Monday, July 23, 2012

NCLB: How are we doing?

Today I'm going to comment on the hard decisions again.

But what are schools struggling with? What goals are they trying to reach?

In short all publicly funded schools are trying to meet the standards of No Child Left Behind.  Likely you're asking yourself "Who doesn't know what NCLB is?" Well to be fair to everyone let's first look at what NCLB does.

I am going to go to the Education Week let this explain this to everyone. But I will touch on some of the big marks.

Schools must have annual testing.

Schools must meet academic progress.

Schools must post their results of testing and if they meet AYP (annual yearly progress) on a school report card.

Schools must have "highly qualified teachers."

Reading First which was developed to set up "scientific, researched-based" reading programs for K-3.

Schools are expected to have resources directed to them with poorer districts receiving funds first.


All of this sounds great. Honestly, these sound like excellent ideas and standards. It is no wonder why this was ushered in with bipartisan support.

Which makes the next part of this so confusing. Especially If you vaguely remember NCLB being passed and then watched the recent rounds of teacher bashing on television.

More than HALF of U.S. states have received waivers from being held to the standards of NCLB. Yes I said that correctly over half of the states have requested and received waivers to no longer be held to the requirements. But these waivers are only good for one year.

Now why would so many states want to opt out of the program? Well let's look at what schools are expected to achieve. The goal of NCLB was that 100 percent of students would be proficient in all subject areas by 2013-2014.

In high school alone that means that 100 percent of students graduate. Never mind that anyone who ever went to high school knows not everyone is going to make it. How many people can think of at least one person who left to go work full time? How many people can think of someone who got pregnant and dropped out? Or someone who just did not understand the material and needs that extra year to fully grasp it.

Also the standards to make AYP are also broken down in to subgroups, including economically disadvantaged students, students who are minorities, and students with disabilities.

While the purpose of NCLB was noble, there has been a very distinct result, and by no means is it a good one.

Report: Students say school is too easy

Not only have we created a system where half of the states admit they can not meet the requirements, but the students themselves tell us that school has become too easy.

We have lowered the bar so we can make an unreasonable AYP. The consequence is schools are not preparing students to be successful in post-secondary education and/or the work force.

So what are we to do?

That is a question that is going to make someone very unpopular in congress. Let's hope someone asks it soon and does more than have a photo op about it.

But the answer is so simple.
The answer is...
Let our teachers teach again. Put the power of education back in the hands of our states, back in the hands of individual school districts, and most importantly - back in the hands of our teachers. Hold teachers accountable for teaching, make tenure harder to get and harder to keep. But ultimately, let our teachers teach. And not just how to take a state mandated test. If we let our teachers teach, then we will once again start producing students who can read (and comprehend), can write, can problem solve and can think critically. Then our country, known for it's greatness, will stop being ranked so low in education on the global scale. Students will once again have a curiosity and thirst for learning. Hallways will be filled with intrinsic-motivated learners. Standards will still be met. And our education system can be truly effective once again.


Friday, July 6, 2012

So yesterdays blog was about the over-stimulation of students and how that creates difficulties with learning.

Today's' blog is about how art can be used to help train soldiers.

In particular a soldier's ability to pay attention to detail.

Yes that's right I said train soldiers using art.  What many people who have served recently and perchance some others will recognize S.A.L.U.T.E.

This is of course not the way we great each other for those who don't know but is in fact a reporting procedure for spotting suspicious or enemy activity.

S.A.L.U.T.E. stands for

Size- # of personal, # of vehicles, # of equipment
Activity- Deploying, Redeploying, Sustainment activities, Training, Defense.
Location- Coordinates, Airfield, Military Base, Terrain Association
Unit/Uniform- Company, Battalion, Brigade, Division / What type of uniforms do they have on?
Time- What time of day/night did you observe
Equipment. - Weapons, Vehicles, Aircraft, Types of Gear

This, of course, is a very nice military way of DESCRIBING things.

Allow me to illustrate for you.






What is this ?

Some of you right now answered that this is a pipe.

Some of you answered that this is a picture of a pipe

There is a distinct difference in the two answers.

A little history of this painting needs to be explained to help illuminate those differences. This painting was created by Belgian René Magritte at an age when art had focused so much on making something look as realistic as possible. So by stating that it is not a pipe in the text under the pipe, he is making a distinct separation that the viewer might have tripped past while viewing it.

It is not a pipe. It is an important distinction that by studying art you learn to take a step back and list out the the details in the image or sculpture.

How many times have you had to tell a troop, coworker or student to "Pay Attention to Details"? Details matter; details are the difference between life and death in the military and often they're the difference between doing something right or doing something over and over again. Often a student does not have a context for these details to come in to play.

Art provides that context. Take this painting for example.





Now answer a couple of questions.

1. What is the age of the painter when he created this message?
2. How many people are in the painting?
3. Why did he make this painting?




Ready for some answers?
1. If you look at the smaller painting that the apparent artist is holding onto, then you can determine the true age of the painter and it is much older then the apparent artist. The artist is using this as a means to show off his skills "turning back the clock".
2. Ten people are in the painting. Go ahead and count again. You may be having trouble seeing the person behind the beer glass or perhaps the person in the silver figure in front of the vase.
3. The reason why is shown through the flowers and the candle. What he has done is shown off the level of his skills as a painter. But as this is a Vanitas(look it up here) he has placed images of death. This is not because he is a morbid person, but because he is acknowledging his own mortality. The painter is saying to the viewer, "Act now; there is a time limit to my skills."

"Paying attention to the details." When I taught this lesson to high school students, more often than not, they could not count more than eight people. These are the people we are sending into the work-force or college and then we don't understand why they have trouble doing their work and/or drop-out after their first year.

 The ability to critically look at something and describe it is more than just something that a student needs in school or out looking for a job. If you look back up at S.A.L.U.T.E. you can see that each step is an exercise in paying attention to detail and describing a subject. Some of the steps are easy and are but some that a soldier needs to pay attention and distinguish aspects of uniforms, equipment, and/or weapons.

While the military is all about On the Job Training, on the battle field is not the time to start teaching an 18 year-old how to pay attention to details and how to search for visual clues. This is why the skills that art teaches us are so important, not only for our young people joining the workforce or are college bound, but perhaps especially for our young soldiers.