Don’t Believe the Hype About “Excellent” Teachers; There’s a Lot of Snake Oil Out There Right Now

I just watched the second half of Fareed Zakaria’s CNN special on fixing American education, and I read his long piece in Time last week on the same topic. In his defense, he’s not an educator, and he’s a bit awestruck by famous faces. In the special, Bill Gates gets the most face time, and while he’s got good intentions , his foundation continues to spread a false gospel that poverty can be fully surmounted for all children through good teaching, and that closing the minority achievement gaps is easily in our reach, also through good teaching. This gospel originates from Michelle Rhee, former Washington, D.C., superintendent of schools and current media talking head. I just want to analyze one little piece of what she’s spouting, so you can see how unquestioning the media have become of education “reformers.”

When it comes to the “achievement gap” that exists between white test scores and those of African-Americans and other minorities (though, curiously, not Asians), Rhee believes that the gap can be erased in about five years of excellent teaching. Here’s her evidence: The top 20% of teachers (as judged by student test scores, a very unreliable way to grade teachers) take their students a few months more than one full year’s worth of achievement in one school year. On the other hand, the bottom 20% only take their kids ahead 7 or 8 months in a full school year. Therefore, she extrapolates, over about 5 years, the crippling gap between whites and most minorities can be completely erased if we just ensure that the minority students have excellent teachers. For you who don’t do math, don’t get glossy-eyed and give up here.  That’s as hard as the math gets.

First, understand that the “excellent” teachers Rhee likes to talk about are a very fluid group. The teachers whose students score in the top 20% one year are very likely to not be in that group next year, I guess meaning they’re no longer “excellent.” Meanwhile, among the dregs this year whose kids score in the bottom 20%, lots and lots of them won’t be in that category next year, and some will even magically become “excellent!”

But more importantly, though, let’s give Rhee the benefit of the doubt, and let’s agree that her analysis of the teachers is correct.  So, with good teaching, if a student can move ahead five extra months per year than they would have with poor teaching, can we really assume they’ll continue that same rate over five years? I play golf, and when I get on a hot streak and shoot 95 instead of my customary 100 (an improvement rate of 5 strokes per round), can I then assume I’m just five rounds away from shooting 70, and one more round beyond that from joining the PGA tour? If I can sprint 40 yards in 6 seconds (120 feet per second), is it fair then to assume that my time in the mile will be just 76 seconds, if I were to bother to actually try it?  Or intellectually, if I read an extra book per month, and my IQ score improves by a point, am I just a few hundred books away from making Stephen Hawking look a bit dim? I’ll challenge Michelle Rhee right now: Show me one kid, just one, who has made that journey and closed the gap in five school years, using just good teachers in a regular classroom in a regular school day, and I’ll write an apology to her.

So what’s the takeaway for parents with kids in the schools? The reformers make a lot of noise and get lots of media, but then frontier towns were captivated by snake-oil salesmen with their traveling wagons full of miracle cures!  There is, right now, a ton of money to be made in being a critic of the schools, because it plays on parents’ most basic fears for their children. Don’t give in to the panic.  In most schools, there is a good education to be had for those who want it. There are teachers who don’t give in to the pressure to pass kids on no matter what, teachers who bring their unique creative energy to their class every day and help their kids understand the world. Seek them out, make some noise, get your kid in their classes.  And then watch them achieve!

For those who wish to learn more, see Diane Ravitch’s book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. Much of the basic data I used here is found in the book.

 

The Role of Sports in Educating a Young Person

How likely is your child to ever play in front of paying fans?

I’m not just a teacher, parent of a student-athlete, and a sports fan, but I’m also a high school referee for soccer, so I’ve got lots of competing perspectives on this topic. I’m going to focus here on what parents should know about student athletics, and a few do’s and don’ts. In a later post, I’ll give my referee’s perspective on parent behavior at the games, as that’s not a commonly-heard view. But for today, let’s stick to the athletes themselves.

First, do NOT plan on your little athlete making money playing sports for a living, or even for attaining a college scholarship. I read somewhere (if anyone knows where I can find this stat, please let me know, as I’ve looked in vain) that only about 1% of high school athletes go on to play at college, and of those only 1% will ever get paid a single dollar to play in a professional sport, even semi-pro small-town baseball, much less in the majors! And for those who do have the talent to possibly go further, lots can get in the way. Injuries, of course, but also academics, loss of passion for their sport, even the development of poor character and judgment. By way of example, I did the math one time for my students at Riverview Gardens High School, and showed that they could expect a professional athlete to come out of their school about every 10-15 years. And, I pointed out, when I was new, two football players were there who eventually made it to the NFL for a while, so the odds were even more against them! In short, if your kid likes sports, great. If s/he’s good at it, even better. Enjoy it for what it is.

Second, along those lines, do NOT think that better coaching, officiating, etc., is going to turn your kid into a professional athlete. Different sports look for different things in their players: size, quickness, toughness, strength, agility, passion, and other unquantifiable qualities that we have no control over. To take the classic “Michael-Jordan-got-cut-from-his-high-school-basketball-team” story and reverse it, Michael Jordan was so good that better judges of raw talent found him; I believe he was destined to be a professional basketball player, no matter what his high school basketball program did to him.

Third, and this goes for all parents of all athletes of any age, use the sport to teach about commitment. I’m sure there doesn’t exist an athlete who hasn’t dreaded the occasional practice, made a game when they really wanted to be somewhere else, or even had a team they wanted to quit. Even at the youngest levels, be sure your child understands what commitment to a team means BEFORE you sign them up for a sport, and then expect them to follow through on that commitment. Obviously, commitment grows more serious as your child gets older, and there are often good reasons to miss practices and even games, but don’t let them out of a practice or a team activity “just because.” Otherwise, they won’t really get the lessons of team sports–sign them up for tennis or golf, instead.

Fourth, GO TO THE GAMES AS THEY GET OLDER (sorry for yelling). First, the action gets much better, and it’s a lot more entertaining to be a fan. But second, if your kid is playing ball in middle or high school, they’re doing it because they love it. How many other things does your tween and teen allow you to watch them do that they love, and that they do with their friends? Also, seeing 20-30 high school kids give their all on the field in front of five fans (I see that a lot in soccer) is just sad. They’ll be gone sooner than you know–wouldn’t it be great to talk about that awesome play they made over dinner that evening? I know, a lot of high school game times are inconvenient for working adults; make the ones you can. Make it a priority.

Finally, and this goes back to point one, keep your perspective about it all. Our kids (even the teens) do look to us for guidance on attitudes and behavior, so if you keep the sport in its proper place (behind homework and academics, ahead of video games), it’ll help them do so as well.

 

College Placement Exams and Your Incoming Freshman

Your child may not be ready for this...

By Dr. Shirley C., professor at a large state university

You remember that the college-planning year goes like this: College tours? Check. College admissions and aid packages in? Check. Prepared for college placement exams? Ch… placement exams? Those didn’t exist when I went to college.

Given the variability in the high-school preparation of incoming college freshmen, many public colleges are requiring all incoming students to take a math placement exam and possibly an English and/or science placement exam. Admission into college-level classes is no longer based on the high-school transcript or on SAT/ACT scores, but instead on these all-important placement exams. These exams may be computer based and timed, and students may have to take them before they can attend a freshman registration day.

Why placement exams? I teach engineering at a public university and assist with freshman advising. Therefore, I see the effects on students’ academic careers of poor math, science and English preparation. Pre-engineering students who come into college testing into Algebra I are starting at a major disadvantage;. they will require a year of math before they can move into many engineering classes, including physics. Even students who take calculus in high school may not be prepared for the rigor of college-level calculus. It is tough. Almost all college students were good students in high school. The ones with poor high school grades did not go to college. No one in college was at the bottom of his/her class.

Why do these low scores happen? As an adviser/faculty, I put it into one or more of three categories: (1) poor testing taking skills, (2) underestimating the importance of these exams, especially since many take them around prom or graduation, and (3) inadequate preparation in high school classes. How can I tell which category it is and whether a retest is a good idea? If the high school transcript does not include at least pre-calculus, I assume placement into Algebra II/Trigonometry is correct. If the high school transcript includes AP calculus and good SAT/ACT scores, I wonder about test taking skills. If I have a Dean’s list GPA but a mediocre SAT/ACT score in math or if the transcript and placement do not match, I wonder about the quality of the preparation or test taking skills.

What can parents do? If you are already at the college advising session, first, DO NOT yell at your child. Support them; this is disappointing for them also. Help them decide what they need to do to be successful in college. Then, go home and share your stories with your local schools. Encourage better standards (we don’t believe high school grades at the college level unless it is a nationally-ranked high school).

If your child has not taken the placement tests yet, remind him/her how important these tests are. Then encourage preparation. Look at your child’s high school classes and their scores on standardized tests. Do they match? If not, does your child need to review the material to demonstrate his/her skills? Do they need to improve test taking ability?  Then you need to decide how you can help your pre-freshman be as ready for college as possible.