SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

A flutter in the education dovecotes

Normally, salacious gossip is far beneath us, and those with no interest in silly tittle-tattle should stop reading now. Still reading? I thought so.

The scandale du jour concerns historian Diane Ravitch who, until a short time ago, was a perfectly respectable professor of history and supporter of education reforms like standardized testing and school choice. Then Dr. Ravitch apparently had some sort of conversion on the road to Damascus, publishing a book that strongly repudiated everything she had previously supported. Predictably, Dr. Ravitch immediately became the darling of the teachers’ unions and other status quo educators. Her book became a surprise best seller, and she hit the talk show circuit with a vengeance. To give you an idea, here’s her published schedule for the next while: May 24 - Washington, DC; May 26 Connecticut Skype conference; June 2 - New York; June 9 - Tampa, FL; June 17 - Savannah, GA; June 27-29 Aspen, CO.

However, sometimes there are strange things done ‘neath the midnight sun, and Dr. Ravitch recently made a huge fuss, accusing the Rhode Island education commissioner of very rude behaviour in the course of a meeting which included the governor of the state. Dr. Ravitch loudly complained that she had never before “encountered such rudeness and incivility”, and that she was waiting for an apology. The education commissioner, however, remembers the meeting very differently, calling the session “productive and a good conversation”. The governor, not normally an ally of the education commissioner, agreed with this assessment. You can read more about it here.

Fortunately for those of us with enquiring minds, the session happened to be videotaped. The videotaper, who is reluctant to get into the middle of the fray, will release the videotapes only if all parties agree. The education commissioner and the governor gave permission immediately, but Dr. Ravitch asked to review the tapes before granting permission. It’s now Day 7 and, given Dr. Ravitch’s aforementioned busy schedule, it’s starting to look as if she will never find time to review those tapes. 

Do you suppose Dr. Ravitch didn’t notice the camera? What was she thinking? Was she thinking?

BREAKING NEWS: Diane Ravitch has apologized to the Rhode Island education commissioner. Sort of.

Through a glass darkly

In a comment to yesterday’s blog, fromEurope drew our attention to a very interesting discussion over at Kitchen Table Math. The topic is the widespread dominance of “fuzzy math” even in charter and private schools. This is unfortunately all too true and, of course, the phenomenon extends to subject areas other than math.

Sadly, charter schools and private schools are being dragged down by the same handicaps as conventional public schools. Most of their teachers have been trained at the same woefully-inadequate faculties of education. They draw from the same pool of dreadful textbooks and other teaching materials. They are constrained by many of the same cloying provincial or state policies and regulations. And, inevitably, they are influenced by the same erroneous philosophy and a culture of low expectations. 

Worst of all, charter and private schools have little incentive to do much better than conventional public schools, since the conventional schools practically hand deliver students to them. Private and charter schools are in competition with a very weak competitor, and all they have to do is offer a service that is just a little bit better than lousy. And, for the most part, that is what they do offer.

Sunday at the Movies (Math Miseducation)

This video illustrates one of the fundamental flaws in the way math is being taught in Ontario. Although the video refers to two American textbooks, the main texts used in Ontario (Math Makes Sense and Nelson Math) suffer from the same flaws. This should not come as a surprise, since the Ontario curriculum mandates the same flawed approach. For example, the grade 4 curriculum (p. 67) requires that students “divide two-digit whole numbers by one-digit whole numbers, using a variety of tools (eg., concrete materials, drawings) and student-generated algorithms”.   LINK IF VIDEO WON’T PLAY

Trojan cellphones

So..... what do you think of the Toronto District School Board's decision to allow kids to bring their cellphones to class? The main justification seems to be that they are necessary for 21st-century learning.

To me, the advantages of cellphones (indeed any of the new technology) would have to be pretty enormous to offset the obvious disadvantage of the huge temptation for kids to text and surf and even take calls. So far, the 21st-century thing looks to me like so much smoke and mirrors. Or am I missing something?

A banner year for education reform

I've written about this before, but the tectonic plate shifts in American education policy are so remarkable that I'll risk boring you with yet another posting on what is happening south of the border. The changes are nothing short of revolutionary, as summed up in this article in the "Education Gadfly Weekly". 

Charter Schools: More than one million students are now enrolled in charter schools in 40 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In New Orleans, almost three-quarters of students are enrolled in charter schools. 

Collective Bargaining:  Over 700 bills reducing teachers' collective bargaining rights have been introduced in state legislatures so far this year. The vast majority of them have either already passed or seem likely to pass.

School Choice: At least 51 pieces of school choice legislation have been introduced so far this year, spanning 35 states and the District of Columbia. Every passing week brings news of at least one new victory for school choice proponents.

Teacher Evaluation: Many states have already tied teacher evaluation to student performance, and a few are flirting with merit pay.

Public Opinion: Recent polls show a stunning shift in public opinion towards support for all of these initiatives, especially school choice. It appears that, once the public gets a taste of educational freedom, it likes it.

Help for struggling students

Is one of your children or grandchildren struggling in school? Do you know someone whose child is struggling in school? If so, SQE can help. Our mission is to help students succeed in school.

To begin, you can find out whether a student is behind - in reading, spelling, and math - by administering the free placement tests linked to at the bottom of this page. We provide free remedial reading and math programs. Information about other remedial programs is here. We also offer a free book that outlines how to cope with a bad school, including how to access better options, and a web-site that zeroes in on boys' problems in school. Our newsletter archives contain a wealth of information on specific topics - from French immersion to grammar to home-schooling and the list goes on. 

And if none of these resources is quite what you need, you can always write to Aunt Malkin for personalized advice.

Not-so-special Education

This week, Educhatter writes about "The New Byzantium" - the maze of intricately-involved, elaborate systems that "serve" children with special needs. Replete with cryptic acronyms, obscure regulations, pseudo-scientific terminology, and a massive administrative staff, Special Education is - despite the lack of popular demand - growing by leaps and bounds. In Nova Scotia, for example, the number of special education students has grown by 3%-4% per year since 2001, even while overall student enrollment has declined by 2%-3% per year. The best advice available to parents is to "build a positive relationship with the school ... to win special attention for your child". 

And it's not just in Nova Scotia. Because children with special needs face exactly the same situation in Ontario (including extremely long waits for testing and treatment), a while back the Fraser Institute made a modest proposal to Let the Funding Follow the Children. In this scenario, the government gives about three-quarters of the funding it would normally spend on the child if he or she attended a public school to the parents and allows them to spend the money at a private school instead. This already happens in three Canadian provinces and several American states, with excellent results. Not only are the children better off, but also the government actually saves money. And even the kids whose parents don't choose this option are better off - as the number of public school students jostling for special services declines.

No need to be anxious about math anxiety

Math anxiety is a growth industry in the research world, as this article attests. Of course, we agree with the article that math anxiety is a bad thing and that it interferes with people's ability to learn math - but the researchers' suggestions for reducing math anxiety (for example, small tweaks to how math problems are presented) are ridiculous. 

John Mighton, in his wonderful book The Myth of Ability: Nurturing mathematical talent in every child (available for borrowing from our library), conclusively proves that the solution to math anxiety is to teach kids properly (like this). Dr. Mighton shows how all kids can become good at math and then amazingly - surprise! - explains that kids who are good at math aren't anxious about it. He then suggests that schools use his proven approach for teaching kids math.

Can anyone find a problem with Dr. Mighton's line of reasoning?

The books that matter aren’t in the library

I know this is going to sound like a walked-uphill-two-miles-both-ways-to-school-in-a-blizzard story, but this Globe and Mail article made me do it. It concerns People for Education's annual lament about the decline of school librarians. 

I know what I learned when I went to school in a northern Ontario town in the fifties and sixties, and I know what my children learned when they went to school in the eighties and nineties and, trust me, I got a far superior education. My impression is that today's public school kids are getting about the same as what my kids got 10-15 years ago, that is to say they too are being cheated.

Yet my elementary schools had no library, let alone a dedicated librarian. They also lacked a gym, a school nurse, consultants, subject specialists, a vice-principal, ESL teachers, secretaries, teaching assistants, resource teachers, money for field trips - indeed all the staff they had were classroom teachers, a janitor, and a principal. Class sizes were in the range of 35-40. And yet we were all taught and we all learned.

To me it's ridiculous to play the violin about kids who can't learn as well because they don't have access to a school librarian. If People for Education really cared about kids' education, they would be focusing on the things that really matter - teaching methods and materials.

Sunday at the Movies (The Nanny State)

There's always a tension between citizens' right to individual freedom and the state's right to curtail its citizens' right to individual freedom. Often, it is a matter of opinion and politics. However, today's video deals with the Quebec judge who last year ordered two school-age children to be sent to a state school because their parents were using direct instruction, and now this year two preschoolers from the same family are to be forced to attend a government daycare centre for socialization purposes. I suspect that most people would agree that the Quebec government is way out of line here - an illustration of what happens when the state is given too much power.