Are local schools ready to innovate and change to maximize their competitiveness in the 21st Century?
Not really, according to a new “Leaders & Laggards” report card on education innovation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Center for American Progress, and the American Enterprise Institute…
Put bluntly, we believe our education system needs to be reinvented. After decades of political inaction and ineffective reforms, our schools consistently produce students unready for the rigors of the modern workplace. The lack of preparedness is staggering. Roughly one in three eighth graders is proficient in reading. Most high schools graduate little more than two-thirds of their students on time. And even the students who do receive a high school diploma lack adequate skills: More than 33% of first-year college students require remediation in either math or English.
But we also believe that reinvention will never be accomplished with silver bullets. Our school system needs far-reaching innovation. It is archaic and broken, a relic of a time when high school graduates could expect to live prosperous lives, when steel and auto factories formed the backbone of the American economy, and when laptop computers and the Internet were the preserve of science fiction writers. And while the challenges are many—inflexible regulations, excessive bureaucracy, a dearth of fresh thinking—the bottom line is that most education institutions simply lack the tools, incentives, and opportunities to reinvent themselves in profoundly more effective ways.
By “innovation” we do not mean blindly celebrating every nifty-sounding reform. If anything, we have had too much of such educational innovation over the years, as evidenced by the sequential embrace of fads and the hurried cycling from one new “best practice” to another that so often characterizes K-12 schooling. States and school systems, in other words, have too long confused the novel with the useful. Rather, we believe innovation to be the process of leveraging new tools, talent, and management strategies to craft solutions that were not possible or necessary in an earlier era.
Our aim is to encourage states to embrace policies that make it easier to design smart solutions that serve 21st century students and address 21st century challenges. The impulse to either dictate one-size-fits-all solutions from the top or simply to do something—anything—differently will not address our pressing needs. Instead, this report seeks to foster a flexible, performance-oriented culture that will help our schools meet educational challenges.
Below is how the Leaders & Laggards Report grades Michigan’s education system on eight key measures…
School Management (including the strength of charter school laws and the percentage of teachers who like the way their schools are run) . MICHIGAN’S GRADE: C. “Michigan does an average job managing its schools in a way that encourages thoughtful innovation. Eighty nine percent of teachers report that routine duties and paperwork interfere with teaching. However, the state sanctions low-performing schools and provides rewards to high-performing or improving ones.”
Finance (including the accessibility of state financial data). MICHIGAN’S GRADE: B. “Overall, Michigan earns a good grade in this category. While the state gets a very low mark for the online accessibility of its financial data, it receives an excellent score for the simplicity of its state funding mechanism. Districts in the state also have full authority over teacher pay.”
Staffing: Hiring & Evaluation (including alternative certification for teachers). MICHIGAN’S GRADE: C. “Only 4 percent of teachers enter the profession through an alternative certification program, compared with the national average of 13 percent. But Michigan requires incoming teachers to pass basic skills and subject-knowledge tests.”
Staffing: Removing Ineffective Teachers (including the percentage of principals who report barriers to the removal of poor-performing teachers). MICHIGAN’S GRADE: C. “Seventy-five percent of principals say that teacher unions or associations are a barrier to removal of ineffective teachers, 14 percentage points higher than the national average. In addition, 80 percent of principals report that tenure is a barrier to removing poor-performing teachers.”
Data (including such measures as state-collected college student remediation data). MICHIGAN’S GRADE: D. ”The state does not have a P-20 longitudinal data system and does not provide educators with access to an interactive school-level database for analysis.”
Technology (including students per Internet-connected computer). MICHIGAN’S GRADE: C. “Although the state has established a virtual school, it does not require technology testing for teachers. Michigan also needs to significantly improve how it evaluates its return on investments in technology.”
Pipeline to Postsecondary (including the percentage of schools reporting dual-enrollment programs). MICHIGAN’S GRADE: B. ”Seventy-seven percent of its schools report offering dual-enrollment programs, which allow students to earn high school and college credits simultaneously. This is 12 percentage points above the national average. In addition, Michigan has high school exams that gauge college and career readiness.”
4 Comments
From the report’s overview: “Today, various organizations are addressing stubborn challenges by pursuing familiar notions of good teaching and effective schooling in impressively coherent, disciplined, and strategic ways.” — notice-> “addressing stubborn challenges by pursuing familiar notions” — then why the emphasis on “reinventing” schools? Clearly even the writers and researchers seem to be saying we need not reinvent schools to compete with each other nor other countries. Revisit this thread if need be: http://69.5.25.110/blog/flanagan-patiently-reworks-michigan-education/comment-page-1/ — Why call for reinventing schools in one paragraph and then claim in the next that we should pursue the familiar. Seems to me the researchers don’t know how to read their own results.
Those who sit on high, quarterback from a distance and solemnly proclaim that the education system needs to be reinvented (by them of course) really have no clue what the purpose of spending time with teachers is.
It’s learning, stupid, it’s all about learning.
Teachers get it. Students get it. Parents get it. Pundits, politicians and academics don’t get it.
So, where is the problem? What exactly needs to be reinvented?
Organizations such as Essential Schools, Edutopia, Brown University, Edison, KIPP and a host of local Charter Schools (each addressing the learning needs of their unique audience – one size does not fit all and the need is never static) are doing it. Individual teachers with economic and/or political clout to defend themselves and their kids from the system are doing it.
The only thing getting in the way of “learning” is that bloated and bombastic administrative and political class of self appointed experts.
Want learning to happen – get rid of the real overhead – Immediately, if not sooner.
Just stand outside an elementary school and watch the joy and enthusiasm of the third grade and under kids – as they leave the building.
Then watch the same activity at the middle and secondary levels. The drones departing secondary seeking engagement of any kind tells the whole story. And don’t “knee-jerk” blame it on the kids or the teachers.
Why do we allow that to happen to our kids?
It’s the system created and policed by the pundits, politicians and academics that is the problem. They don’t get it. They cannot get it because they literally cannot see the problem, but Pogo did, a cartoon character no less.
The lead role in improvement belongs to the teachers, local building staff and parents/community. All others must follow their lead and provide support.
What is so damn hard about that?
Chuck,
First of all, I am not an educator or part of the education system. But I am a product of public education and a public university. I am now retired as an executive that spent 35 years in the Aerospace and Defense business with a global corporation. I have also served on public school boards, college boards and one of the Regional Accredation Boards as a member of the Executive Committee.
Let me say that I agree with most of what you have said. It is all about learning not teaching. Yet the culture focuses on teaching and not the various ways in which students and all of us learn.
I also agree on the solution in improvement being teachers, local building staff, and parents/community. You also need imputs from business and community leaders on what skills are needed for the future (not the past). You also need outside organizations which show how learning can be fun such as Junior Achievement, FIRST Robotics, Science Olympiads, internships with various community and business groups, and mentors.
Finally I would add 2 other groups that “stand in their way”. These are unions such as the MEA and Federal and State Educational Bureaucracies (like the Dept of Education). How did kids learn before that federal organization (very well locally)? Unions have unintended consequences, just look at the history of the Big 3 auto companies, airlines, US Steel, government unions, professional athletics, and so on. Are the unions saving the millions of jobs lost, pensions lost, etc. It is not just their fault but they played a major leadership role.
Chuck makes “the” good point. Teaching involves the teachers, parents, and students. All administrators, consultants, “think-tank”ers should only exist to support them. Sadly, this core group is the last to be consulted as other forms of “professionals” seek to dominate and extract resources from the system. In the information age, consolidating administrative tasks and re-visiting legislative mandates should provide the most effective cost-savings. School boards need to be more effective, in conjunction with local governments.