Ch 10 of 20: No proficiency criteria

Dr. Seuss: The Cat in the Hat

If there was a magic cure that could have treated all, or at least most, of the education system’s ailments, would we be able to apply it? The truth is that there is a way to solve most of the weaknesses of our schools. It is a simple remedy but it will declare a war between educators and politicians…

The solution is mandating one, objective, nation-wide (or at least state-wide) proficiency standard of knowledge, measured by a uniform, objective tool (test), for each graduation mandated subject.

The list of the benefits that will result is long but mainly it will give credibility to the high school diploma, will strengthen the higher education level, and overall will elevate our education quality to a competitive place among world’s nations.

Another, at least as important, benefit, will be challenging students to reach a real, clear and established goal in order to graduate from high school with a diploma.  

If you have been to a classroom, you know that not all students are created equal… It is a nice ideal but very far away from reality… If you are a math teacher, you meet this reality when you face forty students with forty different levels.

Back in the days, before a law-suit was looming over every decision made, common sense prevailed. Higher-level students were in a higher-level classes, lower performing students were in a class that matched their skills, and those in the middle were able to progress at their pace. Not surprisingly, lower students tried to hide that fact, and students in the middle tried their best to climb to the ‘A’ group.

We don’t label students any more… they are all equal before the mass education system… and it makes teachers’ mission impossible; the low performing students dominate the class environment. They muck the teacher and the students who happened to want to learn. They hold hostage the learning process, knowing that there is nothing the teacher can do to force them to cooperate. Parents have little or no influence, and deans are overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problem. In their frustration, they send the students right back to the classroom…

In the end, the ultimate guilty party is always the teachers… No matter what they do or how hard they try, they are helpless against the troops of unmotivated students who don’t have a real clear goal to achieve, and who know the system is behind them (and against their teacher…)

The issue is not the miserable frustration of a teacher trying to do his/her job… the issue is the inability of the majority of the students to learn. How much progress can be achieved when eighty percent of the time is spent on fighting disruption? How distressing it is that motivated students are teased by the lower students. How sad it is that we lose eighty percent of the potential learners to very few...

Whose idea was it that all students must graduate from high school anyway? Of course it is a desirable goal but is it realistic? Aren't we fooling ourselves believing that occupying a seat for twelve years means graduation competence?

Back to the good old days, students who were not capable or just not motivated to be in the academic ‘lane’, had other options. They could learn a craft and get a suitable certificate. Later, they could complete their education and receive a high school diploma or meet the requirements to be accepted to the universities.

Imagine a situation where a school decides that all students are required to be part of the ‘Track and Field’ team. Would it be possible to set a qualifying time? Of course not – unless it is set to be the time of the slowest member of the team. How well would this team perform? How competitive it will be against other teams?

The academic field is not different… When a decision was made that every student should be a part of the academic path, regardless of ability or motivation, there was only one way to reach this objective – lowering the bar so that all students can meet it… And what happens to our education level as result, compared to other countries, for example? Exactly what would have happened to that sports team! We, the richest country, with the brightest minds, fall to the bottom of the list … 

When no objective standard level for success is set, and every team member is a “mandated participant” the bar is automatically being lowered, it must be – how else can everyone pass? Most countries set their “passing” standard bar based on educational goal. They measure their students’ success by national matriculation tests, and the high school diploma depends on this unbiased measure. This method has two benefits. It graduates only deserving students, thus giving credibility to the high school diploma, and it gives students a real, measurable, goal to reach, and thus directs and motivates them. When no bar is set to discriminate between achieving and “sitting” students, the education standard is very questionable!

As a math teacher I see everyday 12^th grade students who will graduate with math skills of 5^th graders, and I am sure my English teachers colleagues have a similar experience, yet I can’t tell you how many times I was asked by an administrator to increase the percentage of students passing my class… What does it mean? To teach better? No! I can assure you that this is not what it meant – I was asked to let more students slide through, and if it meant lowering the bar – so it be… and why not? Who is going to notice that some algebra student know absolutely nothing about algebra, or for that matter, about basic arithmetic? If there is no objective qualifying test why not push through the passing gates more students. And yes, every year thousands of students graduate from high school not mastering basic skills, yet their report card will testify successfully passage of require subjects…

I was once present at a meeting between our high school math teachers and teachers of a middle school. We were discussing the math level of the students who came to us, and I asked the middle school teachers why they let students into algebra before they master basic arithmetic skills. I told them that, unfortunately, at high school we don’t have a choice, but they still have the option to work on basic skills… My comment was met with complete silence. They all, including my administrator, looked at me questioning my intelligence … They, too, don’t have a choice! They are told to place students in algebra, regardless of readiness level…

You may say - but there are standardized testing that are religiously administered to all schools every year, so here is a good objective measure… and I would say… yes!… what a brilliant idea! There are those standardized tests, and enormous sum of resources are invested in them… so why not use them for that end? Why not test performance of an individual student, conclude his/her level and decide what is needed for him/her? Why not have students’ score directly affected their path?

Here is another decision made by people who understand nothing about education and waste a good tool that could have made all the difference…

Instead, they mandate higher-level subjects without qualifying the level of success. Recently - Algebra II, a new requirement that is based on the mistaken notion that every graduating student is qualified and possesses the basic skills needed for it. How many students honestly earned their passing grade in Algebra I, and Geometry? But is it important? If no objective criterion proves students’ competence, why not mandate even calculus? As one colleague said - we will teach half of the Algebra I book in Algebra I, and the other half in Algebra II, Why not?

One size fits all! We are dropping the bar instead of raising students to the task, and students know it. Why should they put any effort to reach a bar if they know that it will be lowered for them, to match their very least common denominator…?

Ch 9 of 20: Technology

I don’t want to sound old fashion, even though I might be just that, but technology, sometimes, is just in the way of learning, at least in math, and especially in the lower grades where students are learning basic skills of calculation. If it was up to me, I would not propose calculators’ use until after algebra II. When students are presented with technology aids before they build a brain capacity to understand and figure out a way to solve a problem, their ability to think is cut short too early and their thinking process is being incapacitated.

Since the time I learned arithmetic, many “progressive” methods were introduced to the education system with, in my opinion, regretful results. Even before technology became so available and popular, a “new” method taught students to do the four basic arithmetic calculations using a digital, counting, method. Instead of developing a mental process of adding and subtracting, creating thus a brain picture for the meaning of these operations, they practice counting. While for my generation solving six plus seven was a mental process that we each developed in our mind (for me it was completing to ten and adding the leftover…), most students nowadays do all four arithmetic operations using their fingers; memorizing the multiplication table has become a big no-no, for some reason …

This digital (counting) method, by the way, is very successful with special needs students, and even children with severe disabilities are able to use it. The question is why teaching a method meant for less capable minds to perfectly capable brains. Why restrict students’ thinking process and thus limit their future ability to grasp more advanced concepts?

This incapacity manifests itself as soon as they start algebra, where abstract thinking skill is required. The list of subjects with which students struggle in algebra, as a result, is very long, starting with simple factoring. When they reach geometry, they are completely lost… They just don’t get it. Math and science teachers are continuously frustrated with their students’ inability to think beyond the very concrete, structured instructions.

My first full time teaching job was at a reputable high school, teaching math to students with special needs – mild to moderate. Being a brand new teacher, with very little experience, and not quite buying into the special education system, I didn't give in to the “can’t do” attitude of my SDC (Special Day Class) students. I demanded from them what I later demanded from all my general education classes.

At that class, one of my SDC students completely mastered multiplication and division. He was not one of the brighter students otherwise, so I was amazed and thankful for this ability. When I met his father, he explained to me that he insisted that his son memorizes the multiplication table. He told him that if he is capable of something as complicated as figuring out how to put together the sound system, plugging all the wires into the correct connections, he must be capable of learning something as simple as the multiplication table, and he made him learn it…

As a teacher, my misgiving of technology has to do with watching with dismay how students of middle and high school are incapable of doing essential math operation. When students as young as elementary learners are reaching for a calculator to solve simple addition and subtraction problems, and middle-schoolers depend on technology to solve easy multiplication and division problems, mastering a basic skill like long division becomes a rarity and uncomplicated fractions and decimals questions become mission impossible…

As an observer of the education organization I am half-amused half-angry (being a taxpayer) at the tremendous waste that goes into the technology craze.

Almost any type of technology is expensive, and has to fit into some budget strategy. Teachers who plan on using calculators, for example, should find a way to stock their classroom or have an access to the prized storage. At one school, I had to get rid of the entire math related supplies at the end of the school year because of an English teacher who requested that specific classroom. All the items that were accumulated there for many years of math teaching had to be removed. Going through the supplies, I could not believe my eyes, seeing all the riches hidden there. On top of endless piles of basic items, there were tens, if not hundreds, of scientific calculators, and almost as many graphing calculators, a treasure that would make any math teacher the happiest person on campus…

I stood there, dumbfounded, not knowing what to do with all this wealth. The administrators who could have stored and saved it had already left the campus and I ended up distributing priceless items to whoever was present and expressed slight interest. Since I was not sure I would be there next year, I didn’t save any for myself… The following years, still on the same campus, facing a shortage of supplies, especially calculators, I would remember with dismay the lost treasure... 

(By the way, this English teacher decided that she didn't like my room, after all, and caused another teacher, young, good and well organized, to go through the same classroom dismantling process… Three month into the school year, this English teacher left on maternity leave and never came back to the school…) 

Public schools receive technology budget and in most cases, the rule is “use it or lose it”. It was not an unusual situation, then, that in one school, while being on a tight budget for the very basic supplies (papers, pencils, markers and so on) a decision was made to install a smart board in each classroom…

I was in the middle of teaching a lesson, trying my best to convey an algebraic concept, using every square inch of the white board and encouraging students to copy, when a knock on the door disrupted my class. I opened the door to two guys, holding a huge smart board, informing me that they came to install it. “Now?” I asked with disbelief? “I am right in the middle of the lesson!” This information didn't seem to impress them much, and they marched directly toward my white board, with serious intentions to remove it right there and then and replace it with the smart board. Stepping forward, I was ready to physically block their way. Adding extra pleading mixed with threatening, I, somehow, convinced them to agree to come back at another time. The compromise was that for now they will just mark the location… So they drew a big black ‘X’ right in the middle of my algebra jargon, and happy with this achievement they did exit my classroom, leaving me still perplexed about the event that almost took place…

By the end of the semester almost every single classroom was equipped with a smart board, but, sadly, only very few were used… Five years later, working in many public and private schools since, I have never seen so many smart boards at any single school. The sad part is not only that most boards were not utilized, and that they replaced a necessary white board space, but that they used up an enormous amount of money that was desperately needed for basic supplies…

I have recently seen classrooms with rows of unused, dusty computers. A teacher told me she was assigned to a classroom full of computers that she needed for her course, but none of them was connected… Schools are stocked with hundreds of computers, only part of them are in a usable condition… but – there is a new idea now, fresh from the education politicians with the help of savvy business men – an iPad for every student! Another untested idea that until proven helpful or unhelpful to students, will cause a chaos in the classroom, add extreme stress on teachers and will cost millions of taxpayers’ dollars… 

Link:

http://tekbot.unl.edu/SPIRIT2/Articles/TPCKinMathArticle.pdf