Imagine for a moment that you were in charge of a public school. What would you do differently?
I’ve been thinking a lot about that recently. So has The New York Times, which recently ran a story in which 37 experts rated 30 possible changes. The Times’ roster of experts does not include a single classroom teacher, an oversight that’s hard to explain. Nor did the newspaper ask any education reporters for their judgments (an oversight that upsets me, even though it may not bother you). I wrote about this recently on my blog, here and here.
The experts recruited by the Times had several favorite reforms: 1) small group tutoring, 2) adopting what’s known as ‘The Science of Reading,’ and 3) universal pre-kindergarten, and 4) more money.
In this column and over the next few weeks, I’m going to recommend roughly two dozen changes, only a few of which will require spending more money—and not very much at that.
These suggestions are based on my having spent 41 years in the back of classrooms in just about every state and a handful of other countries, plus four years teaching, 18 years as a public school parent, and quite a few years as a student. I know these approaches work because I’ve witnessed it.
It’s important to understand that poor academic performance and declining attendance are symptoms of what ails public education. They are not the problem. Therefore, trying to raise test scores with more drill and test practice is as dumb and ineffective as treating strep throat with lozenges. Attacking the problem of poor attendance by expanding the truancy police to force kids to come to school is equally stupid and counter-productive.
A second observation: The conventional view of education is that schools produce graduates from their assembly line. This is the much-criticized ‘factory model’ of education. Let’s turn that on its head. Keep the factory, but think of students as ‘knowledge workers,’ whose job is to create knowledge, not regurgitate facts and figures. By that logic, schools are ‘knowledge factories,’ and creating is the polar opposite of regurgitation.
Here are four changes that I would make immediately.
- Revived (or expanded) extra-curricular activities like music, theatre, journalism, dance, debate, and sports. All of these teach team play and–more importantly–failure. In these activities, students learn to rely on each other and to pick themselves up after falling short. And to pick up their teammates.
What we adults call, often disparagingly, ‘extra-curricular’ activities are often the main reason kids come to school.
- Separate English, math, and science classes for boys and girls in middle and high school. My wife, a career educator, made me aware of a fascinating paradox: Girls do better in single-sex classrooms, but boys do better in mixed classrooms. In a mixed classroom some girls are intimidated and hide their intelligence and suppress their curiosity. Studying alone, without boys around, girls shine. In mixed classrooms, many boys often try to impress girls with their knowledge, although others may believe that being ‘smart’ is not ‘manly.’
The rest of the school activities like cafeteria and extra curricular activities should be mixed.
I’ve seen this done very effectively in several charter schools in New Orleans.
- Short, unstructured, but frequent recess breaks in elementary school, as is done in some Japanese schools I’ve visited. And by ‘frequent,’ I mean at least three and perhaps more 15-20 minute unstructured breaks from sitting at a desk. Kids, especially young kids, need to move. As workers, we aren’t expected to sit all day, so why do we expect that of young children? High school and middle school students have class change breaks five or six times a day, their opportunities to move around.
Or emulate Sweden: “In Sweden, outdoor free play is a foundational part of early education. Daily outdoor time is expected — often in all types of weather — based on the belief that movement, risk-taking, and unstructured exploration are essential to development. The cultural philosophy of friluftsliv (“open-air living”) reflects the understanding that children regulate and learn best when connected to movement and nature.”
(I am adding information sent to me by Lina Ruiz, an education reporter for the Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, about TCU Professor Deborah J. Rhea, who has studied the correlation between student outcomes and outdoor free play. “The model she says works best is four, 15-minute recess blocks per day. Her research shows two hours of daily distraction time in the classroom is saved with the outdoor breaks, and student test scores increase by 10% by fourth grade.” And Lina shared links to three interesting documents: here, here, and here. (The first is Ruiz’s reporting, a useful summary.)
- Business cards for teachers: They are professionals and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. It will change the dynamic in every parent-teacher meeting when the teacher can offer their business card and say, “Hi, Mr. Merrow, I’m Nancy Ross. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” instead of the awkward “Hello, I’m Mrs. Ross.”
Academic counselors get cards too. Administrators already have them, proof of their importance if you need convincing.
And if some businesses offer to provide the business cards as long as they can put their logo on the card, tell them, politely, to f**k off.. Advertising would defeat the whole purpose.
Two of these changes, separate academic classes and multiple short free-play recesses, won’t cost a dime. Business cards might cost a few hundred dollars, depending on how many teachers are involved. Restoring ‘extra curricular’ activities could be expensive; ramping them up shouldn’t cost a lot.
Those are four changes I would make right away if I ran a school. There are at least 18 more on my list, so I hope you will stay tuned. And I hope you will share your own ideas and suggestions on my Substack page or right here at Themerrowreport.com.
While your observations about gender specific middle and high school classes is interesting , the barriers it could potentially cause to students and the culture war issues it would attract further into schools would certainly outweigh any benefit. It would be better to work on raising student confidence in mixed groups that do not require a binary gender separation in classes.
LikeLike
I respectfully disagree, Leigh. The data is impossible to refute, and I am not arguing for complete separation, only that which makes positive learning much more likely to occur. Certainly, most parents with daughters will want the best learning conditions for them, and I believe that parents with sons can be reasoned with. Single-sex classes also takes the pressure of boys to be macho and dominant, because there won’t be any girls to impress!
LikeLike
Good work, as always, John. Thanks very much for continuing to be both a barricade and a beacon for effective schools and schooling!
Aim High, an award-winning (free) summer enrichment program for under-resourced middle school students (5 weeks each summer following, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grades) will celebrate its 40th year at San Francisco’s City Hall tomorrow evening. In these four decades, Aim High has had 19,000 “graduates,” 98% of whom have graduated high school and continued with some form of post-secondary learning. Many have become teachers, and each summer at, say, 15 Northern California sites (2,000 students), over a third of our teachers (a combination of certified teachers, college interns and high school teaching assistants) are Aim High graduates!
The “Aim High Way” of teaching students and training teachers mirrors the best of progressive education practice as it engages and sustains the interest of students through project-based, interdisciplinary, experiential, collaborative learning. Even more central, however, are the ways in which students are welcomed, embraced and encouraged. In short, social-emotional foci are key, and teachers work hard to ensure that students know they belong and that they (and their families) are fully seen, appreciated and believed in.
I share this because I believe public schools would benefit greatly by adopting the “Aim High Way” of “doing school.” I should add that, in addition to the above description, Aim High classes are small (max: 20), and each has two teachers — always with the lead teacher being an experienced professional.
From my years of advancing (with your encouragement) the notion of private schools having public purpose,* it became increasingly clear that “purpose learning” can also be a powerful catalyst for students to become authentically engaged in school. The explanation, I think, is simply that it feels good to do something nice for someone else. And, of course, “doing good” for others contributes to bolstering the health of the broader community – including the nation. It is for these reasons that I am an advocate for required national service for all 18-year-olds, but that is a mountain to climb another day – and likely, given my age, for others to take on.
I hope some of this will be relevant as you further consider your 18 suggested changes.
All the best, Al Albert Adams, Ed.D.; former school head and leadership consultant to independent schools
* Lick-Wilmerding High School (San Francisco); happily today, after having coined the term, private school with public purpose in 1988, the first office a visitor encounters on entering the school is its Center For Civic Engagement — dimensions of which are integrated into virtually every aspect of the curriculum – including the technical arts (wood shop, metal fabrication, electronics, drafting/deign/architecture, visual and performing arts)
LikeLiked by 1 person
As always, Al, you are a thought leader and a role model. Deep down, I believe the key is to figure out ways to make kids WANT to come to school, besides the obvious reason, wanting to be with (at least some of) their peers. Meaningful work is an essential step, what you call purposeful learning.
Onward…
LikeLike
[…] four changes I would make if I ran a public school. You can find those ideas described here and here. What follows are six more changes I would do my best to make. Please note that none […]
LikeLike
John, let’s start with YOUR brilliant insight – instead of asking “how smart are you?” Schools should be by asking “How are you start?”
That means building on the special gifts, talents and interests of each individual student. Not ignoring what they need to improve, but beginning with their strenghts.
Over 55 years, I’ve helped start a number of schools that do this They begin with individual August family, student, educator goal setting conferences. These include asking each student about their strengths, interests and priorities for the year. This continues through the year with each student having the opportunity to develop their individual interests.
A second priority is service-learning – in which each youngster, starting at age 5, has opportunities to combine classroom work and community service. Very substantial research showing multiple benefits of this. We were ablet to convince Mn policy-makers that each prospective teacher should learn the rationale for, and how to implement service-learning and project-based learning in their work with youngsters.
LikeLike
Sorry, I meant in the first paragraph, quoting you, to urge that schools begin by asking each student, “how are you smart?”
LikeLike