Education in the USA

Podcast for today

Also now on iTunes: rdavidadams

Every once in a while education comes forward to be talking point. I was watching the TV the other day and I heard someone talking about getting rid of the Education department at the Federal level. That got me to thinking.

Across the country, state by state we are spending more and more money and getting less and less! The overall grades of our students are falling, yet the cost keeps going up!

How much money are we spending? The National Center for Education Statistics reports average per-student cost was $8,310 in 2003-04 school. Ranging from $13,338 in New Jersey to $4,991 in Utah. That works out to about 500 billion for the country as a whole and almost 5% of the GDP. These are numbers from '03 to '04.

What all do we get for this "Bargain" 25% or more of 8th graders are below the basics in reading, based on information fro the NAEP exam for 2005. They basically don't understand what they can read. They don't know how to interpret what they read. 20% scored below basic in math. The department of Education says we graduate 75%.

So, like a good teacher lets review. For 500 million dollars or more each year we get pretty much a quarter of our students who cannot read and understand and do simple math. That's a 25% failure rate in my book.

So how did we get to this point anyway?

One hundred (remember that is Hund -red not hunnerd) years ago if you walked into a class room you would easily recognize it as the one you children see today. One teacher and 20 to 30 students, black or whiteboards, desks, books and other items around the room. Wanna know how to fail at a business? Simple just keep using the seven words of business failure. "That's the way we have always done it" Almost everything else in the world has changed but not education.

Having taught Sunday School and taught in a Broadcast school as well as filling in as licensed preacher, one thing I noticed right away is people don't all learn the same way! This might not be news to you but it was to me because I never thought about it until I had to do it! Some learn by reading in the book, some by hearing the lecture, some by both, some learn visually some learn from combination of visual, hearing and the book. Some learn best with a group and some learn best on their own. So why do we teach our students all the same?

Bureaucrats! The only thing a bureaucracy can do,and not very well at that, is one thing at a time, therefore we teach everyone the same. That process makes it easier for the bureaucracy to regulate and deal with. OK! OK! I hear you hollering at me, yes over the years we have put in place some programs for those who are advanced and for those that fall behind. But if you look at the numbers they are a very small minority. We teach the all majority the same way.

So whats the solution?

I have some Ideas, but first and foremost is not doing what we are doing now. My idea would be to get rid of the Department of Education and turn the running of the schools back to the states. (This is not a new idea just one that has not been tried) This then puts education in the same boat as any business is in. Different states, different laws different outcomes. If a state wants a better outcome it does not have to wait for the slow arm of the Federal government to come to the rescue. It can act. Try ideas, if they work, great and if not try something else. We need innovation and that never comes from a bureaucracy!

Outlaw teachers unions and or associations that do not allow individual Teachers to negotiate on their own, and get rid of tenure. Test the teachers, and if they fail get them training, if they still fail, move out the door. Why would we want people teaching our children if they don't know anything? The teaching process is supposed to mold our children into adults with the tools to join in the work force. If they are not taught how can they work, if they cannot work how can they lead?

Get the teachers pay up to match the private sector. We want the best not the rest when it comes to teachers. Why not pay them well for a good job? The private sector will be employing the students anyway! ( yes I know some students will take the easy road and go work for the government, but would it not be nice if they knew something too?)

Innovation in the classroom. Get computers in there, teach the teachers how to teach using all our senses, visual, hearing, touching etc. that way you have a much bigger chance of reaching all the students in the class. Let students work at their own pace. If you get some that are always ahead plan to give them more and challenging things to learn and study in their grade level. For students struggling, this is where the teach really earns their keep! With more time to give to one on one tutoring, a student having problems gets the help they need, or finding programs for those that just are not capable of doing standard work. Combine elementary courses together. In the real world we use reading, writing and math usually all at the same time. We don't stop, pull out a bunch of other items to do math and then another switch to read etc.

Make the day longer for 5th grade on up. Increase the class time an hour a day. Then get the school year to Run from After Labor day to before Memorial day. All the teacher conventions and workshops can be done in the summer time. Make teaching a year round full time job, if we get the pay up, teachers will not have to find work for the summer and have three months to innovate for the coming year as well as keeping up their certifications.

I am sure there are more and far better ideas out there but we need to give the teachers the incentive, the motivation and most of all the ability to innovate. If we don't, soon we will have to get the Chinese to do all our daily work!

Will it work? What we have now is not working.

In the world according to a PISA 2003 study, in Math we rank 28 out of 41 countries! Reading 18 out of 41, Science 22 out of 41 and problem solving 29 out of 41.

I don't think that has gotten any better over the last 6 years. Unicef compared public education in 24 nations in 2002. Forty years earlier America had the highest Graduation rate, in 2002 it ranked 19th! Good job huh? How long do we go on before someone actually steps forward and starts to pose solutions.