Here’s a presentation produced by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts asking us to think about the way we structure our schools and the education process. There are many such short videos on the RSA website broaching many topics. I selected this one, of course, because of its focus on education. You can see more videos by RSA on the RSA video pages. I encourage you to explore this interesting website.
Browsing Posts tagged education criticism
NOTE: This is part 2 of a 2 part series which starts here.
The students & their culture
When making international comparisons one is rarely comparing like populations. Sometimes this problem is in the testing procedures, as pointed out in a previous post, “No such thing as high school comparisons with TIMSS.” Yet, even when the playing field is thought to be even, other factors do affect outcome.
In Finland there is very little immigration [1], and so most of the population speaks the language of their teachers. In the United States, land of diversity, where people from all over the world have flocked for a better opportunity, or flee oppressive situations, 20% (1 out of 5) people speak a language other than English at home [2]. Between 1994 and 2004 limited English proficient students increased by 65% [3]. This means that American schools have seen a sharp increase in students that have to overcome the challenge of learning in a language other than their own.
Finland does very well on international comparison tests. In fact, it often occupies the number one spot on test score reports, while the United States usually sits a few points below, or just above, the average for developed nations. On the surface, such facts can cause patriots and politicians to lament the sorry state of the United States’ education system while the media leads their news stories with predictions of doom for our beloved nation if we don’t do something about this travesty. Business, of course, uses its standard battle-cry about our students not being able to compete well in a world market.
Indeed, if we do nothing but compare international test scores, things do look bleak for us.
Before passing final judgement on our education system as failed, let us look at the Finnish system a little closer. Hundreds of delegates from all over the world have made trips to Finland to discover the secrets behind an education system that can constantly out-perform most other countries on international tests. What are they finding? In what ways is Finland’s system noticeably different than that of the United States? Perhaps the answers to these questions can help us improve our scores. continue reading…
For those who are not aware, the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is an international test which provokes many people to get bent out of shape when they see the American results compared to other countries. Politicians and anti-public school groups, as well as sincere reformers, jump on these numbers as proof our schools continue to fail our children.
I ask that, rather than blindly accepting the numbers of TIMSS as an equal comparison, Americans look at the students who are generating the test scores. The first question to ask is not, “Are American scores comparable or better than our fellow nations?” Instead, everyone should be asking, “Are we comparing like populations?”
The sort answer is: no.
The long answer lies below. continue reading…
This weblog entry is part of a continuing paragraph by paragraph critique of Jay Greene’s essay about myths in education.
The introduction is here.
As stated in the introduction of this series, I wrote the critique of “Education Myths” a few years back. I resurrected these articles before moving on to newer material because they cover a lot of educational issues that are still important and relevant today. The original “Education Myths” series ended with this final post (which you can read below), but I had intended on continuing the paragraph by paragraph analysis of Greene’s work this summer. I changed my mine.
I’m going to leave the original post as it was written. The issues Greene speaks of will pop up soon enough as they are hot topics (private schools and vouchers). It is time, I think, to move on to other fodder for my critiques.
Original post:
I am being forced to decide where I can find more time in the day. As a good friend of mine says, “What’s your problem? What are you doing between midnight and 5 AM?” Unfortunately, I confess, lately, I am not always sleeping. According to Greene, I should have lots of time to finish my critique of his pathetically supported statements, but fact is stronger than fiction when you are confronted with the reality of running a classroom. It’s time to cut some of the demands of my time, and this self-appointed attempt at exposing Greene is just one of them.
When I sat down to analyze Greene’s next myth, “The rich school myth,” the first sentence was misleading and typical of his style. “A popular myth says that private schools do better than public schools only because they have more money, recruit high-performing students, and expel low-performing students.” The statement, “private schools do better than public schools,” itself is a myth when like-student comparisons are made. [1] Also, he continues to oversimplify the arguments, and produce misleading information as he continues his crusade against public schools. There is also plenty of evidence which debunks his claims made in the final myth that voucher schools work better than public schools. [2]
Proving the next 2 myths to be just as hollow and unsupported as the previous 4 will take many hours of pouring through legitimate and relevant research to find the strongest arguments against Greene. These are hours I no longer have available. School has started.
Like so many of my colleagues, I find myself having to prioritize and this critique has fallen to the bottom of my list. I just can’t spend any more time knocking over Greene’s strawmen at the expense of more important things. Greene is just not worth it. If I felt he was honorable, or engaging in a sincere attempt at looking at these issues in a balanced way, perhaps it would be worth the time. But, as you have seen in my previous posts, it is hard to believe he is doing anything but creating propaganda for his cause.
I could be accused of the same fault, but if you check my sources and his sources carefully, spending the time to read the arguments, you will find that my evidence outweighs his. So, I leave the next two myths unchallenged. Perhaps, when my life has slowed, I will finish this just for a sense of closure, but probably not. Greene is not convincing the people closest to schools – educators, parents, community volunteers – because his claims just don’t ring true when confronted with reality.
Notes and References:
- Welner, Kevin and Christopher Lubienski. 2006. “Major flaws found in Harvard analysis of government sponsored public, private school research.” Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU),Education Policy Studies Laboratory, Arizona State University. Note: This article is no longer on the web.
- You can find useful information here about vouchers. Staff. Fact sheets: The truth about vouchers. People for the American Way, website. Another helpful document: “School Vouchers: Myths and Facts,” Staff, American Federation of Teachers, website, pdf file.
