Senator Tom speaks eloquently on education
Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom (D-Bellevue), spoke eloquently today on education reform and presented encouraging ideas for change. After noting that the large increases in education spending over the last eight years have resulted in flat graduation rates and a widening opportunity gap, Senator Tom said:
"We don't want to come back to parents, students, and others saying, 'We failed you for another eight years because all we did was put more money into the system.' It is not about money..."
Senator Tom then called for a program of public education that not only measures inputs, but improves outcomes for students.
It's such a pleasant change to hear an elected leader who is willing to think outside the box, to question the received orthodoxy on education policy, and who really cares about whether or not kids are learning in our schools.
Senator Tom's comments can be heard on Youtube, at 10:00 minutes, here:
Comments
Spending and Outcomes are not commensurate
I think there is some very flawed thinking on display here. Senator Tom - and a lot of other folks - seem to believe that there is (or should be) some direct relationship between education spending and education outcomes. Factories might work that way, but education doesn't and never did. That view is simply not reality-based.
Senator Tom, and his like-minded colleagues, seem to think that all students enter the education system on an equal standing. How sheltered. How entho-centric. How suburban.
In real life, some students come to school well-prepared, well-supported, and highly motivated thanks to a home life that supports education. Other students arrive un-prepared, un-supported, and un-motivated due to their home situation. Then there are all of the students all along the spectrum in-between those two extremes. Then there are the students who suffer from disabilities from minor to severe, students who don't speak English, and highly capable students. All of these different types of students will have different costs and achieve different academic outcomes.
The presumption that outcomes are a result of spending is predicated on the belief that spending drives the outcomes when, in fact, the student mix drives both the spending and the outcomes, which are independent of each other.
We are often given the two examples of Washington D.C. schools, where the spending is very high and the outcomes are very low and catholic schools where the spending is very low and the outcome are very high. Rather than proving any relationship between spending and outcomes, these examples prove that both spending and outcomes are driven by the student mix. Washington D.C. public school students are living in poverty and a number of them required special education services. Catholic school students have motivated families and much lower (and much less severe) incidence of disability. Of course the public school students are going to be more expensive to educate - on average.
African American Students Learning and Outcomes
Charlie tried but also missed the mark. African American students enter schools the ways that they enter school. If our schools were primarily places of learning for children over being primarily places of employment for adults, the way children enter school would factored into school.
African American children are more prepared than the system they enter. The money issue is a major issue. African American student data places them at the lowest rung of a damaged ladder. Yet, those who at the highest rungs get to decide how to fix the ladder. In most cases is let's shorten the ladder, so we do not have to work so hard to get to the top. So actually the lowest performing students have already been kicked off the ladder. Years ago, in a report to the legislature by the Northwest Education Lab found that funds that go into public education for lowest performing students, is actually used in ways that boosts the education of the higher performing. Those who need a nudge into higher outcomes benefit at a greater rate. When systems are in place that puts the greatest onus on the those least able to take on the burden, then we get the kind of achievement gap. How does that little black child who is poor, and from a home without all of the enhancements that our schools want a child to have make their teacher look at them and say, I am the one who will make the difference. There are teachers who want to do this, but know that there is no reward for them for taking the time and giving the love needed.
I spend considerable time in our public schools with large numbers of African American students. And likewise with a couple of private low and no tuition schools that grew up from within and with the support of the African American community. The latter teaches with the knowledge of what it will take to their students through a K-12 learning experience.
There is a lot of money in public education and especially where there are supposedly poor performers. I can go into a classroom have a child read to me and know whether they doing enough out of classroom reading. I address this with the parents, teach them how to read with their children and how to work with the teacher, and miracles of miracles, the child's reading improves.
Yes, for one parent I brought her a trashy pulp fiction to read and she did and enjoyed it. She is now a recreational reader and her son is now at grade level. Yes, actually, it is not much more difficult than this for children who can learn to read, it is only practice. These children learn difficult songs, at church, they learn how to operate a computer without lessons, and they learn the difficult beat of a rap song, as well as how to be present in the world. They are brilliant.
If Dr. Emma Jones who runs a small private school, had the money that is placed in the hands of those who come into our community with gimmicks for black children, we could get a whole lot of African American children educated. She teaches them fractions using music. 7 year old black children show me that this is a whole note and this is a half note, and this is a quarter notes, and this is an eighth not and one and one. They show me that this is the skull, the clavicle, the mandible and they love when the get to wiggle their hands and say "flanges" They know that there are 206 bones in the body and once there were as many as 30 but some were fused. Then they sing the Head bones are connected to the neck bone, etc. They are planting a garden and learning soils, and patience. She acts as if she is teaching her replacement in life and she is. None sitting at this table believe that one day, an African American will be sitting at that table with them. I have been doing this work for 30 years from within a very racially diverse community. I am in the churches and homes of African Americans. Whites experience African Americans through the media, which is in no way a true indication of who we are. As with whites and all people in the news and on television, they are extreme and unusual not the norm or even average.
But Dr. Jones does not have any money and she is expected to prepare the children to pass the tests that or public schools give, because if these children leave her and go into public school, and can not pass their test they will be labeled low achievers.
Flat graduation rates?
I'm surprised to hear Mr. Tom say that our graduation rates are flat while Mr. Dorn tells us that they are rising and hitting all time highs. Don't they use the same data?
Didn't Realize Education Funding Had Gone Up
The sad thing about your previous post on education funding and results and Tom's worldview is that the logical deduction here is that if we rachet down funding and decrease it further, we'll get better results.
If people believe this Tomfoolery, then we will see a precipitous decline in educational results for students. The strongest correlation found for poor student performance is household poverty above ALL other variables. This pernicious social problem does require a thoughtful approach as to how to best address the monstrous verbal deficit most children in poverty have when they first arrive at school in comparison to their peers. There are no simple fixes to this and we need to be honest about that. At the same time, it is understood by teachers, administrators and locally elected school boards that they must do everything in their power to enable and not obstruct students in reaching the goal of a productive life in society.
In the meantime, the unfunded mandates brought by government at all levels will continue to restrain true academic growth and response to community expectations. Let's face it - a continually underfunded system will continue to underperform.