Education: Part 2
Education: Introduction
The quality of America’s schools, as judged by student
performance on standardized tests, has remained about the same
for several decades.
• Standardized performance in the U.S. does not seem to be as
strong as it is in other nations, especially Asian ones (i.e.,
China, Japan, Taiwan).
• Standardized performance in the U.S. has improved recently,
partly as a result of compliance with the “No Child Left Behind”
(NCLB) policy. This increase results in part to teachers
“teaching to the test.”
• Standardized performance is not the only indicator of
academic achievement. Students must learn to think
creatively and critically, qualities that are difficult to measure on
standardized tests.
Education: Introduction
Certainly, students need to know the topics included on
standardized tests.
Students need to know math and science.
Students need to have strong reading skills.
The real bottom line of student performance, however, includes
other factors than those evaluated on standardized tests.
• Do students enjoy learning?
• Do they have the verbal and written communication skills
needed in an increasingly competitive global marketplace?
• Can they think creatively and critically?
• Can they work well in teams?
Education: Introduction
This presentation addresses two important issues for America’s K12 school system:
•
Do students enjoy learning?
• Barry Schwartz: The Debasing of Education.
Chapter 39
•
How do we make schools work?
• William G. Ouchi and Lydia G. Segal: Making Schools
Work.
Chapter 41
Education: The Debasing of Education
Do students enjoy learning?
We have turned the play—the excitement of education—into work.
• Children enter school eager to learn.
• They get turned into bored adolescents who would rather be
anywhere than where they are.
• Children start out seeking knowledge; they end up seeking
approval.
Education: The Debasing of Education
What are the Causes of This Failure?
Common Complaints About Schools
• Teachers are untalented and unmotivated.
• Standards are lax because it is easier to let children move
through the system than struggle to make sure they learn.
Suppose these claims are true?
• Most proposed solutions (salaries, benefits, incentives) are
predicated on the assumption that teaching is a job rather than
a calling.
• Current policies assume that close monitoring will improve
teacher and student performance.
Education: The Debasing of Education
Teachers and the Market
This market-based approach works well in the labor force.
And it has some justification in the teaching profession.
• It is true that teaching does not attract as many highly talented
persons as do other professions.
• It is true that accountability improves performance.
Education: The Debasing of Education
Teachers and the Market
But salaries are not the only effective way to motivate people.
• Occupational prestige also plays an important role in
motivating career choice and performance.
• Teaching does not hold the prestige it once held.
• The lessened prestige of teaching can be attributed to:
• Rationalization: Money as indicator of success.
• Feminism: With increased opportunities in other
professional fields, some of the best and brightest females
go elsewhere.
Education: The Debasing of Education
Teachers and the Market
Will raising teacher salaries help?
• There is not enough money to raise salaries sufficiently to
make a big difference.
• Teacher salaries are not the only factor of school success;
schools need improvements in many areas.
Will greater accountability help?
• “Standardized” accountability is not a measure of a high quality
education.
• Teaching children to take standardized tests is not a measure
of a high quality education.
Education: The Debasing of Education
What will help?
Effective policies require accurate evaluation of the problem.
• The problem in U.S. education lies not with incompetent or
unmotivated teachers. It lies in the instrumentalization of
education.
• Instrumentalization means thinking of education solely in terms
of standardized performance.
Our school system needs to focus less on teachers and more on
teaching.
• We need to focus on student motivation.
• We need to focus on the intrinsic rewards of education.
Education: The Debasing of Education
Students, Motivation, and the Market
How do we motivate students?
• Students can be motivated by extrinsic rewards (e.g., grades,
awards, privileges)—ones that have no special relation to the
tasks students perform.
• Extrinsic rewards can turn play into work.
• Extrinsic rewards encourage conformity rather than
imagination.
• Students can be motivated by intrinsic rewards (e.g., the joy of
learning, the fun a making mistakes and correcting them).
• Intrinsic rewards turn education into fun.
• Intrinsic rewards encourage creativity and critical thinking.
Education: Making Schools Work
An Entrepreneurial Approach to Schools
Making schools work requires a recognition of the need to improve
them and policies that allow an entrepreneurial approach to school
administration.
• Parents want public education to improve.
• Most most parents believe that the schools their children
attend are better than average.
• Parents must realize that schools can improve.
• Next, they must recognize which solutions will work and which
ones will have limited success.
Education: Making Schools Work
Theories of School Failure
• Most theories about the failure of our schools are incorrect.
• Most needed is greater local control.
• Least needed is top-down, bureaucratic control.
Common but incorrect theories of school failure.
1. Teacher’s are untalented and unmotivated.
2. The students, especially minority ones, are unable or unwilling
to learn.
3. We have to spend more money on our schools to improve
them.
Education: Making Schools Work
Teacher Bashing
• People like to blame teachers for poor student performance.
• But teacher preparation is better than ever.
• Teachers are more, not less qualified than they used to be.
Student Bashing
• Some students need more attention than do others.
• Children from racial and ethnic minorities experience barriers
not present for other children.
• But research shows that, even the most impoverished racial- or
ethnic-dominated schools can obtain excellent student
academic achievement.
Education: Making Schools Work
Throwing Money at the Problem
• More pay can attract a greater percent of highly qualified
teachers.
• But, research shows that raising teacher pay does not correlate
highly with student academic achievement.
What will work?
• We need to look at how schools are managed.
• Local control rather than state and federal control is the key to
good schools.
• School administrators need better management training, not
more money for teachers or more ways to blame students.
Education: Making Schools Work
The Seven Keys to Success
1. Every principal is an entrepreneur.
• Free principals from the oppression of top-down
bureaucracy and allow them to find solutions tailored to
their school.
2. Every school controls its own budget.
• The finances of the school are rarely left to the principal.
Let the school administrators control their budget.
3. Everyone is accountable for student performance and budgets.
• Accountability means openness.
• Schools need plans for improvement.
Education: Making Schools Work
The Seven Keys to Success
4. Everyone delegates authority to those below.
• Let teachers and even students have more input to school
decision making.
5. Focus on student achievement.
• Student achievement can mean different things for different
schools.
• Standardized scores should be included as indicators of
academic achievement, but so should other measures.
6. Every school is a community of learners.
• Find out what the community wants and needs.
• Teachers, parents, and students are part of a learning
community.
Education: Making Schools Work
The Seven Keys to Success
7. Families have real choices among a variety of unique schools.
• Allow open enrollment so parents can pick the right school
for their children.
In summary:
• Establish a system of locally controlled, entrepreneurial schools
that become more responsive to local needs and desires.
• Such schools will become more exciting, better managed, and
more integrated within the community.