There are a lot of problems in California schools-- bad test scores, systems that reward trying to teach to the aformationed tests rather than measuring true achievement, a system that on the one hand can be tremendously stressful on teachers and yet on the other hand rewards simple seniority... suffice it to say, our school system has a number of issues.
And this is a vital problem, because California can only compete with other states and nations by remaining on top of the tech curve and providing a skilled workforce that motivates companies to move here even if they might have higher expenses because the work force is just that good.
But right now, this is hard to do-- the sad fact of the matter is the time to make changes like this is when you have the money to do it right and do it without raiding the piggy bank-- and California has not been in that position for some time.
So what to do? Well, as much as I'd like to shout out "burn the edifice" that's not going to happen, nor should it. However, we should be looking at what sort of minor tweaks we can make that might produce a more effective use of school time, without requiring the upfront investment of money that the state simply cannot afford right now.
And from Japan, we have one, a very good one. It's one of those ideas that is so simple that you almost wonder why you didn't think of it yourself.
In Japanese high and junior high schools, between class periods the students don't move-- the teachers move between classes. So instead of having hundreds or even thousands of students in the corridors, you have a few dozen teachers moving from room to room.
Anyone who has ever been in that tide of humanity called "between periods rush" in a high school can attest to just how much chaos occurs. It's a period that makes it hard to supervise students, easy for students to skip school or be disruptive and of course involves the joy of having to take roll call again. Even in the best organized school, often it means that better than ten minutes of a 50 minute class period are occupied with taking roll, getting everyone settled down and then finally getting started with the traditional disruptions of the fashionably late arrivals.
Having the teachers move, instead of the students, ends most of those issues. It does not cost anything more, and requires no changes to the lesson plan, and in fact can be done with a simple change of schedule.
Given our money problems now, it is criminal to not try and make the absolute best use of every minute of educational time we have, and this is one way to do that. Later on, I'll talk about some others.
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The only problem is, it doesn't matter how you maximize educational time if you're not teaching what needs to be taught. This isn't just a California problem, it's a U.S. problem. There are no real educational standards, some states teach a solid curriculum, some, like Texas, think they can redefine reality by a vote. Moving from one state to another or even from one school district to another will often result in wildly different educational standards.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of moving teachers from classroom to classroom isn't bad, so long as you're not talking about specialized classrooms. Kids can't just sit in a room and have a whole laboratory of equipment come to them. You also have the problem that so many teachers are utterly unqualified to be teaching the subjects they are teaching, they keep their jobs through seniority, not skill, once they reach a certain point, they are essentially unfireable and therefore don't have to care what they teach or what they know.
The reality is, schools and teachers have to be evaluated and the only fair way to do it is by required testing that is even across the board. Otherwise, how do you tell how the teachers in Buttwipe, Arkansas compare to teachers in New York or Chicago? If you have a better solution, I'd sure like to hear it.