The two hot topics of the recent PSBA legislative conference were, of course, the GCAs, as well as the governor's proposal to overhaul the state funding formula for school districts. The speaker at one session was Dave Broderic, assistant to Senator James Rhoades (probably the strongest advocate for public education that we have in Harrisburg.)
Mr. Broderic was quite eloquent in his comments concerning the GCAs, which the senator opposes, and then quite incoherent on the proposed funding formula, which the senator also opposes, being a Republican.
But be that as it may, he caught my ear when he mentioned that part of the justification for the GCAs are comments of business leaders who claim that high school graduates lack "basic skills". Afterwards, I asked him what they mean by that. What are the basic skills that high school graduates appear to lack? (He told me he rarely got an adequate answer to that question.)
It was in this context that I read a recent Newsweek article on the lack of financial literacy, even among the highly educated. They gave this example: you have $200 in an investment earning 10 percent per year, compounded annually. How much would you have at the end of two years? (Answer below!) Only 18% of adults were able to answer correctly.
And so it struck me: This is what business leaders are referring to when they complain about the lack of basic math skills – along with the inability to balance a checkbook, read a profit/loss statement, or understand the terms of a credit card or mortgage.
Allow me to point out the obvious: none of this will be solved by requiring every student to take algebra II. As Newsweek noted, somewhat sarcastically, “some principals resist adding personal finance instruction to schedules already crowded with really useful classes, like trigonometry.”
What I find so disturbing in this rush to “add rigor” to the high school curriculum is that there has been no discussion about which specific skills and knowledge high school graduates actually need for them to be successful. (To which I would include a basic understanding of statistics - how many adults understand the meaning of “+/- 3 percentage points”? I would guess less than 18 %.)
(By the way, the answer to the question is $242.)
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Rule Change Assignment
Last week I was privileged to receive an invitation from one of Kathy Yingling's 11th grade English students to hear a presentation on a proposal to allow junior and senior students to go off-campus for lunch.
In fact, I was the target audience.
The concept of the “Rule Change Assignment” was to have each group of students pick a rule they would like to see changed, do the appropriate research, arrive at a solution, and then present their proposal to someone with the authority to do something about it.
One group suggested having more cafeteria registers open for students getting breakfast in the morning, in order to avoid students having to choose between eating or being late for class. This was presented to the food service coordinator, and will, in fact, be implemented next year.
Other presentations were made to building administrators, and even the superintendent, involving rules about hats, cell phones, and parking.
Not only is this another good example of service learning – embedding curricular content within a project initiated and “owned” by the students, with implications for the wider community – it was an outstanding example of how to teach practical civic skills.
In my mind, civics education is not just about understanding “the three branches of government” (although that’s good to know), it’s about having the skills and knowledge to bring about positive change in your community, however that’s defined. (As I have argued previously, the school community is a logical place for students to become civically-engaged.)
Some of the civics issues that we discussed: What is the history of the current policy? Why was it implemented? Have conditions changed since its initial implementation?
Where is the policy; that is, is this a school policy, within the discretion of the principal, or is a district policy, which would require action from the school board?
The students had done a pretty good job of reaching out to the various “stakeholders”. Not only had they discussed this with the principal, they talked to business owners who might be affected. They had also given some thought to issues of liability, how infractions might be handled, and what parents would think of it.
Importantly, they framed their proposal as a solution to a problem that is of interest of the entire school: over-crowding in the cafeteria.
We also discussed who else they might want to try to bring on board, and how the involvement of student government might give their idea more weight. And finally: change seldom comes easily or quickly. Did they have the persistence to see it through, even if it would be their younger brothers and sisters who reap the benefit?
In fact, I was the target audience.
The concept of the “Rule Change Assignment” was to have each group of students pick a rule they would like to see changed, do the appropriate research, arrive at a solution, and then present their proposal to someone with the authority to do something about it.
One group suggested having more cafeteria registers open for students getting breakfast in the morning, in order to avoid students having to choose between eating or being late for class. This was presented to the food service coordinator, and will, in fact, be implemented next year.
Other presentations were made to building administrators, and even the superintendent, involving rules about hats, cell phones, and parking.
Not only is this another good example of service learning – embedding curricular content within a project initiated and “owned” by the students, with implications for the wider community – it was an outstanding example of how to teach practical civic skills.
In my mind, civics education is not just about understanding “the three branches of government” (although that’s good to know), it’s about having the skills and knowledge to bring about positive change in your community, however that’s defined. (As I have argued previously, the school community is a logical place for students to become civically-engaged.)
Some of the civics issues that we discussed: What is the history of the current policy? Why was it implemented? Have conditions changed since its initial implementation?
Where is the policy; that is, is this a school policy, within the discretion of the principal, or is a district policy, which would require action from the school board?
The students had done a pretty good job of reaching out to the various “stakeholders”. Not only had they discussed this with the principal, they talked to business owners who might be affected. They had also given some thought to issues of liability, how infractions might be handled, and what parents would think of it.
Importantly, they framed their proposal as a solution to a problem that is of interest of the entire school: over-crowding in the cafeteria.
We also discussed who else they might want to try to bring on board, and how the involvement of student government might give their idea more weight. And finally: change seldom comes easily or quickly. Did they have the persistence to see it through, even if it would be their younger brothers and sisters who reap the benefit?
Friday, May 16, 2008
Young Scholars/ world language instruction
One of the last sessions I attended at the NSBA conference addressed the issue of developing “global competency” from a somewhat different perspective. This presentation spoke primarily to the value of teacher exchange programs – both from exposing our students to teachers from other countries, as well as giving American teachers the experience of study abroad.
But the speaker really got my attention when he began by saying, “the traditional high school foreign language program is a failure.”
My response was to cry “uncle”. This was about the sixth person at the conference to emphasize the importance of foreign language instruction at the elementary level – something our own students have told us they support. And so I have come to the conclusion that the question is no longer whether this should be done, but how.
And you have to admit he has a point. How many of us took four years of foreign language in high school – primarily because college applications required it - and it’s now almost a point of pride that “we can’t remember a word of it.”
If foreign language study doesn’t result in fluency, what exactly is the point?
Which brings me to today’s board visit to the Young Scholars charter school.
When the Pennsylvania charter school legislation was first passed, the concept was that this would provide an alternative to the “regular” school system, where these new schools – funded by, and still part of, the public system - would have the freedom to try different approaches to education. The expectation was that if these experiments worked, some of those ideas might be incorporated into the larger system.
It has not often worked out that way. In practice, the state provides very little oversight, and there is almost no insistence that these schools do anything differently from what the public school is already doing.
Young Scholars is clearly an exception. We had the opportunity to speak with a half-dozen articulate fifth and sixth graders, who told us what the liked - and didn’t (“not enough time for lunch”) about their school.
High on the list of what they appreciated was the opportunity to learn two additional languages – Spanish and Chinese. By second grade, each student receives 45 minutes of daily instruction in each. (Part of how this is accomplished within a very full curriculum is by teaching art in a foreign language.)
The school board has been sufficiently impressed by the success of Young Scholars that they were approved to expand into the seventh and eighth grades.
But the speaker really got my attention when he began by saying, “the traditional high school foreign language program is a failure.”
My response was to cry “uncle”. This was about the sixth person at the conference to emphasize the importance of foreign language instruction at the elementary level – something our own students have told us they support. And so I have come to the conclusion that the question is no longer whether this should be done, but how.
And you have to admit he has a point. How many of us took four years of foreign language in high school – primarily because college applications required it - and it’s now almost a point of pride that “we can’t remember a word of it.”
If foreign language study doesn’t result in fluency, what exactly is the point?
Which brings me to today’s board visit to the Young Scholars charter school.
When the Pennsylvania charter school legislation was first passed, the concept was that this would provide an alternative to the “regular” school system, where these new schools – funded by, and still part of, the public system - would have the freedom to try different approaches to education. The expectation was that if these experiments worked, some of those ideas might be incorporated into the larger system.
It has not often worked out that way. In practice, the state provides very little oversight, and there is almost no insistence that these schools do anything differently from what the public school is already doing.
Young Scholars is clearly an exception. We had the opportunity to speak with a half-dozen articulate fifth and sixth graders, who told us what the liked - and didn’t (“not enough time for lunch”) about their school.
High on the list of what they appreciated was the opportunity to learn two additional languages – Spanish and Chinese. By second grade, each student receives 45 minutes of daily instruction in each. (Part of how this is accomplished within a very full curriculum is by teaching art in a foreign language.)
The school board has been sufficiently impressed by the success of Young Scholars that they were approved to expand into the seventh and eighth grades.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Civic Engagement through Service Learning
An important aspect of the presentation at NSBA by the NCLC (the National Center for Learning and Citizenship) concerned how service learning projects could be used to enhance civic engagement.
One of the recurring themes of the conference was the growing public recognition that the teaching of citizenship skills is central to the mission of public schools. In recent surveys, “citizenship” ranked behind only basic academic and critical-thinking skills in relative importance, and about even in importance with employment preparation.
From the recently published, “Still at Risk” (the sequel to “Nation at Risk”): “the first mission of public schooling in a democratic nation is to equip every young person for the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.” And from Sandra Day O’Connor: “As civic learning has been pushed aside, society has neglected a fundamental purpose of American education, putting the health of our democracy at risk”.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the generation currently in school is more distrusting of the political system, and has little knowledge of civic and political affairs.
Here are some relevant findings from the NCLC’s research on the effects of service learning projects:
One of the recurring themes of the conference was the growing public recognition that the teaching of citizenship skills is central to the mission of public schools. In recent surveys, “citizenship” ranked behind only basic academic and critical-thinking skills in relative importance, and about even in importance with employment preparation.
From the recently published, “Still at Risk” (the sequel to “Nation at Risk”): “the first mission of public schooling in a democratic nation is to equip every young person for the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.” And from Sandra Day O’Connor: “As civic learning has been pushed aside, society has neglected a fundamental purpose of American education, putting the health of our democracy at risk”.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the generation currently in school is more distrusting of the political system, and has little knowledge of civic and political affairs.
Here are some relevant findings from the NCLC’s research on the effects of service learning projects:
- Service based learning develops a connection between students, community and schools.
- Students reported feeling that they had an impact on their community.
- There was an increased sense of personal and social responsibility.
- The largest increases in student engagement were found in “at risk” students.
- Improvement in language arts, social studies and writing.
- Positive trends in standardized testing.
- Students were more cognitively engaged.
- Higher scores on attitude toward school.
- Students were more likely to indicate an intention to vote.
- Students acquired more civic knowledge (the understanding of what it takes to make a difference).
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace
Two sessions I attended towards the end of the NSBA conference dealt with the importance of creativity and innovation in the 21st century workplace, and the implications this has for education.
In just a couple of centuries, we have moved from an agrarian economy, through the industrial to the information age, and now we’re beginning to transition into what Daniel Pink calls the "imagination" economy. That is, the "value added" of the best jobs will not be in “what one knows”, but in how one uses that knowledge in creative ways to solve problems.
As Einstein said, "imagination is more important than knowledge."
In the "World is Flat", Tom Freidman noted that we still possess a competitive advantage in our ability "to integrate art, music and literature with the hard sciences." Even China – a key driver in the changing world economy - has acknowledged that "it is an economic imperative to teach our next generation to think creatively and be more innovative."
In its research, 21st Century Skills.org discovered that business executives consider creativity an essential skill for the next generation workforce - comparable to critical-thinking skills. (As an aside, these executives also believe that the greatest impediment to creativity is office politics. I suspect this says something about the importance of organizational culture.)
Pink told the following anecdote: years ago, a typical parental admonishment might have gone something like: "get your law degree, so you'll have something to fall back on". This was pretty good advice at the time, but Pink suggested it might not be as true for the generation entering the modern economy. Consider how much medical and legal work has become routine, and can be done ourselves or outsourced (examples: drawing up a standard will, analyzing an x-ray, etc.) Consider how much medical - and now, legal - information is accessible on-line, mitigating the need to call a doctor or lawyer.
Said another way, analytical intelligence (the subject of most standardized testing), while still important, is no longer enough to guarantee a successful career. Just as the last generation witnessed the demise of routine "blue-collar" work, the next generation will likely see the loss of a significant number of routine white-collar jobs.
A major implication for how education is "delivered" is that the role of the educator will continue to evolve from lecturer (the imparter of knowledge) to that of team coach, facilitator and mentor.
But one of his most powerful and important ideas was that – contrary to popular assumption - creativity can be learned, and that this often happens incrementally. An example of the value of incremental creativity is the fact that few patents are given for revolutionary “new” ideas; most patents are currently issued for modest – incremental - improvements.
In the future, "successful intelligence" will involve the interaction of the practical, the analytical, and the creative.
In just a couple of centuries, we have moved from an agrarian economy, through the industrial to the information age, and now we’re beginning to transition into what Daniel Pink calls the "imagination" economy. That is, the "value added" of the best jobs will not be in “what one knows”, but in how one uses that knowledge in creative ways to solve problems.
As Einstein said, "imagination is more important than knowledge."
In the "World is Flat", Tom Freidman noted that we still possess a competitive advantage in our ability "to integrate art, music and literature with the hard sciences." Even China – a key driver in the changing world economy - has acknowledged that "it is an economic imperative to teach our next generation to think creatively and be more innovative."
In its research, 21st Century Skills.org discovered that business executives consider creativity an essential skill for the next generation workforce - comparable to critical-thinking skills. (As an aside, these executives also believe that the greatest impediment to creativity is office politics. I suspect this says something about the importance of organizational culture.)
Pink told the following anecdote: years ago, a typical parental admonishment might have gone something like: "get your law degree, so you'll have something to fall back on". This was pretty good advice at the time, but Pink suggested it might not be as true for the generation entering the modern economy. Consider how much medical and legal work has become routine, and can be done ourselves or outsourced (examples: drawing up a standard will, analyzing an x-ray, etc.) Consider how much medical - and now, legal - information is accessible on-line, mitigating the need to call a doctor or lawyer.
Said another way, analytical intelligence (the subject of most standardized testing), while still important, is no longer enough to guarantee a successful career. Just as the last generation witnessed the demise of routine "blue-collar" work, the next generation will likely see the loss of a significant number of routine white-collar jobs.
A major implication for how education is "delivered" is that the role of the educator will continue to evolve from lecturer (the imparter of knowledge) to that of team coach, facilitator and mentor.
But one of his most powerful and important ideas was that – contrary to popular assumption - creativity can be learned, and that this often happens incrementally. An example of the value of incremental creativity is the fact that few patents are given for revolutionary “new” ideas; most patents are currently issued for modest – incremental - improvements.
In the future, "successful intelligence" will involve the interaction of the practical, the analytical, and the creative.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Service Learning
Back again to the NSBA conference.
The most important thing to understand about service learning is how it is distinct, conceptually, from community service.
Community service is certainly worthwhile and has been part of the State College graduation requirement for a number of years. It connects students to the community by giving them a sense of the community’s needs, and how students can contribute as citizens.
What community service often lacks is a direct connection to classroom instruction.
By comparison, a service learning project should be fully integrated with the academic curriculum and have clearly identified learning objectives.
A good service learning project begins with the students. The students identify the need, research the problem, agree on a course of action, and implement the solution, exercising and reinforcing skills learned in the classroom. Finally, students should have an opportunity to reflect on what they have learned.
We are fortunate that State College has received national attention for a couple of excellent examples of service learning: Kathy Yingling’s Stepping Stone project (see blog post from Oct 23rd), and Paul Heasley’s agriculture class that converted used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel.
Service learning is a terrific vehicle for teaching a number of “21st century skills”, such as collaboration; students are more engaged because the project is initiated by them; and it connects directly to brain research that states new learning must be acted upon in order to be permanently established.
The most important thing to understand about service learning is how it is distinct, conceptually, from community service.
Community service is certainly worthwhile and has been part of the State College graduation requirement for a number of years. It connects students to the community by giving them a sense of the community’s needs, and how students can contribute as citizens.
What community service often lacks is a direct connection to classroom instruction.
By comparison, a service learning project should be fully integrated with the academic curriculum and have clearly identified learning objectives.
A good service learning project begins with the students. The students identify the need, research the problem, agree on a course of action, and implement the solution, exercising and reinforcing skills learned in the classroom. Finally, students should have an opportunity to reflect on what they have learned.
We are fortunate that State College has received national attention for a couple of excellent examples of service learning: Kathy Yingling’s Stepping Stone project (see blog post from Oct 23rd), and Paul Heasley’s agriculture class that converted used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel.
Service learning is a terrific vehicle for teaching a number of “21st century skills”, such as collaboration; students are more engaged because the project is initiated by them; and it connects directly to brain research that states new learning must be acted upon in order to be permanently established.
Friday, May 2, 2008
"This Feels Weird"
I was drawn to Laura Vernikoff’s presentation at the PDS conference, "’This Feels Weird’ - Talking About Race and Other Differences in a High School English Classroom” for two reasons: because of the impact we know that school climate has on the quality of the learning environment, and for the implications I saw for the issue of “global competence”. (How can students develop the ability to work "cross-culturally" on a global basis, if they haven't learned to interact with the people in their own high school?)
It also seemed particularly relevant in light of the current controversy over the comments regarding race by Reverend Wright and Senator Obama.
In one assignment, Laura asked her students to draw a “social map” of the high school – what groups of students tended to hang out together? As you would expect, the students identified the usual subgroups: the “jocks” and the artsy types, but also groups based on ethnicity: African-Americans, Koreans, etc.
What this exercise brought up in many of her students was the unspoken fear that by consciously acknowledging (writing down) what everyone saw, but wouldn’t say - that students tended to self-segregate along several criteria, including race - that this act of acknowledgement made them racist. Thus, a typical comment: "this feels weird".
It’s the learning to talk about the weirdness that I think has the greatest potential value. It seems to me that part of the responsibility of public education in producing competent citizens is in giving them the skills to have these conversations.
She also talked about the popular misconception that "minority" students receive most of the benefit from “minority” studies - which, of course, missing the point completely. We do a disservice to all our students – particularly in this “global age” - if we fail to expand their horizons beyond their own cultural experience. As she said, “one of the purposes of a multicultural education is for students to use other ways of thinking, not just talk about them.”
It also seemed particularly relevant in light of the current controversy over the comments regarding race by Reverend Wright and Senator Obama.
In one assignment, Laura asked her students to draw a “social map” of the high school – what groups of students tended to hang out together? As you would expect, the students identified the usual subgroups: the “jocks” and the artsy types, but also groups based on ethnicity: African-Americans, Koreans, etc.
What this exercise brought up in many of her students was the unspoken fear that by consciously acknowledging (writing down) what everyone saw, but wouldn’t say - that students tended to self-segregate along several criteria, including race - that this act of acknowledgement made them racist. Thus, a typical comment: "this feels weird".
It’s the learning to talk about the weirdness that I think has the greatest potential value. It seems to me that part of the responsibility of public education in producing competent citizens is in giving them the skills to have these conversations.
She also talked about the popular misconception that "minority" students receive most of the benefit from “minority” studies - which, of course, missing the point completely. We do a disservice to all our students – particularly in this “global age” - if we fail to expand their horizons beyond their own cultural experience. As she said, “one of the purposes of a multicultural education is for students to use other ways of thinking, not just talk about them.”
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