Tuesday, March 01, 2005
NCLB, High School, and the Governor's Conference
The official site of this weekend's governor's conference has a lot of material about the plans to expand NCLB more fully to the high school level.
In one of the reports, "getting it done: ten steps to a state action agenda," the NGA identifies steps that govenors can take "to quickly put states on the path to redesign their high schools." There is a call for system-wide reform with the hope that "Redesigning the American High School" becomes a national reality. Let's take a closer look at these ten steps:
The actual report has more details about each item.
It's hard to know where to start. First, many of the ideas are already in place and some are working and some aren't.
It is obviously taking local control away from the schools - which only costs more money and means the local community becomes even more disconnected from their schools if they do not feel like they have any control.
Getting businesses involved is a good idea - especially if there are financial rewards to go with it that support student access to higher education - meaning beyond high school - in any form. Improving college awareness is good but I'm not sure of the best way to do that. I teach at a school where more than a handful of students are the first in their family to graduate college or even attend college. We're the heart of a community of 17,000 and I don't know how students aren't "aware" - especially when you start surveying how many area high school students come to parties associated with our campus.
More testing seems very unrealistic - some schools are already spending two months EACH YEAR specifically dedicated to testing - and that's two months not learning.
Too much of the burden still all falls back on teachers - and I don't see that their input was solicited for this report.
What's the most important thing missing from this report? PARENTS
Even well-intentioned parents value high grades over learning if it impacts which college their children might attend. Many parents do not want any homework to show up on their doorstep. And you're never going to convince colleges to bar those who don't want to work. Our university allows students to drop courses into the 11th week of courses with no actual letter grade (only a W and then later a WP or WF) so there's no real responsibility here since a student can simply decide I don't want that bad grade and I'll drop. That can't be an efficient system.
It will be interesting to see how all of this works. Is it just a series of recommendations or will some of it actually happen. Is it just politics where the governors are trying to wrest some control of their school districts back from Washington, DC?
In one of the reports, "getting it done: ten steps to a state action agenda," the NGA identifies steps that govenors can take "to quickly put states on the path to redesign their high schools." There is a call for system-wide reform with the hope that "Redesigning the American High School" becomes a national reality. Let's take a closer look at these ten steps:
1. Create a permanent Educaiton Roundatble or Commission to foster coordination between early childhood, K-12 and higher education.
2. Define a rigorous college and work preparatory curriculum for high school graduation.
3. Challenge business, education, parent, community, and faith-based organizations to support initiatives that improve college awareness.
4. Give college and work-readiness assessments in high school.
5. Create statewide common course agreements so that college-level work in high school counts toward a postsecondary credential.
6. Provide financial incentives for disadvantaged students to take rigorous AP exams and college-prepatory and college-level courses.
7. Expand college-level learning opportunities in high school to minorites, English language learners, low-income studnest and youth with disabilities.
8. Help get low-performing students back on track by designing literacy and math recovery programs.
9. Develop and fund supports to help students pass the high school exit exam.
10. Develop statewide pathways to industry certification.
The actual report has more details about each item.
It's hard to know where to start. First, many of the ideas are already in place and some are working and some aren't.
It is obviously taking local control away from the schools - which only costs more money and means the local community becomes even more disconnected from their schools if they do not feel like they have any control.
Getting businesses involved is a good idea - especially if there are financial rewards to go with it that support student access to higher education - meaning beyond high school - in any form. Improving college awareness is good but I'm not sure of the best way to do that. I teach at a school where more than a handful of students are the first in their family to graduate college or even attend college. We're the heart of a community of 17,000 and I don't know how students aren't "aware" - especially when you start surveying how many area high school students come to parties associated with our campus.
More testing seems very unrealistic - some schools are already spending two months EACH YEAR specifically dedicated to testing - and that's two months not learning.
Too much of the burden still all falls back on teachers - and I don't see that their input was solicited for this report.
What's the most important thing missing from this report? PARENTS
Even well-intentioned parents value high grades over learning if it impacts which college their children might attend. Many parents do not want any homework to show up on their doorstep. And you're never going to convince colleges to bar those who don't want to work. Our university allows students to drop courses into the 11th week of courses with no actual letter grade (only a W and then later a WP or WF) so there's no real responsibility here since a student can simply decide I don't want that bad grade and I'll drop. That can't be an efficient system.
It will be interesting to see how all of this works. Is it just a series of recommendations or will some of it actually happen. Is it just politics where the governors are trying to wrest some control of their school districts back from Washington, DC?
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]