applications and can ‘screen’ their students.  While I’m not entirely sure how the discriminatory laws apply to them I’m sure they are not allowed to exclude certain groups of students, but they can certainly select only high performing students if they wish.  This would severely skew any data comparing charter and public schools, the latter, which accepts all students regardless of background or needs.  Of course none of these differences are ever discussed by those that tout charter schools’ supposed superiority.   Also as Ravitch suggests, by removing those highly motivated students from public schools, causing the loss of revenue and motivated families.

Overall educational improvement will not come by analyzing test scores or micro-managing administrators and teachers.  School reform will have the best results if we improve facilities, class sizes, buildings, and general support that the students and their families receive.  A student that has housing or medical problems, or even having enough food to eat every day, will not be able to focus on their education.  Beyond that, the students we do see on a regular basis need to start with a level playing field, public schools should not differ vastly from city to city merely because how wealthy that area is.  Until we start to address some of the problems that plague schools and address them, we will not see true progress.

Works Cited

Ravitch, D. (2010a). “What I Learned About School Reform.” In Ravitch, D. The death and life of the great American school system (pp. 1-14). New York: Perseus Book Group.

Ravitch, D. (2010b). “Lessons Learned.” In Ravitch, D. The death and life of the great American school system (pp. 223-242). New York: Perseus Book Group.