Tuesday, August 31, 2010
50 Blogs covering Homeschooling and Ed Tech
http://www.onlinecolleges.org/50-edtech-blogs-every-homeschooler-should-bookmark/
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Module 5
Found this site interesting: http://www.laurenpressley.com/projects/millennials/education.htm talks about bahaviorist, constructivist, cognitivist, and connectivism Called "Millennials in Education" from 2006
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Posted to Maragaret's Blog
Followed your link to the Mind Map web site. The purple makes the words harder to see at my age. I would suggest putting them in "BOLD" or going for a lighter color. Found a couple of typos: Board (bored), used on (one).
A question: why use the Smart Board only as a reward and a method of teaching when you state that you have an abundance of tools, resources and lessons?
A question: why use the Smart Board only as a reward and a method of teaching when you state that you have an abundance of tools, resources and lessons?
Connectivism Module 4 Assignment
Module 4
Assignment
Introduction
My contention as to whether Connectivism is or is not a learning theory will be based upon the belief that I do not find connections in Siemens’ theory that would support the idea that his explanations will lead to a learning theory.
Argument
• What are the essential criteria for something to be a learning theory?
Driscoll conceptualizes a Learning Theory as, “A set of constructs linking Results or changes in performance, Means-Hypothesized structures and processes responsible for learning, and Inputs-resources or experiences that trigger learning.” (Driscoll, 2005, p 1). She also believes that there is a process to theory building involving,
Making assumptions about the nature of knowledge and how one comes ‘to know’; asking questions from curiosity or discrepant events; conducting systematic observations; proposing explanations of observed events; deriving working hypotheses from proposed explanations; conducting research to test hypotheses; comparing results with hypotheses and initial theory; and revising theory and conducting additional research. (p. 5).
Therefore; a learning theory to Driscoll is, “A set of psychological concepts that are linked together while observing any changes in behavior against ideas thought of prior to the changes occurring.” (p. 9). In connection with this she states that a learning theory is comprised of three basic components:
The results: What are these changes in performance to be explained by the theory?
The means: What are the processes by which the results are brought about (including any hypothesized structures that these procedures are assumed to operate on)?
The inputs: What triggers the processes to occur? What are the resources or experiences that form the basis for learning? (p. 9).
Theory as defined by Johnson and Christensen (2008, p. 63), “An explanation or explanatory system that discusses how a phenomenon operates and why it operates as it does”, by making sense of the purpose of current knowledge through integration and summarization of the knowledge.
Trochim and Donnelly (2007, p. 241) defines grounded theory as, “Good research strategizes and reflects theories that one is investigating.” While hypothesizing specific theoretical expectations one should incorporate these into the design of the theory.
Connectivism, by Siemens (2004), is:
The integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs when nebulous environments of shifting elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.
Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the picture based on decisions made yesterday is also crucial.
From my perspective, Connectivism is trying to fill in the “blanks” of information not viable through behaviorism, constructivism, or cognitivism and thus making “connections” between how one learns then utilizes this information in learning new material, making it less a theory and more of an adoptive method of explaining the system of learning, similar to the workings of a computer: input, evaluation [this is where connectivism applies], and then output.
• What are the essential criteria for something to be an instructional theory?
Driscoll, using Reigeluth’s (1983) definition of instructional theory as identifying methods that will provide the conditions under which learning goals will most likely be attained. (Driscoll, 2005, p. 352).
Siemens (2006, p. 39), Connectivism is a “process of creating networks”, where information is not directly related to what one must learn about, but could be useful at some time in the future; those bits of information in the “shade, along continuums, and blurred boundaries” to create a new reality.
Saettler (2004, p. 346-347), describes Gagne` and Brigg’s Theory of Instruction as:
Major categories of human capabilities that are outcomes of learning being (1) verbal information, (2) intellectual skills, (3) cognitive strategies, (4) attitudes, and (5) motor skills. By proposing that each category requires a different set of conditions for effective learning, and assumed the information –processing model of learning and memory, with the system model being characterized by instruction designed for specific goals and objectives; the development of instruction employs diverse media; and pilot tryouts, materials revision, and field testing of materials constitute an integral part of the design process. In other words, instructions ‘a human undertaking whose purpose is to help people learn.’
The reason Connectivism does not meet the criteria for an instruction learning theory since it merely makes connections in the methods by which learners integrate and formalize their learning with extraneous bits of information.
• What are the differences between a learning theory and an instructional theory?
The differences between a learning theory and an instructional theory are:
A learning theory must answer the questions, “What are the results being observed that pertained to a change in learning from that which was first theorized? How does this change occur within the individual as theorized by the observer? What experiences or other basis can be identified as the factor(s) leading to the change in the learning situation?” Whereas, the instructional learning is a method(s) that are used by the student to take the information presented, interpreting the information, evaluating it against known information and then creating a new information database from which to work from.
Here, Siemens’ so-called theory fails to take into consideration that other learning theories are based upon rote memory based in psychology as opposed to his connectivism theory with memory initiated through usage of technological devices that merely links the blank spaces left by rote theories.
• What is connectivism?
Connectivism is an integration of principles of chaos, network, complexity and self-organization theories. Here, Siemens states these are a collection of theories from the start, not something that is original. Learning is a process that occurs when unformulated environments of shifting elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.
Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the picture based on decisions made yesterday is also crucial. Therefore, the theory is ever-changing whereas the other theories, based in psychology, are self-sustaining and never change, only the environment changes.
• Why does Siemens believe connectivism is a new learning theory for a digital age?
Siemens believes his theory of connectivism is a theory because it is the only explanation of learning that changes due to the usage of technology, whereas all other theories were based in psychological means using rote memory.
• Provide three sound reasons why connectivism could be a learning theory.
Not withstanding the reasons that I have included in my argument against connectivism being a learning theory, it could be stated, and disregarding the psychological aspects of other learning theories, that connectivism is a theory based upon the one source of definition that it is based upon the learning acquired through technological devices making it a one-of-a-kind theory.
Connectivism uses multiple methods of learning not inhibited like behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism to behaviors, thinking, and how one construct’s new learning from previously learned learning.
Connectivism does close in on the totality of learning that goes on within the mind of the learner to achieve the learning change required by city, state, and national criteria.
• Provide three sound reasons why connectivism might not be a learning theory.
Connectivism is trying to fill in the “blanks” of information not viable through behaviorism, constructivism, or cognitivism and thus making “connections” between how one learns then utilizes this information in learning new material, making it less a theory and more of an adoptive method of explaining the system of learning, similar to the workings of a computer: input, evaluation [this is where connectivism applies], and then output, from my viewpoint.
The reason Connectivism does not meet the criteria for an instruction learning theory since it merely makes connections in the methods by which learners integrate and formalize their learning with extraneous bits of information.
Siemens’ theory fails to take into consideration that other learning theories are based upon rote memory based in psychology as opposed to his connectivism theory with memory initiated through usage of technological devices that merely links the blank spaces left by rote theories.
Conclusion
Learning is not a concept that is easily defined due to the multitude of avenues in which a student can learn or is required to learn. Theories prior to Siemen were all psychologically-based whereas Siemens’ is not, merely technologically-based. Siemen, as far as I can determine from the readings and material available to me fails to uphold the definition of a theory and instructional theory by lacking a base of determination from which to work from other than technology. It does not qualify as an instructional theory being that it is a means to “connect” concepts to other concepts not enlarging the concept of learning for the learner directly, but indirectly plus the ability of being able to integrate information that does not necessarily apply to a given problem but can be used at some point under different conditions and environments.
Siemen, from connectivism.ca (2010, p. 7, para 3/7), states “content should be tied to objectives and learning profiles, if not, meaning is nothing if it does not develop the learner into gaining the ability to produce personal content rather than being forced-fed content from the instructor. In his terms teachers are the curators of information and students are the creators.” Siemens (2010, p. 23, para 7/9), “A community or group is defined by its connections – how people are connected to each other and to the world outside is provided through a shaping influence on possible connections we draw between concepts, information sources, world views, and other people.” According to Siemens when “connections begin to solidify, becoming dogma, that is rigid, they fail to represent information continuously evolving through a chaotic and shifting world outside.”
Siemens (2010, p. 25, para 1/3), “Connections are … fragmented information that is woven and remade through global social interactions. We don’t make sense of our complex world as individuals. We make dense through connections with these connections creating our identity helping us to gain a sense of belonging and humanity.”
Looking at the role of the teacher/instructor/professor, Siemen (2010, p. 27 para 2),
The teacher plays numerous roles in the traditional classrooms a role-model, encourager, supporter, guide, and synthesizer, but most importantly, a teacher offers discipline in selecting the textbook, determining and sequencing lectures and planning activities to offer coherence to the subject matter. But when a learner has control of the tools of conversation, they also control the conversation(s) in which they choose to engage.
Teachers, under Siemens, would be amplifiers (to Tweet or re-tweet), curators (knowledge keepers), wayfinding socially-driven sense-maker (finding the way through spacious amounts of information using technology such as Blogs using social systems as filters), aggregating (disregarding the usage of RSS feeds the collective ability of technology to determine how one can improve what is being done based upon past experiences), filtering (use of the first three concepts), modeling (teaching and demonstrating the using of apprenticeships whereas learning is practice and reflection of learned concepts), and persistent presence (presenting summary comments, synthesizes discussions, provides critical perspectives, and directs learner to resources they may not have previously encountered).
In conclusion, Siemens’ theory is not a theory but a means of inclusion that allows one to connect missing pieces of information to that of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism that is based solely on the use of technology and not a psychological explanation of events of procurement of information and behavioral changes that accompanies such change.
References
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. (Third Ed.). Pearson Education Inc. Boston
Johnson, B. and Christensen, L. (2008). Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches. (Third Ed.). Sage Publications Los Angeles
Saettler, P. (2004). The Evolution of American Educational Technology. Information Age Publishing Greenwich, CT
Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing Knowledge.
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Siemens, G. (210). Various Topics. Retrieved from http://www.connectivism.ca/
Trochim, M. K. and Donnelly, J. P. (2007). The Research Methods Knowledge Base. (Third Ed.). Thompson Custom Publishing Mason, OH
Assignment
Introduction
My contention as to whether Connectivism is or is not a learning theory will be based upon the belief that I do not find connections in Siemens’ theory that would support the idea that his explanations will lead to a learning theory.
Argument
• What are the essential criteria for something to be a learning theory?
Driscoll conceptualizes a Learning Theory as, “A set of constructs linking Results or changes in performance, Means-Hypothesized structures and processes responsible for learning, and Inputs-resources or experiences that trigger learning.” (Driscoll, 2005, p 1). She also believes that there is a process to theory building involving,
Making assumptions about the nature of knowledge and how one comes ‘to know’; asking questions from curiosity or discrepant events; conducting systematic observations; proposing explanations of observed events; deriving working hypotheses from proposed explanations; conducting research to test hypotheses; comparing results with hypotheses and initial theory; and revising theory and conducting additional research. (p. 5).
Therefore; a learning theory to Driscoll is, “A set of psychological concepts that are linked together while observing any changes in behavior against ideas thought of prior to the changes occurring.” (p. 9). In connection with this she states that a learning theory is comprised of three basic components:
The results: What are these changes in performance to be explained by the theory?
The means: What are the processes by which the results are brought about (including any hypothesized structures that these procedures are assumed to operate on)?
The inputs: What triggers the processes to occur? What are the resources or experiences that form the basis for learning? (p. 9).
Theory as defined by Johnson and Christensen (2008, p. 63), “An explanation or explanatory system that discusses how a phenomenon operates and why it operates as it does”, by making sense of the purpose of current knowledge through integration and summarization of the knowledge.
Trochim and Donnelly (2007, p. 241) defines grounded theory as, “Good research strategizes and reflects theories that one is investigating.” While hypothesizing specific theoretical expectations one should incorporate these into the design of the theory.
Connectivism, by Siemens (2004), is:
The integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs when nebulous environments of shifting elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.
Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the picture based on decisions made yesterday is also crucial.
From my perspective, Connectivism is trying to fill in the “blanks” of information not viable through behaviorism, constructivism, or cognitivism and thus making “connections” between how one learns then utilizes this information in learning new material, making it less a theory and more of an adoptive method of explaining the system of learning, similar to the workings of a computer: input, evaluation [this is where connectivism applies], and then output.
• What are the essential criteria for something to be an instructional theory?
Driscoll, using Reigeluth’s (1983) definition of instructional theory as identifying methods that will provide the conditions under which learning goals will most likely be attained. (Driscoll, 2005, p. 352).
Siemens (2006, p. 39), Connectivism is a “process of creating networks”, where information is not directly related to what one must learn about, but could be useful at some time in the future; those bits of information in the “shade, along continuums, and blurred boundaries” to create a new reality.
Saettler (2004, p. 346-347), describes Gagne` and Brigg’s Theory of Instruction as:
Major categories of human capabilities that are outcomes of learning being (1) verbal information, (2) intellectual skills, (3) cognitive strategies, (4) attitudes, and (5) motor skills. By proposing that each category requires a different set of conditions for effective learning, and assumed the information –processing model of learning and memory, with the system model being characterized by instruction designed for specific goals and objectives; the development of instruction employs diverse media; and pilot tryouts, materials revision, and field testing of materials constitute an integral part of the design process. In other words, instructions ‘a human undertaking whose purpose is to help people learn.’
The reason Connectivism does not meet the criteria for an instruction learning theory since it merely makes connections in the methods by which learners integrate and formalize their learning with extraneous bits of information.
• What are the differences between a learning theory and an instructional theory?
The differences between a learning theory and an instructional theory are:
A learning theory must answer the questions, “What are the results being observed that pertained to a change in learning from that which was first theorized? How does this change occur within the individual as theorized by the observer? What experiences or other basis can be identified as the factor(s) leading to the change in the learning situation?” Whereas, the instructional learning is a method(s) that are used by the student to take the information presented, interpreting the information, evaluating it against known information and then creating a new information database from which to work from.
Here, Siemens’ so-called theory fails to take into consideration that other learning theories are based upon rote memory based in psychology as opposed to his connectivism theory with memory initiated through usage of technological devices that merely links the blank spaces left by rote theories.
• What is connectivism?
Connectivism is an integration of principles of chaos, network, complexity and self-organization theories. Here, Siemens states these are a collection of theories from the start, not something that is original. Learning is a process that occurs when unformulated environments of shifting elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.
Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the picture based on decisions made yesterday is also crucial. Therefore, the theory is ever-changing whereas the other theories, based in psychology, are self-sustaining and never change, only the environment changes.
• Why does Siemens believe connectivism is a new learning theory for a digital age?
Siemens believes his theory of connectivism is a theory because it is the only explanation of learning that changes due to the usage of technology, whereas all other theories were based in psychological means using rote memory.
• Provide three sound reasons why connectivism could be a learning theory.
Not withstanding the reasons that I have included in my argument against connectivism being a learning theory, it could be stated, and disregarding the psychological aspects of other learning theories, that connectivism is a theory based upon the one source of definition that it is based upon the learning acquired through technological devices making it a one-of-a-kind theory.
Connectivism uses multiple methods of learning not inhibited like behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism to behaviors, thinking, and how one construct’s new learning from previously learned learning.
Connectivism does close in on the totality of learning that goes on within the mind of the learner to achieve the learning change required by city, state, and national criteria.
• Provide three sound reasons why connectivism might not be a learning theory.
Connectivism is trying to fill in the “blanks” of information not viable through behaviorism, constructivism, or cognitivism and thus making “connections” between how one learns then utilizes this information in learning new material, making it less a theory and more of an adoptive method of explaining the system of learning, similar to the workings of a computer: input, evaluation [this is where connectivism applies], and then output, from my viewpoint.
The reason Connectivism does not meet the criteria for an instruction learning theory since it merely makes connections in the methods by which learners integrate and formalize their learning with extraneous bits of information.
Siemens’ theory fails to take into consideration that other learning theories are based upon rote memory based in psychology as opposed to his connectivism theory with memory initiated through usage of technological devices that merely links the blank spaces left by rote theories.
Conclusion
Learning is not a concept that is easily defined due to the multitude of avenues in which a student can learn or is required to learn. Theories prior to Siemen were all psychologically-based whereas Siemens’ is not, merely technologically-based. Siemen, as far as I can determine from the readings and material available to me fails to uphold the definition of a theory and instructional theory by lacking a base of determination from which to work from other than technology. It does not qualify as an instructional theory being that it is a means to “connect” concepts to other concepts not enlarging the concept of learning for the learner directly, but indirectly plus the ability of being able to integrate information that does not necessarily apply to a given problem but can be used at some point under different conditions and environments.
Siemen, from connectivism.ca (2010, p. 7, para 3/7), states “content should be tied to objectives and learning profiles, if not, meaning is nothing if it does not develop the learner into gaining the ability to produce personal content rather than being forced-fed content from the instructor. In his terms teachers are the curators of information and students are the creators.” Siemens (2010, p. 23, para 7/9), “A community or group is defined by its connections – how people are connected to each other and to the world outside is provided through a shaping influence on possible connections we draw between concepts, information sources, world views, and other people.” According to Siemens when “connections begin to solidify, becoming dogma, that is rigid, they fail to represent information continuously evolving through a chaotic and shifting world outside.”
Siemens (2010, p. 25, para 1/3), “Connections are … fragmented information that is woven and remade through global social interactions. We don’t make sense of our complex world as individuals. We make dense through connections with these connections creating our identity helping us to gain a sense of belonging and humanity.”
Looking at the role of the teacher/instructor/professor, Siemen (2010, p. 27 para 2),
The teacher plays numerous roles in the traditional classrooms a role-model, encourager, supporter, guide, and synthesizer, but most importantly, a teacher offers discipline in selecting the textbook, determining and sequencing lectures and planning activities to offer coherence to the subject matter. But when a learner has control of the tools of conversation, they also control the conversation(s) in which they choose to engage.
Teachers, under Siemens, would be amplifiers (to Tweet or re-tweet), curators (knowledge keepers), wayfinding socially-driven sense-maker (finding the way through spacious amounts of information using technology such as Blogs using social systems as filters), aggregating (disregarding the usage of RSS feeds the collective ability of technology to determine how one can improve what is being done based upon past experiences), filtering (use of the first three concepts), modeling (teaching and demonstrating the using of apprenticeships whereas learning is practice and reflection of learned concepts), and persistent presence (presenting summary comments, synthesizes discussions, provides critical perspectives, and directs learner to resources they may not have previously encountered).
In conclusion, Siemens’ theory is not a theory but a means of inclusion that allows one to connect missing pieces of information to that of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism that is based solely on the use of technology and not a psychological explanation of events of procurement of information and behavioral changes that accompanies such change.
References
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. (Third Ed.). Pearson Education Inc. Boston
Johnson, B. and Christensen, L. (2008). Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches. (Third Ed.). Sage Publications Los Angeles
Saettler, P. (2004). The Evolution of American Educational Technology. Information Age Publishing Greenwich, CT
Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing Knowledge.
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Siemens, G. (210). Various Topics. Retrieved from http://www.connectivism.ca/
Trochim, M. K. and Donnelly, J. P. (2007). The Research Methods Knowledge Base. (Third Ed.). Thompson Custom Publishing Mason, OH
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Connectivism
In Module 4 for this week, I wrote: What we are discussing here refers more to the way that Connectivism is relabeling concepts instituted in the Social constructivism. Another concept, taking the economic view of Toffler, and utilizing it as a key to changing the learning with technology of Toffler’s Third Age or rather connecting the two concepts as closely as possible to make it more feasible to the educational intellectual. Since Toffler’s three ages deal mainly with economics and how all other areas of a person’s life relates to that age and the change in the economics. But, yes, there are relevancies that exist with connectivism. Siemens talks of Chaos theory as it relates to education and technology usage. Chaos, per Siemens, is the breakdown of being predictable as evidenced in “complicated arrangements that initially defy order.”(2004, p. 3).
“Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations.”(Siemens, 2004, p. 2).
Do people learn differently? No, it is just being expanded upon from the constructivists and given a new term of knowledge learning. The connectivists are trying to interpret what is going on in the learner’s head as it relates to behavioral changes in knowledge gathering.
How should the role of the educator change to aid learners develop connections? What connections do learners need? Siemens believes, “learning and knowledge rests in diversity”, meaning teachers should not be limiting discussions to what the teacher believes, but should include all opinions, within reason. (p. 4). Learning may be found, according to Siemens, outside the student and in the available technologies. For instance, the use of computers, net pads, phones, etc. (p. 4). “Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate learning.” (p.4). Siemen believes, “the ability to see connections between concepts, facts, and ideas is a core skill.” (p. 4). This provides the teacher with more creativity that needs to be utilized to encourage students to think, “Outside the box” at how different concepts relate to one another.
“Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations.”(Siemens, 2004, p. 2).
Do people learn differently? No, it is just being expanded upon from the constructivists and given a new term of knowledge learning. The connectivists are trying to interpret what is going on in the learner’s head as it relates to behavioral changes in knowledge gathering.
How should the role of the educator change to aid learners develop connections? What connections do learners need? Siemens believes, “learning and knowledge rests in diversity”, meaning teachers should not be limiting discussions to what the teacher believes, but should include all opinions, within reason. (p. 4). Learning may be found, according to Siemens, outside the student and in the available technologies. For instance, the use of computers, net pads, phones, etc. (p. 4). “Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate learning.” (p.4). Siemen believes, “the ability to see connections between concepts, facts, and ideas is a core skill.” (p. 4). This provides the teacher with more creativity that needs to be utilized to encourage students to think, “Outside the box” at how different concepts relate to one another.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Module 3: Constructivist and Learning
A constructivist learning theory definition - "a learning theory that claims indiivduals actively construct new knowledge from their experience rather than acquiring knowledge from outside to within the learner."
"Knowledge is individually constructed through interactions with the environment and others (cognitive) and is co-constructed through interactions with others (social)." Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/constructivism512/Home/definitions-and-theorists
Piaget's area of research was development of mathematical and logical concepts using the principles of:
1. "Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of cognitive development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitatated by providing activities or situations that engage leaners and require adaption, assimilations, and accomodations.
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of a given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks that are beyond their current cognitive capabilities.
4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges."
Vygotsky's area of research was the content of language learning in children using the principles of:
1. "Cognitive development is limited to a certain range at any given age.
2. Full cognitive development requires social interaction."
Bruner's reasearch dealt with "child development research amd originated from a conference focused on science and math learning." Bruner used the principles:
1. Instruction must be concerned with experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness).
2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organizations).
3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given)."
Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/constructivism512/Home/definitions-and-theorists
This split in the constructivist ideaolgies; one social and the other individual cognitive, provides skepticism as to either method being a viable teaching method. Is learning a social event or an individually constructed nature as experienced by the individual student? Is learning "an individual's reaction to the experience and to the process through which understandings are formed or an interaction with others; knowledge is seen entirely as a negatiated human construct?" Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/constructivism512/Home/definitions-and-theorists
Significant principles for Constructivist
1. "Learning is an active process
2. Students learn to learn as they learn
3. The crucial action of constructing meaning is mental; it happens in the mind
4. Learning involves language
5. Learing is a social activity
6. Learning is contexual
7. One needs knowledge to learn
8. It takes time to learn
9. Motivation is a key factor in learning."
Retrieved from http://explanatorium.edu/IFI/resources/constructivistlearning.html
Gagne was a behavioral constructivist following Skinner principles but maintaining the cognitive perspective learning was an individual effort to construct their own knoweledge. Bandura integrates various perspectives on learning who compliments Vygotsky. WHile Seymour Papert used technology in his consctruvist views from Piaget. Retrieved from http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_leverduffy_teachtech_2/23/6126/1568334.cw/index.html
Gardner, on the other hand, dealt primarily with "intelligences: - verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, body-kinsethetic, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal" Retrieved from http://www.informallearning.com/archive/1999-0304-a.htm
"Knowledge is individually constructed through interactions with the environment and others (cognitive) and is co-constructed through interactions with others (social)." Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/constructivism512/Home/definitions-and-theorists
Piaget's area of research was development of mathematical and logical concepts using the principles of:
1. "Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of cognitive development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitatated by providing activities or situations that engage leaners and require adaption, assimilations, and accomodations.
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of a given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks that are beyond their current cognitive capabilities.
4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges."
Vygotsky's area of research was the content of language learning in children using the principles of:
1. "Cognitive development is limited to a certain range at any given age.
2. Full cognitive development requires social interaction."
Bruner's reasearch dealt with "child development research amd originated from a conference focused on science and math learning." Bruner used the principles:
1. Instruction must be concerned with experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness).
2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organizations).
3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given)."
Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/constructivism512/Home/definitions-and-theorists
This split in the constructivist ideaolgies; one social and the other individual cognitive, provides skepticism as to either method being a viable teaching method. Is learning a social event or an individually constructed nature as experienced by the individual student? Is learning "an individual's reaction to the experience and to the process through which understandings are formed or an interaction with others; knowledge is seen entirely as a negatiated human construct?" Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/constructivism512/Home/definitions-and-theorists
Significant principles for Constructivist
1. "Learning is an active process
2. Students learn to learn as they learn
3. The crucial action of constructing meaning is mental; it happens in the mind
4. Learning involves language
5. Learing is a social activity
6. Learning is contexual
7. One needs knowledge to learn
8. It takes time to learn
9. Motivation is a key factor in learning."
Retrieved from http://explanatorium.edu/IFI/resources/constructivistlearning.html
Gagne was a behavioral constructivist following Skinner principles but maintaining the cognitive perspective learning was an individual effort to construct their own knoweledge. Bandura integrates various perspectives on learning who compliments Vygotsky. WHile Seymour Papert used technology in his consctruvist views from Piaget. Retrieved from http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_leverduffy_teachtech_2/23/6126/1568334.cw/index.html
Gardner, on the other hand, dealt primarily with "intelligences: - verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, body-kinsethetic, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal" Retrieved from http://www.informallearning.com/archive/1999-0304-a.htm
Monday, July 12, 2010
Rheingold’s video
Reflect on Rheingold’s video, and then respond to the following:
Do you believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group,” as Rheingold proposed in his discussion of the evolution of Wikipedia as a collectively developed encyclopedia? How can technology facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles?
Under the right situations, yes, groups of people will come together to create for the benefit of all. There are examples in TV shows, for example Stargate Universe. They (civilians and Military) have to work together in order to stay alive in space unknown light years from Earth in an alien spacecraft. Most horror movies have groups that have to work together to stay alive from some rampaging person or animals or some other unknown risk. Not everyone can be a Rambo or the actor that played a vigilante knocking off bad people.
According to the skills we are using in our classes under educational technology most, if not all the "tools" we are using can work to the benefit of collaboration over the Internet.
Rheingold's use of the wikipedia can be collaborative, but since most colleges will not allow the use of the wikipeadia as a source document, it sort of cancels out the usage value.
Do you believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group,” as Rheingold proposed in his discussion of the evolution of Wikipedia as a collectively developed encyclopedia? How can technology facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles?
Under the right situations, yes, groups of people will come together to create for the benefit of all. There are examples in TV shows, for example Stargate Universe. They (civilians and Military) have to work together in order to stay alive in space unknown light years from Earth in an alien spacecraft. Most horror movies have groups that have to work together to stay alive from some rampaging person or animals or some other unknown risk. Not everyone can be a Rambo or the actor that played a vigilante knocking off bad people.
According to the skills we are using in our classes under educational technology most, if not all the "tools" we are using can work to the benefit of collaboration over the Internet.
Rheingold's use of the wikipedia can be collaborative, but since most colleges will not allow the use of the wikipeadia as a source document, it sort of cancels out the usage value.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Margaret's Blog of Module 3
Just commented on Margaret's Module 3 Blog how I seemed to have grown up liking working alone over working in groups.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Postings in Module 3 to date
Posted a reply to Dr Wenzel concerning differences between Dewey and Vygotsky according to Leigh O'Brien in the Educational Researcher June/July 2002, Vol 31, No. 5.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Something outside the regular but still technology
http://www.globe-net.com/articles/2010/july/3/flying-car-cleared-for-takeoff-.aspx?id=5331
FAA Grants Terrafugia Extra Takeoff Weight to Accommodate Road Safety Features
GLOBE-Net, July 1, 2010 - A new roadworthy vehicle capable of deploying wings and taking off down the airport runway is one step closer to reality following a ruling by the US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) allow extra takeoff weight to accommodate motor vehicle safety rules.
Terrafugia, Inc., developer of the Transition Roadable Aircraft, or "Flying Car", has received an exemption from the FAA to allow the a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 1430 pounds (650 kg).
This additional weight accommodates the structure and equipment necessary for compliance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) which are not found in other Light Sport Aircraft. Items such as airbags, an energy absorbing crumple zone, and a protective safety cage will increase safety both on the road and in the air.
Exclusively applicable to the Transition, the FAA's grant of an additional 110 pounds will allow a competitive useful load while providing a revolutionary level of crash safety in a Light Sport Aircraft.
Richard Gersh, vice president of business development for Terrafugia, said the Transition not only had to meet aircraft standards but it also needed to include US vehicle safety features like airbags, crumple zones and a roll cage, which added the weight.
'Now with the additional weight it not only gives us the additional flexibility but also will likely increase our payload,' he said.
With its wing folded up, the two-seater Transition can travel at highway speeds on any road using its front-wheel drive. The vehicle achieves a 4x4 comparable 30 miles per gallon and runs on high-test automotive unleaded petrol. Once it has arrived at the airport and enters onto the tarmac, it can fold down its electrically powered wings, engage its rear-facing propeller and take off down the runway.
According to specs on the Terrafugia web site, the Transition has a 115mph cruising speed in the air, a range of 460 miles and it can carry 450lb (204kg). It needs approximately a 518m runway to take off and it can fit inside a standard garage.
The primary target market for the Transition, which can be pre-ordered for about $194,000, will be existing pilots who 'may or may not have their own plane and want the added capabilities a road capable aircraft would give them.
'It's lower cost because they can keep the vehicle at their home,' he said. 'They can transit to and from both their destination airport and arrival airport.
'The value proposition is that should the weather turn adverse you now have an alternative that virtually no other general aviation pilot has and that is you can land the plane at the closest airport and drive under the weather.'
By giving pilots a convenient ground transportation option, the Transition reduces the cost, inconvenience, and weather sensitivity of personal aviation. In addition to the enhanced protection afforded by applying automotive crash safety technology to light planes, the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of potentially flying into marginal conditions.
Classified as a Light Sport Aircraft, the Transition requires a Sport Pilot certificate to fly and is designed to drive on public highways.. A light sport aircraft license requires only 20 hours' flying time, which is much less than what is required to fly larger airplanes.
Terrafugia successfully completed flight and drive testing of its Proof of Concept Transition in 2009. Refundable airframe reservations are being accepted with first delivery scheduled for late 2011. The company has taken 70 orders for the car.
Computer graphics of the production prototype design will be unveiled at a press conference at 10:30 a.m. on July 26, 2010 at Terrafugia's exhibit at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI.
Terrafugia (terra-FOO-gee-ah), based in Woburn, MA, is comprised of a team of award-winning engineers who have been advancing the state of personal aircraft since 2006. Founded by five pilots who are graduates of MIT and supported by a world-class network of advisors and private investors, Terrafugia's mission is the innovative expansion of personal mobility. "Terrafugia" is Latin for "escape from land."
For more information Visit http://www.terrafugia.com
Source 2: www.theengineer.co.uk
FAA Grants Terrafugia Extra Takeoff Weight to Accommodate Road Safety Features
GLOBE-Net, July 1, 2010 - A new roadworthy vehicle capable of deploying wings and taking off down the airport runway is one step closer to reality following a ruling by the US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) allow extra takeoff weight to accommodate motor vehicle safety rules.
Terrafugia, Inc., developer of the Transition Roadable Aircraft, or "Flying Car", has received an exemption from the FAA to allow the a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 1430 pounds (650 kg).
This additional weight accommodates the structure and equipment necessary for compliance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) which are not found in other Light Sport Aircraft. Items such as airbags, an energy absorbing crumple zone, and a protective safety cage will increase safety both on the road and in the air.
Exclusively applicable to the Transition, the FAA's grant of an additional 110 pounds will allow a competitive useful load while providing a revolutionary level of crash safety in a Light Sport Aircraft.
Richard Gersh, vice president of business development for Terrafugia, said the Transition not only had to meet aircraft standards but it also needed to include US vehicle safety features like airbags, crumple zones and a roll cage, which added the weight.
'Now with the additional weight it not only gives us the additional flexibility but also will likely increase our payload,' he said.
With its wing folded up, the two-seater Transition can travel at highway speeds on any road using its front-wheel drive. The vehicle achieves a 4x4 comparable 30 miles per gallon and runs on high-test automotive unleaded petrol. Once it has arrived at the airport and enters onto the tarmac, it can fold down its electrically powered wings, engage its rear-facing propeller and take off down the runway.
According to specs on the Terrafugia web site, the Transition has a 115mph cruising speed in the air, a range of 460 miles and it can carry 450lb (204kg). It needs approximately a 518m runway to take off and it can fit inside a standard garage.
The primary target market for the Transition, which can be pre-ordered for about $194,000, will be existing pilots who 'may or may not have their own plane and want the added capabilities a road capable aircraft would give them.
'It's lower cost because they can keep the vehicle at their home,' he said. 'They can transit to and from both their destination airport and arrival airport.
'The value proposition is that should the weather turn adverse you now have an alternative that virtually no other general aviation pilot has and that is you can land the plane at the closest airport and drive under the weather.'
By giving pilots a convenient ground transportation option, the Transition reduces the cost, inconvenience, and weather sensitivity of personal aviation. In addition to the enhanced protection afforded by applying automotive crash safety technology to light planes, the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of potentially flying into marginal conditions.
Classified as a Light Sport Aircraft, the Transition requires a Sport Pilot certificate to fly and is designed to drive on public highways.. A light sport aircraft license requires only 20 hours' flying time, which is much less than what is required to fly larger airplanes.
Terrafugia successfully completed flight and drive testing of its Proof of Concept Transition in 2009. Refundable airframe reservations are being accepted with first delivery scheduled for late 2011. The company has taken 70 orders for the car.
Computer graphics of the production prototype design will be unveiled at a press conference at 10:30 a.m. on July 26, 2010 at Terrafugia's exhibit at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI.
Terrafugia (terra-FOO-gee-ah), based in Woburn, MA, is comprised of a team of award-winning engineers who have been advancing the state of personal aircraft since 2006. Founded by five pilots who are graduates of MIT and supported by a world-class network of advisors and private investors, Terrafugia's mission is the innovative expansion of personal mobility. "Terrafugia" is Latin for "escape from land."
For more information Visit http://www.terrafugia.com
Source 2: www.theengineer.co.uk
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Module 2 Posts and Replies
From my original posting for Module 2, I responded to Dr. Wenzel and Thomas.
Response to Amy
Toffler (2006) "Education remains locked behind in the classroom as it was back in the 70's, but through other parallel sources, education may move back to the home or other locations due to the spreading use of the Internet, WiFi, and cellular communications."
Toffler, A. and Toffler, H. (2006). Revolutionary Wealth. Alfred A. Knopf, publisher.
Response to Margaret
If the students "constructed" their own meaning that would come under constructivist theory?
Response to Dr Moller
Ill structured - Philosophy
Structured -hopefully, my project for Dr Pratt Chapter 7, APA Manual - GIGANTIC HA-HA-HA!
Response to Amy
Toffler (2006) "Education remains locked behind in the classroom as it was back in the 70's, but through other parallel sources, education may move back to the home or other locations due to the spreading use of the Internet, WiFi, and cellular communications."
Toffler, A. and Toffler, H. (2006). Revolutionary Wealth. Alfred A. Knopf, publisher.
Response to Margaret
If the students "constructed" their own meaning that would come under constructivist theory?
Response to Dr Moller
Ill structured - Philosophy
Structured -hopefully, my project for Dr Pratt Chapter 7, APA Manual - GIGANTIC HA-HA-HA!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Educating Students with Disabilities: Some (Not Me) Say It's Not Worth It
Educating Students with Disabilities: Some (Not Me) Say It's Not Worth It
posted by: Kristina Chew 20 hours ago
In the case of students with disabilities---autism like my son Charlie and with multiple disabilities---what ought to be the main focus? Is it academics or more functional areas like life skills and vocational training? Keep in mind that many of these students will not be attending college and may only be able to work in sheltered workplaces, and/or assisted by job coaches. Is that the way we should be thinking or are we undermining what these students might potentially learn by not 'rounding out' what they are taught to include lessons in literature, in social studies, science?
An Enormous Challenge
This question is highlighted in a June 19th New York Times article about the struggles of public schools to teach students with multiple, severe disabilities. The plight of 20-year-old Donovan Forde is highlighted: as a result of a traumatic brain injury that happened when he was only 5 months old, Donovan cannot walk or talk. Should he be learning subjects like science and English, the curricula very much adapted to accommodate his cognitive disabilities?
Donovan’s mother, Michelle Forde, likes his special education high school, Public School 79, the Horan School, in East Harlem, where she feels he is welcome and cared for. But she wishes his teachers would spend more time working on his practical challenges, like his self-abusive habit of hitting himself in the face so hard that he has to wear thick white cotton mitts most of the time, even when he sleeps.
Instead of having him work on basic academic goals, like identifying shapes and coins, she wishes he had physical therapy more than 30 minutes, twice a week, because it is generally the only time during the day he is taken out of his wheelchair, except when an aide takes him to the bathroom to change him.
Troubling Comments
A quick glance at some (thankfully not all of) the comments to the New York Times article suggests---more than unfortunately---that many people have a long way to go as far as understanding why all students have the right to a free and appropriate public education. Writes one reader in a comment that over 300 people 'recommended' (I didn't):
We are spending 5 to 10 times as much on students who will never be the backbone of society, never be able to consistently hold a job. Indeed, many will be shuffled off to expensive group-home settings. Many more will be wards of the State in other, less desirable ways. In our desire to do everything for everyone, state and federal politicians and lobbying interests have carved out special-niche mandates that significantly reduce our ability to serve those who will one day serve our country best.
Providing an education for students like Donovan and for Charlie is not a waste of resources. Far from it, it's a sign of the humanity of our society and---I know I sound idealistic here, but so be it---of what sets our society apart, that it's the law to educate students with disabilities.
My son Charlie can talk a little and he does not have any physical disabilities. As Charlie has gotten older, more and more of his learning has been what is called 'functional'; has been about teaching him 'skills' that involve 'self-care' and 'daily living' (teeth brushing, household chores) and that, it's hoped, might prepare him for some kind of job. He still receives speech therapy and occupational therapy, with the subject matter of both of these determined according to what might best help him in his day-to-day experiences, needs and interactions.
Charlie does not read; he's currently working on various sight words for places, things and the like. Since he was in preschool, teachers and therapists have been trying numerous methods and curricula to teach him the alphabet and reading. It was just a few years ago that Charlie mastered the alphabet (he is 13 years old). I still always feel the tug of hope: Maybe, maybe, and who knows but perhaps Charlie is able to read much more than he appears to, but just hasn't revealed this yet to us.
That is, Charlie is not being taught to read with a view towards reading books but to help him navigate the world a little better. And isn't that what reading is for, for many?
Still, I often feel a tug: Shouldn't we be challenging Charlie more? Have we 'given in'? Charlie is only 13 years old; isn't it too early to have 'narrowed' his education down to teaching him the skills for a job?
And then I feel exactly like Donovan's mother, who, as quoted in the New York Times, says ' “The only goal I had for him was when he was in the hospital after the accident, when the nurse told me he wasn’t going to live......He’s here, and he’s 20 years old. So he surpassed his goal. He’s alive.”'
Yes, Donovan is here and Charlie is here, as are so many students with disabilities and we need to make sure that they have access to the education that they need. I believe the onus is upon us all to keep finding new and different ways to teach students with so many different needs, to do all that we can to help them learn and grow and achieve their full potential.
It's the least that we can do.
posted by: Kristina Chew 20 hours ago
In the case of students with disabilities---autism like my son Charlie and with multiple disabilities---what ought to be the main focus? Is it academics or more functional areas like life skills and vocational training? Keep in mind that many of these students will not be attending college and may only be able to work in sheltered workplaces, and/or assisted by job coaches. Is that the way we should be thinking or are we undermining what these students might potentially learn by not 'rounding out' what they are taught to include lessons in literature, in social studies, science?
An Enormous Challenge
This question is highlighted in a June 19th New York Times article about the struggles of public schools to teach students with multiple, severe disabilities. The plight of 20-year-old Donovan Forde is highlighted: as a result of a traumatic brain injury that happened when he was only 5 months old, Donovan cannot walk or talk. Should he be learning subjects like science and English, the curricula very much adapted to accommodate his cognitive disabilities?
Donovan’s mother, Michelle Forde, likes his special education high school, Public School 79, the Horan School, in East Harlem, where she feels he is welcome and cared for. But she wishes his teachers would spend more time working on his practical challenges, like his self-abusive habit of hitting himself in the face so hard that he has to wear thick white cotton mitts most of the time, even when he sleeps.
Instead of having him work on basic academic goals, like identifying shapes and coins, she wishes he had physical therapy more than 30 minutes, twice a week, because it is generally the only time during the day he is taken out of his wheelchair, except when an aide takes him to the bathroom to change him.
Troubling Comments
A quick glance at some (thankfully not all of) the comments to the New York Times article suggests---more than unfortunately---that many people have a long way to go as far as understanding why all students have the right to a free and appropriate public education. Writes one reader in a comment that over 300 people 'recommended' (I didn't):
We are spending 5 to 10 times as much on students who will never be the backbone of society, never be able to consistently hold a job. Indeed, many will be shuffled off to expensive group-home settings. Many more will be wards of the State in other, less desirable ways. In our desire to do everything for everyone, state and federal politicians and lobbying interests have carved out special-niche mandates that significantly reduce our ability to serve those who will one day serve our country best.
Providing an education for students like Donovan and for Charlie is not a waste of resources. Far from it, it's a sign of the humanity of our society and---I know I sound idealistic here, but so be it---of what sets our society apart, that it's the law to educate students with disabilities.
My son Charlie can talk a little and he does not have any physical disabilities. As Charlie has gotten older, more and more of his learning has been what is called 'functional'; has been about teaching him 'skills' that involve 'self-care' and 'daily living' (teeth brushing, household chores) and that, it's hoped, might prepare him for some kind of job. He still receives speech therapy and occupational therapy, with the subject matter of both of these determined according to what might best help him in his day-to-day experiences, needs and interactions.
Charlie does not read; he's currently working on various sight words for places, things and the like. Since he was in preschool, teachers and therapists have been trying numerous methods and curricula to teach him the alphabet and reading. It was just a few years ago that Charlie mastered the alphabet (he is 13 years old). I still always feel the tug of hope: Maybe, maybe, and who knows but perhaps Charlie is able to read much more than he appears to, but just hasn't revealed this yet to us.
That is, Charlie is not being taught to read with a view towards reading books but to help him navigate the world a little better. And isn't that what reading is for, for many?
Still, I often feel a tug: Shouldn't we be challenging Charlie more? Have we 'given in'? Charlie is only 13 years old; isn't it too early to have 'narrowed' his education down to teaching him the skills for a job?
And then I feel exactly like Donovan's mother, who, as quoted in the New York Times, says ' “The only goal I had for him was when he was in the hospital after the accident, when the nurse told me he wasn’t going to live......He’s here, and he’s 20 years old. So he surpassed his goal. He’s alive.”'
Yes, Donovan is here and Charlie is here, as are so many students with disabilities and we need to make sure that they have access to the education that they need. I believe the onus is upon us all to keep finding new and different ways to teach students with so many different needs, to do all that we can to help them learn and grow and achieve their full potential.
It's the least that we can do.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Falling HS graduation Rates
U.S. Graduation Rates Still Falling
posted by: Ann Bibby 1 day ago
For the second year in a row, high school graduation rates fell in the United States, with just 68.8% of all students completing their education in four years. The numbers, based on 2007 graduation rates, were compiled by Editorial Projects in Education as part of their Diploma Count 2010 report.
Because the data predates the current recession, it’s hard to predict the impact the economic downturn on the rate of student dropouts today. However, growing numbers of children from impoverished homes do lower graduation rates, which means the recession is likely producing more dropouts than economically flush times.
Prior to 2006, graduation rates the U.S. enjoyed a decade long improvement in terms of rising rates and increased attention to the issue of dropouts.
The news wasn’t all bad.
Latino and black high school students posted modest gains in graduation rates.
Every day an average of 7,200 students drop out of school. That’s 13 million children leaving school every year without a proper education. Although some states keep track of those who will eventually earn a graduation equivalency diploma or G.E.D or who will re-enroll and finish high school a semester or two late, 13 million undereducated adults is not something an ailing economy can afford in an era where unskilled workers already have difficulties finding employment.
Graduation rates, though good indicators, are deceptive. Just as those students who return to school are not tracked, the rates also don’t differentiate between suburban, rural and urban schools. Nevada, for instance, posts an abysmal 41.8% graduation rate, but this is largely the result of the fact that it’s largest school district – Las Vegas – is a mecca for the families of children who have recently immigrated to the U.S., are not well-educated themselves and are very poor, which are three of the biggest factors that produce drop-outs. The Las Vegas school districts dropout numbers dwarf any progress the much smaller districts in the state might be making.
With the 2009-10 school year over, or nearly so, it’s hard to say that next year will be a better. Nearly 300,000 educator lay-offs being predicted and school districts like Kansas City and Detroit are shuttering buildings and cramming the remaining students into the ones they can still afford to keep open.
Are we witnessing the end of an era where public education is accessible? Were the last two years of increased dropout rates a fluke, a sign of the times or a harbinger of things to come?
Frank Pickens says
Jun 16, 2010 8:17 PM
You have to be interested in learning to learn. So many kids are more interested in Twiteering than even going to class, and hanging out with their little punk friends. It's about attitudes and young people have bad ones.
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James R Stewart Jr says
Jun 16, 2010 8:16 PM
Simple Solution: Turn Off All TV, and make everybody read Good Books !!!
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:34 PM
Michele C. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:17 PM
I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of this problem. There has to be a multi-factored blame - government for a lack of proper educational funding, schools who have to deal with more behavioral issues than ever before, parents who do not hold their children accountable for attending school, and students who only care about socializing.
Michele.......You hit the nail on the head bigtime.!!!!!!! And, in the end all will be socializing in a homeless camp!!
Plant & protect trees for life.................
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Michele C. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:17 PM
I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of this problem. There has to be a multi-factored blame - government for a lack of proper educational funding, schools who have to deal with more behavioral issues than ever before, parents who do not hold their children accountable for attending school, and students who only care about socializing.
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Marcheal G. says
Jun 16, 2010 5:48 PM
I will make sure not to drop out.
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 5:14 PM
Mariam Moncrieffe says
Jun 16, 2010 4:51 PM
@Gary Heck....Nice! Are we a tad bit racist?
Oh Mariam.......Just stop it, the race card game!! It is more or less official there are more minorities in this country right now than there are white. Three fourths of those minorities are Mexican & gee whizz that is because of all the millions of Mexican border hoppers!!! And, those Mexicans have the education of a mule at best......Mules are a hard working bunch but not very intelligent.
The race card game is best left to his honor Sharpton who by the way is far less intelligent than a mule & has no idea what work is!!
Plant & protect trees for life......................
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Mariam Moncrieffe says
Jun 16, 2010 4:51 PM
@Gary Heck....Nice! Are we a tad bit racist?
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Hugo Godinez says
Jun 16, 2010 4:36 PM
thanks for the article
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Barbara S. says
Jun 16, 2010 12:57 PM
I don't know how to explain the drop-out rates, and I haven't a clue how to suggest fixing it.
I grew up in a small, Indiana town where teachers, regardless of the class size, loved teaching and loved all of us, even the unruly ones. Most of us had at least one parent at home, waiting for us after school, and we were forced to our homework before dinner... No TV, no radio, no going out to play - just a little snack to get our energy levels up, and then it was homework until it was done. If necessary, because I had homework from several classes, dinner was delayed. If I didn't understand a problem, and couldn't solve it on my own, I could call the teacher who assigned it and she was always kind enough to explain it, and tell me what page to go back to, to help me resolve the issue.
My guardians were uneducated, and although they could read and write and do simple math, they were unable to help me with algebra and high math problems. This was NOT an unusual situation for many students in the 1950s and 1960s. While some parents had college degrees, many of them left school at 16 because they were needed for planting, harvesting, and to go to work to help support their families. So, all of them wanted their children to have at least a High School Diploma. And the ones who accelerated at learning, were given scholarships and worked part-time jobs to go on and get college degrees.
My guardians were more interested in marrying me off than seeing me go on to college.
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 12:53 PM
Jamie.......My comment is not racist. How else would I describe an asian? Is there another word/term for them or any other group one wants to specifically note? Also, I was more or less referring to where I live.......I do not get the news where you live & if the ramage you wrote of why wasn't it on the national news?
And, one does not hear all that much about asians student primarily because they usually have a very tight & strict family structure!! And, this structure is sorely lacking in the run of the mill families across all ethnic/racial lines therefore they adhere to learning as a rule more so than not.
Plant & protect trees for life.......................
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 12:47 PM
@Morgan G makes an excellent point. Schools are geared to teach to the high end of the middle with college being the goal. It also assumes that every child will be ready to learn certain subjects at the same time and master them within arbitrary time limits. So not not.
And we need to replace the idea that it is minorities or immigrants that is the issue. The issue is poverty. Families without means or opportunities are going to have a harder time following through with supporting their kids in school. It's a fact that color of skin has nothing to do with.
How do we then individualize public education or at least parts of it?
We have not had the conversation about what it is that the govt is truly responsible for teaching in our schools and what is extra and the responsibility of parents/larger community.
@Mary L echoes my early point - kids see that there are fewer opportunities and longer periods of dependency on parental income awaiting them. A recent study found that young adults are now in their late twenties or early 30's before they are "fully launched" with jobs, housing and venturing into rearing families of their own.
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Beverly C. says
Jun 16, 2010 12:32 PM
I taught high school for many years, in a school in which most of the students were minorities (65% of our students were African-American & 25% were Hispanic). -Our school offered all the necessary academic programs and electives, plus music, art, graphic arts, band, orchestra, woodworking, shop, etc. All students took phys ed, and our students played & competed in all varsity sports. We offered remedial reading & remedial math courses, plus teachers were encouraged to offer help to our students after school. -Unfortunately, our class sizes were too large (35-39 students per class), which keeps teachers from getting to know their students as well as they would like. -Parents' interest & support is a great help to the children & the teachers. Parents keeping in contact with the teachers helps to keep their children on the teachers' radar, in that (usually, & not by choice) when a teacher has so many students, the students he/she gets to know best are the very good students & those who are discipline problems. -Education needs to be a top priority of our gov't, our communities, teachers, parents, & to the students themselves. Students must be made to realize how important getting a good education is & will be to them as they enter and live their adult lives. A well-educated citizenry is a great asset to our nation & to the world community. Therefore, helping with the cost of obtaining a good education & offering incentives to students
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Gary Heck says
Jun 16, 2010 11:16 AM
The number of illegal immigrants and "minorities" is growing and the number of people graduating from high school is decreasing. Interesting. Does 2+2 still equal 4?
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Marilyn L. says
Jun 16, 2010 11:16 AM
A child needs the support of family and school teachers/administrators if they are going to get an education.
Not everyone is college material or wants to go to college but we give them no other choices. How about by the time they 16 years old and a junior in HS we give them, with their parents and counselors advice, a choice. Continue with academic HS education or go to a business, arts or trade school to finish up their HS eduction. Than extend HS two more years and those that have stayed will continue with preparding for college. Than to finish college with a BA, BS, would be an additional two years, which could also be given at Community Colleges. University would then be gear to those seeking Masters and Doctorates. I know we would have to change the requirments of HS teachers but so be it. We would also be opening jobs to skilled individuals to teach in the non-academic schools.
Just a thought.
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Laura S. says
Jun 16, 2010 11:08 AM
To graduate out of high school is very important. However, you should never be upset if for any reason, you do not graduate in the so-called four-year time limit. Regardless of how long it takes, getting that diploma late is better than giving up and not getting that diploma at all!
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Carol B. says
Jun 16, 2010 10:59 AM
This is a very serious long term problem. It has become much worse than it was. A new school system might help some, but better family support is badly needed as well.
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Jamie Clemons says
Jun 16, 2010 10:56 AM
That Asian statement could be considered racist. Of course they all have their problems too. "Why is it you very seldom ever hear of Asian teens/adults on the news for a crime." Sure I have heard of them causing crimes plenty of times. One went on a shooting rampage not that long ago in Wisconsin.
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Jamie Clemons says
Jun 16, 2010 10:52 AM
I can see how they might feel that graduation is not important if the only jobs left available are working at McD's
Jamie
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 10:29 AM
Why is it that asian children excel in all categories no matter what strata of society they come from/
Why is it you very seldom ever hear of asian teens/adults on the news for a crime/
Why is it you never hear of asians march, complain they are being denied of whatever?
Of all the above why is it you never hear of Native American indians on the news for crimes or marching for more education, housing or jobs?.........And, there are plenty of N/A living in pure poverty in the year 2010.
Just some simple basic questions that go to the heart of the educationa problems we are facing.
Plant & protect trees for life................
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Morgan G. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:46 AM
The fundamental concept of our educational system is flawed and cannot be redeemed. It assumes that children and young adults all learn the same things at the same rates and at the same ages. For maybe a third of the population this assumption works reasonably well. Another third never make it because they were never given the opportunity to learn things the way THEY needed to learn them.
But the final third is our biggest crime. We are wasting the talents of our brightest and best students because some boneheaded educational theorists think that they can only learn as quickly as the rest of the people their age. By the time they are in third grade or so the are hopelessly bored with the whole educational process, tune it out, and never achieve their full potential.
Radical change is needed. We must discard the entire concept of "schools" as we know them today, and substitute a process of "mass customization" in education. This is possible because of technology. One ten-year-old may be delving into basic nuclear physics, while another is still struggling with the equivalent of "See spot run." We must meet the needs of pupils at BOTH these ends of the spectrum, and in a way that keeps both engaged in the learning process, or we are failing in our responsibility to educate the next generation.
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Mary L. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:45 AM
This is an endemic problem. My teen age daughter asked the other day, "Why bother with a [high school] diploma when if I'm lucky I'll be flipping burgers at McDonald's the rest of my life?"
And she's been raised by two people who think education is the best idea yet.
In my opinion, in part we need to go back to some basics. Recess, kids knowing each other and being inculcated with protecting each other so school boards and parents aren't afraid of their children getting hurt and bullied.
After school tutoring with transportation home. Tutoring that's real not being handed work sheets while the teacher talks on the phone, leaves the class room for the duration or grades papers. Kids thrive on one on one attention.
Why do Head Start achievements fade by second grade? If additional help is available in first grade would that make a difference.
Don't change programs to the latest flavor and leave the last "latest greatest going to fix all the problems in the world program" before it's passed or failed.
Let teachers develop programs and encourage them with help as well.
Listen to all the information about some of the reasons for failure and make changes to the system that educates the educators.
Get the parents/guardians reinvolved. You won't get all of them but time and again exceptional teachers have at least one thing in common. They go to visit their students in their homes, early in the year. When parents know a teacher, like a teacher they're m
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Bee Hive Lady says
Jun 16, 2010 9:29 AM
The No Child Left Behind Law which relies on students scores on standardized tests to allot federal funding to schools has created a negative atmosphere in many schools. The teachers only teach the information needed to pass the standardized tests. School has become relentless drudgery to the students and teachers alike since all efforts are honed in to pass the tests. Huge numbers of talented and intelligent high school students drop out due to boredom, plain and simple. The best method to end drop outs would be for another law not anchored to the standardized tests, be passed into law as quickly as possible.
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Jose M. C. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:25 AM
Just watch the first part of the movie Idiocracy. It explains a lot.
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Hans V. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:13 AM
I am not surprised. Letting every poor, ignorant and many times even illiterate person into the country, doesn't really help the high school graduation rate, let alone going on to college.
Many times, not always, poorly educated parents produce poorly educated children. A lot of Asian kids on the other hand, perform continously way better and have higher graduation rates in high school and college. These graduates also perform better financially later in life than any other group
Pumping more money into the educational system doesn't seem to be the most important component of being able to succeed in life. Good parenting and making education a very important part of your child's life are probably more important.
In today's 21st century high tech society, there is little room left for 19th or 20th century people. That is, if you want to be part of the industrialized first world.
China for example is trying very hard to get as many as possible highly (foreign) educated Chinese back into the country.
They are not trying to increase the number of peasants, because they don't fit into their economic expansion plan. The U.S. on the other hand is still promoting " give me your poor and hungry" and continue to ship out decent paying jobs to China.
At the end we'll pay the price and exept for a few, we'll all be poor and hungry.
If you want to slide into the 3rd world catagory, just stay the course and we'll get there sooner than you think!
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Dianne D. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:09 AM
Good article and great comments. Our kids don't have the discipline that many countries have and don't know the importance of getting a good education. The kid’s families are failing the kids. Many of the families don't care if the kids are experimenting with drugs because the parents have been on drugs for years. There are a lot of people who can't afford to raise a child, but they are the ones having the kids because they think they will get welfare money for them and don't have to work. We have too many families that make living off the government as a way of life. These kids don’t stand a chance but it’s not the school’s place to raise these kids. Our society is in a mess because of drugs and people who live off the government. Neither should be having kids – or pets. They are not responsible people. There are too many people in the world the way it is. Wish we could stop these people from breeding.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 8:45 AM
@Brian, people like to dismiss poverty but it absolutely is a road block to finishing school. We can't pretend that it isn't or that simply exhorting the poor to work harder is going to change things. In places where the efforts to help poor kids goes beyond the school house doors and out into communities, you see more kids finishing school.
Schools could be part of the solution but they were never the root problem and still aren't.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 8:41 AM
Oh, and I like Ravitch's ideas about national standards but I don't think the Dept. of Ed should be dictating them. States should gather reps with actual education/teaching backgrounds and come to agreements among themselves.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 8:38 AM
@Harry, perhaps I should have said - federal govt - instead of founders b/c they had only the barest of interest in public education on the whole. It has largely been left to states/local communities though until the later part of the last century as much dictated by money as the idea that it was the state's interests that came first.
I don't think Jefferson was really talking about the masses but more the landed elite b/c many of the founders had doubts about the ability of the average man to participate in the democratic process. Probably rightly as they thought the common person would be too susceptible to promises and propaganda, which could certainly be said to be true given the lack of real thought that most people put into electing reps today.
The real reason that education should stay local is that most people never really roam from there roots and these communities have a more immediate stake in the education of their young.
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 8:38 AM
Brian E.
Overpopulation plays a very heavy hand in all of what you say!!!!!
Plant & protect trees for life.....................
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Brian Edlin says
Jun 16, 2010 8:20 AM
Drop out rates are highest in large Urban Areas - If you have Parents who are under or uneducated the chances that the children will be is quite High . This why any one who is able to override this disadvantage and make it out is at the least admirable ! .
The current standards introduced during the liberal 1960's
has had little successes so that's not the answer nearly 50 years is more then enough time to show results .
Now were are these kids going to get jobs -- Because we are in a world wide Depression that's has not yet Peaked [ another 18 months will show the True Impact and Magnitude ] and most menial jobs are held by Immigrants and gangs will indoctrinate the majority -- You have a Serious Problem developing .! .. B .
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Harry Coverston says
Jun 16, 2010 8:06 AM
One last thought. Diane Ravitch’s book, The Death And Life of the Great American School System, lays out a good case for a national curriculum. That takes care of problems like the idiots in Texas who would have their children know more about Phyllis Schlafley than Thomas Jefferson. This is a federal agenda that could actually have merit, as evidenced by national curricula in virtually every industrialized first world nation in the world. A set of basic skills in reading, math, science, history, the arts and physical education would insure a populace
Granted, it would make the fundies gripe that their kids have to learn that dinosaurs can’t be saddled and ridden by human beings created at the same time 6000 years ago but the reality is that most of those folks are going to put their kids in white flight private schools or imprison them in the confines of homeschooling to insure their indoctrination anyway.
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Marilyn K. says
Jun 16, 2010 8:04 AM
Educational Systems are geared for an overall population. We have to recognize that each child learns differently and not every one of them is interested in Science, Geometry, Physics, etc. We have to expand the system to gear education to those that feel they have to earn a living with jobs that are not always professional or they cannot master.
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Harry Coverston says
Jun 16, 2010 8:00 AM
Perhaps one way to insure that no child is ever left behind is to use our elaborate testing system for what it was actually designed to do – diagnose learning proficiencies and those areas in need of improvement so they can be addressed. Spending the year remediating diagnosed deficiencies seems like a lot more productive use of time and energies than the incessant drilling for high stakes testing whose results are inappropriately used for everything from defunding public schools most in need to fund fly-by-night private religious “academies” to firing teachers.
I also would question the wisdom of seeing public schools as conduits for “local values.” Teaching children to think critically, exposing them to the world’s cultures, teaching them to express their thoughts verbally and in writing can insure that children can actually make informed choices about values rather than having them simply absorb the values dominant groups in a community would impose upon them.
That is the difference between education and indoctrination. It’s also the place where parental control issues have often poisoned public education. Parents have the opportunity to indoctrinate their children in all their values at home and through the social groups they would require their children to attend from Scouting to the mosque. That they would require schools to impose only their values on all children speaks to an insecurity about their parenting skills and the pe
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Harry Coverston says
Jun 16, 2010 7:36 AM
Ann said: Part of the reason the founding fathers left education to communities was to ensure that it was the local values and interests being served rather than the federal govt pushing agendas.
Actually, the national government was not in a position to create a public school system at its founding even if it had wished to do so. It was too busy dealing with invading British from the east and invading settlers going west. Most higher education was private, with the universities we think of today as Ivy League colleges being founded to insure an educated clergy, not an educated populace. Public schools were beginning to be considered in New England but in the Southern states, it would have been anathema to speak of educating the children of slaves and the working white poor.
Retrojecting today’s culture wars about values and paranoia about federal “agendas” into the early republic is anachronistic. Clearly the Anti-Federalists, led by Thomas Jefferson, were concerned about federal power and rights of citizens, hence the ultimate addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. But Jefferson was also clear that without an educated electorate, democracy could not work. This was not a concern for “local values and interests,” a rather parochial concern, but educational processes which produce human beings who could think critically, express themselves proficiently and, for Jefferson, had an awareness of the historical roots of western culture.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 7:20 AM
Tanya, I agree to an extent that a certain strata of society benefits greatly from an poorly educated underclass, but this was in the works long before George W. The attack on the public school system began under Reagan with the 1982 "Nation at Risk" propaganda which has brought us to where we are.
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tanya m. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:40 AM
Cognitive Dissonance: the refusal to see what is in front of your nose! A kind of quippy definition but I think it works. Now what is it that people won't see? Bush & Co declared the New World Order as their goal. This goal was very clearly the supercession of the corporation for total control of the government and all facets of life. Corporations gained full citizen status with open limits for election funding. An economic debacle that worked to further consolidate wealth at the top at the total expense of the masses of people, us, the real citizens of the country. The neocon belief that all social institutions should be privatized under corporate control. The Libertarians, in their myopic thinking, support this. What is the result? No money to rebuild Katrina destroyed New Orleans. Public housing, hospitals and schools closed and not reopened. Poor people forcibly dispersed with families broken up. Increased PTSD for all of them = dysfunctionality. Education money being massively reduced. Public schools going under. Those with money will afford private schools and the rest will be left for even greater failure. We know what happens to the children. More prisons under corporate control!
This is what we are looking at. Let's get real now.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 6:29 AM
@Jon Stewart, ah - the Texas issue. Part of the reason the founding fathers left education to communities was to ensure that it was the local values and interests being served rather than the federal govt pushing agendas. But back in the day, the states were more in agreement on our common history and what a citizen should know.
The upside of the Texas rewrite is that most states are too broke to buy the new textbooks that will be rewritten to suit the peculiar tastes of Texans. The downside though is that Texas still dictates what goes into education textbooks. Of course, given the fact that so many people are willing consumers of mis-information via the media and aren't even holding the federal govt to high standards were correct information is concerned, the Texas history rewrite is only one of many concerns we should have for our young people.
When Hollywood movie versions of history are considered fact, we are already long gone as far as preserving our actual heritage goes.
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Marilyn D. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:26 AM
This is very scary.
We clearly need more money for education.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 6:23 AM
@Thomas F, you make a good part about the economic disparities. When I taught high school, it was apparent to me that those not bound for college were less motivated and I thought it was perhaps due to the fact that they knew what kind of a life was waiting for them. One of low paying jobs with little chance to get ahead no matter how hard they worked. Not everyone is interested or suited for university and even those children are finding that meaningful, well-paid jobs are increasingly scarce. We've created a society that is not balanced or even remotely fair and kids are not blind to that. I think that is some of what we are seeing in education today. Kids are giving up.
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Jon Stewart says
Jun 16, 2010 6:21 AM
Should completion of 12 years of idealogical indoctrination in Texas schools be considered equivalent to "graduation" in studies like this?
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Glenna Jones-kachtik says
Jun 16, 2010 6:12 AM
Thomas - Amen, Amen, Amen.....You would be correct in your assumption.
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Ann G. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:11 AM
As a non-USA resident I am appalled at how little teachers are paid in many of your states. Anyone who teaches there is doing so for the love of children not to make a decent living.
Pay your teachers decently; but, even more importantly, stop testing so much so that teachers can instruct with enthusiasm and creativity.
You cannot engage children and inspire them without teacher enthusiasm and that isn't going to happen when the teacher is worried about adequately covering test material. Teaching is a wonderful career that makes a difference when allowed to be. I know, I was there and still have friends who were my students some thirty years ago.
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Lynn C. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:10 AM
Thomas F. has just said it so well, I can only say thank you.
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Glenna Jones-kachtik says
Jun 16, 2010 6:09 AM
B.M. It is also true that as a populace - at least in America - that we are unthinking about education. We are just content that it will happen, somehow & it isn't OUR problem. Some of the elderly are sure it isn't their problem; they have no kids in school, why should their property be taxed? And some of the rest are upset about other things.
We have an adult population today where some couldn't name the states & their capitals; couldn't tell you that Puerto Rico belongs to the US; Couldn't name their own congress persons (either federal or state) - some cannot even tell you who their city council person or mayor are. They don't know about world politics (except what someone else says) & they are uninformed about issues that directly affect them! But on the plus side - they CAN tell you who Jennifer Aniston is with, all about 'Bradjalina', who won on Survivor or Dancing With...They can tell you all about the final show of LOST and all the dirt there is to print. If it is celebrity or fashion - these guys got it covered. Education, not so much.
I am not sure when it was that all of a sudden a teacher was supposed to not only educate our children - but to parent them too, took place. The one thing I can say is teaching is more than theory & what looks good on paper, in the ivory towers of some agency - full of people who propose but have never taught a day in their lives; may not in fact be the latest, greatest idea. NCLB is proof of that.
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Mary Casano Jesch says
Jun 16, 2010 6:00 AM
Time for parents to pay more attention to what's not happening in their children's education and be willing to make sacrifices. Lots of parents are involved, but I'm sure many more are not...and the drop out rate is testament to that. If parents do not demand better...it's not going to happen. They also need to allow educators to teach...so if cells phones are not allow in class, then that's how it's got to be. If more discipline and structure is needed, parents need to stand behind that. Remove entitlement and maybe that'll help to some degree. Oh..but wait...who created that attitude in children?...parents?...ya think?!!
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Thomas F. says
Jun 16, 2010 5:07 AM
Education is NOT the problem, it is a symptom of a larger structural problem in our society. The top 1% of the US population own as much wealth as the bottom 90%!!! We spend more money on war and the Defense Department then any other nation. Congress will hold up unemployment payments because they need to see the money being cut from something else to balance the budget, but NEVER discuss the military budget or think about cutting it. People are working longer hours for less money. Trade agreements have robbed us of most good paying manufacturing jobs. Knee jerk reactions to fixing the "problem" are in most part not based on any real data or at best half data. The top 1% will not be spending their money electing people who will fix the structural problems because it will impact their wealth and power. Wake up, connect the dots, get MAD and organize!!
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Mrs Shakespeare says
Jun 16, 2010 3:33 AM
thats sad
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Mrs Shakespeare says
Jun 16, 2010 3:31 AM
thats sad
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Bon L. says
Jun 16, 2010 3:29 AM
Agree with Ashley.
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K s Goh says
Jun 16, 2010 2:35 AM
Thanks for the article.
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Kelsey C. says
Jun 16, 2010 2:32 AM
Sad...those people are throwing their future away.
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Maira Sun says
Jun 16, 2010 2:32 AM
Gracias!
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 2:02 AM
Richard........A teachers job would be much easier if parent did their job as parents. Parents must prepare their children to understand what schools & learning is all about.
What is the larger problem is todays parents have no idea what it means to be a teaching parent because they were not taught that while growing up.
Hollywood teen idols & rag magazines hold more value to the young people today than say National Geographic magazine.
Kids know more about Paris Hilton than they know why the moon rises & falls everyday. And, too many parents wait for their kids to be taught by outsiders than by them.
Plant & protect trees for life.....................
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Richard T. says
Jun 16, 2010 1:48 AM
This is a sad article that literally brings tears to my eyes and pain to my heart. Education is a cornerstone on which rests the future of our world, and yet it has been allowed to fall into disrepair due to a lack of funding and vision on the part of government, and lack of interest on the part of the parents.
If this trend isn't reversed NOW, our survival looks bleak. We must insure a decent level of public education, administered in a safe and nurturing environment, will always be available to everyone. After all, that's why we pay taxes, isn't it?
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Marianne Good says
Jun 16, 2010 12:44 AM
Thank you!
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B. M. says
Jun 15, 2010 11:53 PM
Ashley Perkins says
Jun 15, 2010 8:30 PM
I cannot imagine this becoming any worse than it already is. Our communities need to support the schools, teachers, and staff in every way they can. Teachers definitely need additional funds (salaries, supplies, etc.), but they also need a community of parents and residents to support their efforts in educating the students.
What will help & encourage students more than well paid teacher is having parents who spend a bit of time everyday teaching their children something/anything new everyday from day one. This learning can begin from the moment a child is taken home after it is born.
For example, singing talking about numbers or the abc's consistantly for a short period of time everyday & then add to that or change it after x amount of time.
Children can & do absorb far more information than most realize. But, the key is consistancy & extreme patience. And, that patience is with the child as much as ones self.
A child will not fail if he has parents who walk with them for the first five years of their life making the learning process exciting & rewarding.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 15, 2010 9:41 PM
@Barbara, I totally agree about relevancy, but we also need vocational training from middle school on and to move away from the mindset that every child will go to college because that's not the reality. Many children will be skilled workers that will become vital members of the communities they live in right now.
@ Ashley, absolutely schools and communities need to work together. It should be the community that drives curriculum and sets standards. We've gotten far away from the idea that schools should be local concerns and it's part of the problem.
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Ashley Perkins says
Jun 15, 2010 8:30 PM
I cannot imagine this becoming any worse than it already is. Our communities need to support the schools, teachers, and staff in every way they can. Teachers definitely need additional funds (salaries, supplies, etc.), but they also need a community of parents and residents to support their efforts in educating the students.
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Hugo Godinez says
Jun 15, 2010 8:28 PM
thanks for the article
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Barbara Leuin says
Jun 15, 2010 8:24 PM
Education needs to relate more to what a person actually needs to learn to survive in this world. We are too focused on tests that don't test real knowledge but a formula created by past educators that can't let go of "old world" thinking. Children need to stretch their minds and be challenged in a classroom with real information that will help them understand how to live on their own. Some children have no idea how math relates to what they need to use it for after they leave the classroom.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 15, 2010 6:57 PM
Trouble with any incentive plan that's been tried - and there have been many atttempts since the 1920's - is that they don't work. What inevitably happens is that the quality of education suffers because schools cater to learning approaches that enhance their paychecks (or simply maintain them) and consequently don't improve kids' learning.
If money were any incentive for teachers, they wouldn't be teachers in the first place. I know. I taught for twenty years and while a decent living and benefits were important, I taught because I believed I was making a difference and it was fun.
Educators need to be given back their profession and allowed to use their knowledge in creative ways that are tailored to their students and their communities. We've gotten so far away from that in the last decade. Testing and treating education as though it were a business and children were products is not the answer.
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Andreza Chaves says
Jun 15, 2010 6:29 PM
Only about a third of the people I went to high school with my freshman year made it to their senior year and graduated = /
(I was in the class of 2007)
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Teleia P. says
Jun 15, 2010 6:24 PM
A third of our students aren't graduating high school. If we truly want to be world leaders, this has to be a priority. We need good teachers, teachers who can engage and motivate students, particularly in urban and conversely, agrarian areas.
To get these teachers, we have to pay them better and track student progress wherein student progress is compared in the pre-test/post-test format. Bonuses can then be based on the improvement. The reality is that incentives really make people do their jobs better. And teacher pay sucks as it is now.
Retrieved from http://www.care2.com/causes/education/blog/u-s-graduation-rates-get-d/
posted by: Ann Bibby 1 day ago
For the second year in a row, high school graduation rates fell in the United States, with just 68.8% of all students completing their education in four years. The numbers, based on 2007 graduation rates, were compiled by Editorial Projects in Education as part of their Diploma Count 2010 report.
Because the data predates the current recession, it’s hard to predict the impact the economic downturn on the rate of student dropouts today. However, growing numbers of children from impoverished homes do lower graduation rates, which means the recession is likely producing more dropouts than economically flush times.
Prior to 2006, graduation rates the U.S. enjoyed a decade long improvement in terms of rising rates and increased attention to the issue of dropouts.
The news wasn’t all bad.
Latino and black high school students posted modest gains in graduation rates.
Every day an average of 7,200 students drop out of school. That’s 13 million children leaving school every year without a proper education. Although some states keep track of those who will eventually earn a graduation equivalency diploma or G.E.D or who will re-enroll and finish high school a semester or two late, 13 million undereducated adults is not something an ailing economy can afford in an era where unskilled workers already have difficulties finding employment.
Graduation rates, though good indicators, are deceptive. Just as those students who return to school are not tracked, the rates also don’t differentiate between suburban, rural and urban schools. Nevada, for instance, posts an abysmal 41.8% graduation rate, but this is largely the result of the fact that it’s largest school district – Las Vegas – is a mecca for the families of children who have recently immigrated to the U.S., are not well-educated themselves and are very poor, which are three of the biggest factors that produce drop-outs. The Las Vegas school districts dropout numbers dwarf any progress the much smaller districts in the state might be making.
With the 2009-10 school year over, or nearly so, it’s hard to say that next year will be a better. Nearly 300,000 educator lay-offs being predicted and school districts like Kansas City and Detroit are shuttering buildings and cramming the remaining students into the ones they can still afford to keep open.
Are we witnessing the end of an era where public education is accessible? Were the last two years of increased dropout rates a fluke, a sign of the times or a harbinger of things to come?
Frank Pickens says
Jun 16, 2010 8:17 PM
You have to be interested in learning to learn. So many kids are more interested in Twiteering than even going to class, and hanging out with their little punk friends. It's about attitudes and young people have bad ones.
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James R Stewart Jr says
Jun 16, 2010 8:16 PM
Simple Solution: Turn Off All TV, and make everybody read Good Books !!!
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:34 PM
Michele C. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:17 PM
I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of this problem. There has to be a multi-factored blame - government for a lack of proper educational funding, schools who have to deal with more behavioral issues than ever before, parents who do not hold their children accountable for attending school, and students who only care about socializing.
Michele.......You hit the nail on the head bigtime.!!!!!!! And, in the end all will be socializing in a homeless camp!!
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Michele C. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:17 PM
I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of this problem. There has to be a multi-factored blame - government for a lack of proper educational funding, schools who have to deal with more behavioral issues than ever before, parents who do not hold their children accountable for attending school, and students who only care about socializing.
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Marcheal G. says
Jun 16, 2010 5:48 PM
I will make sure not to drop out.
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 5:14 PM
Mariam Moncrieffe says
Jun 16, 2010 4:51 PM
@Gary Heck....Nice! Are we a tad bit racist?
Oh Mariam.......Just stop it, the race card game!! It is more or less official there are more minorities in this country right now than there are white. Three fourths of those minorities are Mexican & gee whizz that is because of all the millions of Mexican border hoppers!!! And, those Mexicans have the education of a mule at best......Mules are a hard working bunch but not very intelligent.
The race card game is best left to his honor Sharpton who by the way is far less intelligent than a mule & has no idea what work is!!
Plant & protect trees for life......................
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Mariam Moncrieffe says
Jun 16, 2010 4:51 PM
@Gary Heck....Nice! Are we a tad bit racist?
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Hugo Godinez says
Jun 16, 2010 4:36 PM
thanks for the article
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Barbara S. says
Jun 16, 2010 12:57 PM
I don't know how to explain the drop-out rates, and I haven't a clue how to suggest fixing it.
I grew up in a small, Indiana town where teachers, regardless of the class size, loved teaching and loved all of us, even the unruly ones. Most of us had at least one parent at home, waiting for us after school, and we were forced to our homework before dinner... No TV, no radio, no going out to play - just a little snack to get our energy levels up, and then it was homework until it was done. If necessary, because I had homework from several classes, dinner was delayed. If I didn't understand a problem, and couldn't solve it on my own, I could call the teacher who assigned it and she was always kind enough to explain it, and tell me what page to go back to, to help me resolve the issue.
My guardians were uneducated, and although they could read and write and do simple math, they were unable to help me with algebra and high math problems. This was NOT an unusual situation for many students in the 1950s and 1960s. While some parents had college degrees, many of them left school at 16 because they were needed for planting, harvesting, and to go to work to help support their families. So, all of them wanted their children to have at least a High School Diploma. And the ones who accelerated at learning, were given scholarships and worked part-time jobs to go on and get college degrees.
My guardians were more interested in marrying me off than seeing me go on to college.
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 12:53 PM
Jamie.......My comment is not racist. How else would I describe an asian? Is there another word/term for them or any other group one wants to specifically note? Also, I was more or less referring to where I live.......I do not get the news where you live & if the ramage you wrote of why wasn't it on the national news?
And, one does not hear all that much about asians student primarily because they usually have a very tight & strict family structure!! And, this structure is sorely lacking in the run of the mill families across all ethnic/racial lines therefore they adhere to learning as a rule more so than not.
Plant & protect trees for life.......................
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 12:47 PM
@Morgan G makes an excellent point. Schools are geared to teach to the high end of the middle with college being the goal. It also assumes that every child will be ready to learn certain subjects at the same time and master them within arbitrary time limits. So not not.
And we need to replace the idea that it is minorities or immigrants that is the issue. The issue is poverty. Families without means or opportunities are going to have a harder time following through with supporting their kids in school. It's a fact that color of skin has nothing to do with.
How do we then individualize public education or at least parts of it?
We have not had the conversation about what it is that the govt is truly responsible for teaching in our schools and what is extra and the responsibility of parents/larger community.
@Mary L echoes my early point - kids see that there are fewer opportunities and longer periods of dependency on parental income awaiting them. A recent study found that young adults are now in their late twenties or early 30's before they are "fully launched" with jobs, housing and venturing into rearing families of their own.
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Beverly C. says
Jun 16, 2010 12:32 PM
I taught high school for many years, in a school in which most of the students were minorities (65% of our students were African-American & 25% were Hispanic). -Our school offered all the necessary academic programs and electives, plus music, art, graphic arts, band, orchestra, woodworking, shop, etc. All students took phys ed, and our students played & competed in all varsity sports. We offered remedial reading & remedial math courses, plus teachers were encouraged to offer help to our students after school. -Unfortunately, our class sizes were too large (35-39 students per class), which keeps teachers from getting to know their students as well as they would like. -Parents' interest & support is a great help to the children & the teachers. Parents keeping in contact with the teachers helps to keep their children on the teachers' radar, in that (usually, & not by choice) when a teacher has so many students, the students he/she gets to know best are the very good students & those who are discipline problems. -Education needs to be a top priority of our gov't, our communities, teachers, parents, & to the students themselves. Students must be made to realize how important getting a good education is & will be to them as they enter and live their adult lives. A well-educated citizenry is a great asset to our nation & to the world community. Therefore, helping with the cost of obtaining a good education & offering incentives to students
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Gary Heck says
Jun 16, 2010 11:16 AM
The number of illegal immigrants and "minorities" is growing and the number of people graduating from high school is decreasing. Interesting. Does 2+2 still equal 4?
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Marilyn L. says
Jun 16, 2010 11:16 AM
A child needs the support of family and school teachers/administrators if they are going to get an education.
Not everyone is college material or wants to go to college but we give them no other choices. How about by the time they 16 years old and a junior in HS we give them, with their parents and counselors advice, a choice. Continue with academic HS education or go to a business, arts or trade school to finish up their HS eduction. Than extend HS two more years and those that have stayed will continue with preparding for college. Than to finish college with a BA, BS, would be an additional two years, which could also be given at Community Colleges. University would then be gear to those seeking Masters and Doctorates. I know we would have to change the requirments of HS teachers but so be it. We would also be opening jobs to skilled individuals to teach in the non-academic schools.
Just a thought.
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Laura S. says
Jun 16, 2010 11:08 AM
To graduate out of high school is very important. However, you should never be upset if for any reason, you do not graduate in the so-called four-year time limit. Regardless of how long it takes, getting that diploma late is better than giving up and not getting that diploma at all!
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Carol B. says
Jun 16, 2010 10:59 AM
This is a very serious long term problem. It has become much worse than it was. A new school system might help some, but better family support is badly needed as well.
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Jamie Clemons says
Jun 16, 2010 10:56 AM
That Asian statement could be considered racist. Of course they all have their problems too. "Why is it you very seldom ever hear of Asian teens/adults on the news for a crime." Sure I have heard of them causing crimes plenty of times. One went on a shooting rampage not that long ago in Wisconsin.
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Jamie Clemons says
Jun 16, 2010 10:52 AM
I can see how they might feel that graduation is not important if the only jobs left available are working at McD's
Jamie
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 10:29 AM
Why is it that asian children excel in all categories no matter what strata of society they come from/
Why is it you very seldom ever hear of asian teens/adults on the news for a crime/
Why is it you never hear of asians march, complain they are being denied of whatever?
Of all the above why is it you never hear of Native American indians on the news for crimes or marching for more education, housing or jobs?.........And, there are plenty of N/A living in pure poverty in the year 2010.
Just some simple basic questions that go to the heart of the educationa problems we are facing.
Plant & protect trees for life................
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Morgan G. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:46 AM
The fundamental concept of our educational system is flawed and cannot be redeemed. It assumes that children and young adults all learn the same things at the same rates and at the same ages. For maybe a third of the population this assumption works reasonably well. Another third never make it because they were never given the opportunity to learn things the way THEY needed to learn them.
But the final third is our biggest crime. We are wasting the talents of our brightest and best students because some boneheaded educational theorists think that they can only learn as quickly as the rest of the people their age. By the time they are in third grade or so the are hopelessly bored with the whole educational process, tune it out, and never achieve their full potential.
Radical change is needed. We must discard the entire concept of "schools" as we know them today, and substitute a process of "mass customization" in education. This is possible because of technology. One ten-year-old may be delving into basic nuclear physics, while another is still struggling with the equivalent of "See spot run." We must meet the needs of pupils at BOTH these ends of the spectrum, and in a way that keeps both engaged in the learning process, or we are failing in our responsibility to educate the next generation.
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Mary L. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:45 AM
This is an endemic problem. My teen age daughter asked the other day, "Why bother with a [high school] diploma when if I'm lucky I'll be flipping burgers at McDonald's the rest of my life?"
And she's been raised by two people who think education is the best idea yet.
In my opinion, in part we need to go back to some basics. Recess, kids knowing each other and being inculcated with protecting each other so school boards and parents aren't afraid of their children getting hurt and bullied.
After school tutoring with transportation home. Tutoring that's real not being handed work sheets while the teacher talks on the phone, leaves the class room for the duration or grades papers. Kids thrive on one on one attention.
Why do Head Start achievements fade by second grade? If additional help is available in first grade would that make a difference.
Don't change programs to the latest flavor and leave the last "latest greatest going to fix all the problems in the world program" before it's passed or failed.
Let teachers develop programs and encourage them with help as well.
Listen to all the information about some of the reasons for failure and make changes to the system that educates the educators.
Get the parents/guardians reinvolved. You won't get all of them but time and again exceptional teachers have at least one thing in common. They go to visit their students in their homes, early in the year. When parents know a teacher, like a teacher they're m
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Bee Hive Lady says
Jun 16, 2010 9:29 AM
The No Child Left Behind Law which relies on students scores on standardized tests to allot federal funding to schools has created a negative atmosphere in many schools. The teachers only teach the information needed to pass the standardized tests. School has become relentless drudgery to the students and teachers alike since all efforts are honed in to pass the tests. Huge numbers of talented and intelligent high school students drop out due to boredom, plain and simple. The best method to end drop outs would be for another law not anchored to the standardized tests, be passed into law as quickly as possible.
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Jose M. C. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:25 AM
Just watch the first part of the movie Idiocracy. It explains a lot.
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Hans V. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:13 AM
I am not surprised. Letting every poor, ignorant and many times even illiterate person into the country, doesn't really help the high school graduation rate, let alone going on to college.
Many times, not always, poorly educated parents produce poorly educated children. A lot of Asian kids on the other hand, perform continously way better and have higher graduation rates in high school and college. These graduates also perform better financially later in life than any other group
Pumping more money into the educational system doesn't seem to be the most important component of being able to succeed in life. Good parenting and making education a very important part of your child's life are probably more important.
In today's 21st century high tech society, there is little room left for 19th or 20th century people. That is, if you want to be part of the industrialized first world.
China for example is trying very hard to get as many as possible highly (foreign) educated Chinese back into the country.
They are not trying to increase the number of peasants, because they don't fit into their economic expansion plan. The U.S. on the other hand is still promoting " give me your poor and hungry" and continue to ship out decent paying jobs to China.
At the end we'll pay the price and exept for a few, we'll all be poor and hungry.
If you want to slide into the 3rd world catagory, just stay the course and we'll get there sooner than you think!
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Dianne D. says
Jun 16, 2010 9:09 AM
Good article and great comments. Our kids don't have the discipline that many countries have and don't know the importance of getting a good education. The kid’s families are failing the kids. Many of the families don't care if the kids are experimenting with drugs because the parents have been on drugs for years. There are a lot of people who can't afford to raise a child, but they are the ones having the kids because they think they will get welfare money for them and don't have to work. We have too many families that make living off the government as a way of life. These kids don’t stand a chance but it’s not the school’s place to raise these kids. Our society is in a mess because of drugs and people who live off the government. Neither should be having kids – or pets. They are not responsible people. There are too many people in the world the way it is. Wish we could stop these people from breeding.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 8:45 AM
@Brian, people like to dismiss poverty but it absolutely is a road block to finishing school. We can't pretend that it isn't or that simply exhorting the poor to work harder is going to change things. In places where the efforts to help poor kids goes beyond the school house doors and out into communities, you see more kids finishing school.
Schools could be part of the solution but they were never the root problem and still aren't.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 8:41 AM
Oh, and I like Ravitch's ideas about national standards but I don't think the Dept. of Ed should be dictating them. States should gather reps with actual education/teaching backgrounds and come to agreements among themselves.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 8:38 AM
@Harry, perhaps I should have said - federal govt - instead of founders b/c they had only the barest of interest in public education on the whole. It has largely been left to states/local communities though until the later part of the last century as much dictated by money as the idea that it was the state's interests that came first.
I don't think Jefferson was really talking about the masses but more the landed elite b/c many of the founders had doubts about the ability of the average man to participate in the democratic process. Probably rightly as they thought the common person would be too susceptible to promises and propaganda, which could certainly be said to be true given the lack of real thought that most people put into electing reps today.
The real reason that education should stay local is that most people never really roam from there roots and these communities have a more immediate stake in the education of their young.
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 8:38 AM
Brian E.
Overpopulation plays a very heavy hand in all of what you say!!!!!
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Brian Edlin says
Jun 16, 2010 8:20 AM
Drop out rates are highest in large Urban Areas - If you have Parents who are under or uneducated the chances that the children will be is quite High . This why any one who is able to override this disadvantage and make it out is at the least admirable ! .
The current standards introduced during the liberal 1960's
has had little successes so that's not the answer nearly 50 years is more then enough time to show results .
Now were are these kids going to get jobs -- Because we are in a world wide Depression that's has not yet Peaked [ another 18 months will show the True Impact and Magnitude ] and most menial jobs are held by Immigrants and gangs will indoctrinate the majority -- You have a Serious Problem developing .! .. B .
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Harry Coverston says
Jun 16, 2010 8:06 AM
One last thought. Diane Ravitch’s book, The Death And Life of the Great American School System, lays out a good case for a national curriculum. That takes care of problems like the idiots in Texas who would have their children know more about Phyllis Schlafley than Thomas Jefferson. This is a federal agenda that could actually have merit, as evidenced by national curricula in virtually every industrialized first world nation in the world. A set of basic skills in reading, math, science, history, the arts and physical education would insure a populace
Granted, it would make the fundies gripe that their kids have to learn that dinosaurs can’t be saddled and ridden by human beings created at the same time 6000 years ago but the reality is that most of those folks are going to put their kids in white flight private schools or imprison them in the confines of homeschooling to insure their indoctrination anyway.
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Marilyn K. says
Jun 16, 2010 8:04 AM
Educational Systems are geared for an overall population. We have to recognize that each child learns differently and not every one of them is interested in Science, Geometry, Physics, etc. We have to expand the system to gear education to those that feel they have to earn a living with jobs that are not always professional or they cannot master.
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Harry Coverston says
Jun 16, 2010 8:00 AM
Perhaps one way to insure that no child is ever left behind is to use our elaborate testing system for what it was actually designed to do – diagnose learning proficiencies and those areas in need of improvement so they can be addressed. Spending the year remediating diagnosed deficiencies seems like a lot more productive use of time and energies than the incessant drilling for high stakes testing whose results are inappropriately used for everything from defunding public schools most in need to fund fly-by-night private religious “academies” to firing teachers.
I also would question the wisdom of seeing public schools as conduits for “local values.” Teaching children to think critically, exposing them to the world’s cultures, teaching them to express their thoughts verbally and in writing can insure that children can actually make informed choices about values rather than having them simply absorb the values dominant groups in a community would impose upon them.
That is the difference between education and indoctrination. It’s also the place where parental control issues have often poisoned public education. Parents have the opportunity to indoctrinate their children in all their values at home and through the social groups they would require their children to attend from Scouting to the mosque. That they would require schools to impose only their values on all children speaks to an insecurity about their parenting skills and the pe
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Harry Coverston says
Jun 16, 2010 7:36 AM
Ann said: Part of the reason the founding fathers left education to communities was to ensure that it was the local values and interests being served rather than the federal govt pushing agendas.
Actually, the national government was not in a position to create a public school system at its founding even if it had wished to do so. It was too busy dealing with invading British from the east and invading settlers going west. Most higher education was private, with the universities we think of today as Ivy League colleges being founded to insure an educated clergy, not an educated populace. Public schools were beginning to be considered in New England but in the Southern states, it would have been anathema to speak of educating the children of slaves and the working white poor.
Retrojecting today’s culture wars about values and paranoia about federal “agendas” into the early republic is anachronistic. Clearly the Anti-Federalists, led by Thomas Jefferson, were concerned about federal power and rights of citizens, hence the ultimate addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. But Jefferson was also clear that without an educated electorate, democracy could not work. This was not a concern for “local values and interests,” a rather parochial concern, but educational processes which produce human beings who could think critically, express themselves proficiently and, for Jefferson, had an awareness of the historical roots of western culture.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 7:20 AM
Tanya, I agree to an extent that a certain strata of society benefits greatly from an poorly educated underclass, but this was in the works long before George W. The attack on the public school system began under Reagan with the 1982 "Nation at Risk" propaganda which has brought us to where we are.
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tanya m. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:40 AM
Cognitive Dissonance: the refusal to see what is in front of your nose! A kind of quippy definition but I think it works. Now what is it that people won't see? Bush & Co declared the New World Order as their goal. This goal was very clearly the supercession of the corporation for total control of the government and all facets of life. Corporations gained full citizen status with open limits for election funding. An economic debacle that worked to further consolidate wealth at the top at the total expense of the masses of people, us, the real citizens of the country. The neocon belief that all social institutions should be privatized under corporate control. The Libertarians, in their myopic thinking, support this. What is the result? No money to rebuild Katrina destroyed New Orleans. Public housing, hospitals and schools closed and not reopened. Poor people forcibly dispersed with families broken up. Increased PTSD for all of them = dysfunctionality. Education money being massively reduced. Public schools going under. Those with money will afford private schools and the rest will be left for even greater failure. We know what happens to the children. More prisons under corporate control!
This is what we are looking at. Let's get real now.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 6:29 AM
@Jon Stewart, ah - the Texas issue. Part of the reason the founding fathers left education to communities was to ensure that it was the local values and interests being served rather than the federal govt pushing agendas. But back in the day, the states were more in agreement on our common history and what a citizen should know.
The upside of the Texas rewrite is that most states are too broke to buy the new textbooks that will be rewritten to suit the peculiar tastes of Texans. The downside though is that Texas still dictates what goes into education textbooks. Of course, given the fact that so many people are willing consumers of mis-information via the media and aren't even holding the federal govt to high standards were correct information is concerned, the Texas history rewrite is only one of many concerns we should have for our young people.
When Hollywood movie versions of history are considered fact, we are already long gone as far as preserving our actual heritage goes.
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Marilyn D. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:26 AM
This is very scary.
We clearly need more money for education.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 16, 2010 6:23 AM
@Thomas F, you make a good part about the economic disparities. When I taught high school, it was apparent to me that those not bound for college were less motivated and I thought it was perhaps due to the fact that they knew what kind of a life was waiting for them. One of low paying jobs with little chance to get ahead no matter how hard they worked. Not everyone is interested or suited for university and even those children are finding that meaningful, well-paid jobs are increasingly scarce. We've created a society that is not balanced or even remotely fair and kids are not blind to that. I think that is some of what we are seeing in education today. Kids are giving up.
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Jon Stewart says
Jun 16, 2010 6:21 AM
Should completion of 12 years of idealogical indoctrination in Texas schools be considered equivalent to "graduation" in studies like this?
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Glenna Jones-kachtik says
Jun 16, 2010 6:12 AM
Thomas - Amen, Amen, Amen.....You would be correct in your assumption.
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Ann G. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:11 AM
As a non-USA resident I am appalled at how little teachers are paid in many of your states. Anyone who teaches there is doing so for the love of children not to make a decent living.
Pay your teachers decently; but, even more importantly, stop testing so much so that teachers can instruct with enthusiasm and creativity.
You cannot engage children and inspire them without teacher enthusiasm and that isn't going to happen when the teacher is worried about adequately covering test material. Teaching is a wonderful career that makes a difference when allowed to be. I know, I was there and still have friends who were my students some thirty years ago.
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Lynn C. says
Jun 16, 2010 6:10 AM
Thomas F. has just said it so well, I can only say thank you.
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Glenna Jones-kachtik says
Jun 16, 2010 6:09 AM
B.M. It is also true that as a populace - at least in America - that we are unthinking about education. We are just content that it will happen, somehow & it isn't OUR problem. Some of the elderly are sure it isn't their problem; they have no kids in school, why should their property be taxed? And some of the rest are upset about other things.
We have an adult population today where some couldn't name the states & their capitals; couldn't tell you that Puerto Rico belongs to the US; Couldn't name their own congress persons (either federal or state) - some cannot even tell you who their city council person or mayor are. They don't know about world politics (except what someone else says) & they are uninformed about issues that directly affect them! But on the plus side - they CAN tell you who Jennifer Aniston is with, all about 'Bradjalina', who won on Survivor or Dancing With...They can tell you all about the final show of LOST and all the dirt there is to print. If it is celebrity or fashion - these guys got it covered. Education, not so much.
I am not sure when it was that all of a sudden a teacher was supposed to not only educate our children - but to parent them too, took place. The one thing I can say is teaching is more than theory & what looks good on paper, in the ivory towers of some agency - full of people who propose but have never taught a day in their lives; may not in fact be the latest, greatest idea. NCLB is proof of that.
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Mary Casano Jesch says
Jun 16, 2010 6:00 AM
Time for parents to pay more attention to what's not happening in their children's education and be willing to make sacrifices. Lots of parents are involved, but I'm sure many more are not...and the drop out rate is testament to that. If parents do not demand better...it's not going to happen. They also need to allow educators to teach...so if cells phones are not allow in class, then that's how it's got to be. If more discipline and structure is needed, parents need to stand behind that. Remove entitlement and maybe that'll help to some degree. Oh..but wait...who created that attitude in children?...parents?...ya think?!!
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Thomas F. says
Jun 16, 2010 5:07 AM
Education is NOT the problem, it is a symptom of a larger structural problem in our society. The top 1% of the US population own as much wealth as the bottom 90%!!! We spend more money on war and the Defense Department then any other nation. Congress will hold up unemployment payments because they need to see the money being cut from something else to balance the budget, but NEVER discuss the military budget or think about cutting it. People are working longer hours for less money. Trade agreements have robbed us of most good paying manufacturing jobs. Knee jerk reactions to fixing the "problem" are in most part not based on any real data or at best half data. The top 1% will not be spending their money electing people who will fix the structural problems because it will impact their wealth and power. Wake up, connect the dots, get MAD and organize!!
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Mrs Shakespeare says
Jun 16, 2010 3:33 AM
thats sad
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Mrs Shakespeare says
Jun 16, 2010 3:31 AM
thats sad
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Bon L. says
Jun 16, 2010 3:29 AM
Agree with Ashley.
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K s Goh says
Jun 16, 2010 2:35 AM
Thanks for the article.
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Kelsey C. says
Jun 16, 2010 2:32 AM
Sad...those people are throwing their future away.
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Maira Sun says
Jun 16, 2010 2:32 AM
Gracias!
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B. M. says
Jun 16, 2010 2:02 AM
Richard........A teachers job would be much easier if parent did their job as parents. Parents must prepare their children to understand what schools & learning is all about.
What is the larger problem is todays parents have no idea what it means to be a teaching parent because they were not taught that while growing up.
Hollywood teen idols & rag magazines hold more value to the young people today than say National Geographic magazine.
Kids know more about Paris Hilton than they know why the moon rises & falls everyday. And, too many parents wait for their kids to be taught by outsiders than by them.
Plant & protect trees for life.....................
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Richard T. says
Jun 16, 2010 1:48 AM
This is a sad article that literally brings tears to my eyes and pain to my heart. Education is a cornerstone on which rests the future of our world, and yet it has been allowed to fall into disrepair due to a lack of funding and vision on the part of government, and lack of interest on the part of the parents.
If this trend isn't reversed NOW, our survival looks bleak. We must insure a decent level of public education, administered in a safe and nurturing environment, will always be available to everyone. After all, that's why we pay taxes, isn't it?
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Marianne Good says
Jun 16, 2010 12:44 AM
Thank you!
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B. M. says
Jun 15, 2010 11:53 PM
Ashley Perkins says
Jun 15, 2010 8:30 PM
I cannot imagine this becoming any worse than it already is. Our communities need to support the schools, teachers, and staff in every way they can. Teachers definitely need additional funds (salaries, supplies, etc.), but they also need a community of parents and residents to support their efforts in educating the students.
What will help & encourage students more than well paid teacher is having parents who spend a bit of time everyday teaching their children something/anything new everyday from day one. This learning can begin from the moment a child is taken home after it is born.
For example, singing talking about numbers or the abc's consistantly for a short period of time everyday & then add to that or change it after x amount of time.
Children can & do absorb far more information than most realize. But, the key is consistancy & extreme patience. And, that patience is with the child as much as ones self.
A child will not fail if he has parents who walk with them for the first five years of their life making the learning process exciting & rewarding.
Plant & protect trees for life...................
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 15, 2010 9:41 PM
@Barbara, I totally agree about relevancy, but we also need vocational training from middle school on and to move away from the mindset that every child will go to college because that's not the reality. Many children will be skilled workers that will become vital members of the communities they live in right now.
@ Ashley, absolutely schools and communities need to work together. It should be the community that drives curriculum and sets standards. We've gotten far away from the idea that schools should be local concerns and it's part of the problem.
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Ashley Perkins says
Jun 15, 2010 8:30 PM
I cannot imagine this becoming any worse than it already is. Our communities need to support the schools, teachers, and staff in every way they can. Teachers definitely need additional funds (salaries, supplies, etc.), but they also need a community of parents and residents to support their efforts in educating the students.
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Hugo Godinez says
Jun 15, 2010 8:28 PM
thanks for the article
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Barbara Leuin says
Jun 15, 2010 8:24 PM
Education needs to relate more to what a person actually needs to learn to survive in this world. We are too focused on tests that don't test real knowledge but a formula created by past educators that can't let go of "old world" thinking. Children need to stretch their minds and be challenged in a classroom with real information that will help them understand how to live on their own. Some children have no idea how math relates to what they need to use it for after they leave the classroom.
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Ann Bibby says
Jun 15, 2010 6:57 PM
Trouble with any incentive plan that's been tried - and there have been many atttempts since the 1920's - is that they don't work. What inevitably happens is that the quality of education suffers because schools cater to learning approaches that enhance their paychecks (or simply maintain them) and consequently don't improve kids' learning.
If money were any incentive for teachers, they wouldn't be teachers in the first place. I know. I taught for twenty years and while a decent living and benefits were important, I taught because I believed I was making a difference and it was fun.
Educators need to be given back their profession and allowed to use their knowledge in creative ways that are tailored to their students and their communities. We've gotten so far away from that in the last decade. Testing and treating education as though it were a business and children were products is not the answer.
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Andreza Chaves says
Jun 15, 2010 6:29 PM
Only about a third of the people I went to high school with my freshman year made it to their senior year and graduated = /
(I was in the class of 2007)
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Teleia P. says
Jun 15, 2010 6:24 PM
A third of our students aren't graduating high school. If we truly want to be world leaders, this has to be a priority. We need good teachers, teachers who can engage and motivate students, particularly in urban and conversely, agrarian areas.
To get these teachers, we have to pay them better and track student progress wherein student progress is compared in the pre-test/post-test format. Bonuses can then be based on the improvement. The reality is that incentives really make people do their jobs better. And teacher pay sucks as it is now.
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