Why Government Sucks At Educating Your Kids

This is my last one for a while, so let me delve into something that I care deeply about.  Government sucks at educating kids and not just in the ways that you think.

The Show vs Reality: The first couple of years I taught, my performance was only ever evaluated by an administrator who came into my classroom to watch me teach.  This  happened about two or three times a year.  We all knew when it was going to happen.  Most of the time the admin would email or speak to us to make sure which day and class was OK.  I used to shave up the dogs and ponies.  That’s what we called it.  I’d have an amazingly complex lesson plan that involved the kids moving around the room and sharing their own insights on things etc. etc.  It was wrong.  The kids rarely got much more out of those lessons than they got out of my regular lessons and often less because it took so damn long to actually do the activities.  But I became a better teacher and began to value my students’ success more than the impression I created of myself.  Yes, part of that was due to the pressure of standardized tests.  Sometimes, often, standardized tests are VALUABLE tools in measuring student knowledge.  But regardless of the motivation, I became a better teacher because I stopped caring about my evaluations and I started caring about my students. 

Now, it’s principals and superintendents who shave up the dogs and ponies and put on a show.  Schools and districts are compelled by honors and accolades from various sources.  More on the racket that is education below.  But principals and superintendents have engaged in a race for attention.  From Lighthouse Schools to National Board Certification for teachers to publisher rankings to accrediting agencies, school leaders are compelled to score high.  Competition is good and it makes us better, but the problem here is that schools are going through the motions.  While accolades from publishers or high scores from accrediting agencies seem great, they’re merely snapshots.  If you look good that day or that week, it creates a perception that’s not reality.  And that’s education lately.  It’s all about perception and not about reality.  Already we’ve been told this year about the days we’ll have visitors from our accrediting agencies and our administration has encouraged us to be doing lessons that create a particular impression regardless of what we need to do that day to cover content or prep our students for upcoming assessments.

Some of you may have heard of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.  It’s a racket.  This leads to my next point nicely, but let’s address the difference between NBPTS perception and reality first.  Again, teachers who receive NBPTS accreditation have done good work and have done a LOT of work.  In fact, my wife busted her butt to get National Board Certification.  She did it for a couple reasons.  First, she was attracted to the 10% boost in pay that she was promised by the state if she earned the certificate and she was also impressed by the assurance of others who’d been through the process that they learned a lot about how they teach and how they could reach their students more effectively.  I’m sure some people have been through the process and found it to be incredibly effective and rewarding.  We did not.  My wife got her certification and the state paid her for two years before the budgets were cut.  Seems a little like a bait and switch, but again, that’s got a lot to do with the state getting the appearance they were looking for and moving on.  Perhaps the most frustrating aspect was the fact that only a small portion of applicants actually earned certification the first time around.  The vast majority of teachers had to pay the reapplication fee of hundreds of dollars to reapply after amending their application.  This leads me to my next point. 

Education is a racket: It’s not just firms like NBPTS that cash in on education.  Publishing companies write textbooks specifically for large districts or large states.  Once books are adopted, many firms have a leg up on their competition.  Textbook adoption is usually a district level decision.  I’ve been on textbook adoption committees before.  I screamed and yelled to get what I knew was right for my students, but had I not been there, the district was prepared to go with the old publisher as a matter of course.  Software developers also benefit from this situation.  I’m continuously amazed at the eagerness of schools (see the arms race below) to adopt a new program or system to manage grades or attendance or all sorts of student data with only a cursory review.  Sure, they talk a good game.  We use peer review, teacher and parent consultation, blah, blah, blah.  What it often amounts to is a five or six person panel calling the shot for the whole district.  Kudos here to my district for bailing on a program we were set to adoopt this school year.  About two weeks before the year started, we pulled the plug on the new product because it wouldn’t work for our teachers and students.  That doesn’t happen often.  More often than not, the product would be pushed through at the expense of teacher time, students, and the expense of paying software consultants to continuously offer support.

But none of this compares to the accrediting boondoggle.  Accrediting agencies are mooches.  Each time the accrediting agencies show up, the school shaves up the dogs and ponies and blows a nice chunk of change on wooing them.  They have a big luncheon each day they’re on campus.  We decorate a lunchroom or conference room where they eat away from the kids.  In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an accrediting employee in a school lunchroom during lunch.  They eat great and they’re often welcomed by professional banners printed just for their arrival.  Doesn’t it seem like this sort of expense should hurt your score?  Not sure how much you all know about the International Olympic Committee, but I think most accrediting agencies work the same way… throw a big enough party and they’ll give you a great report.  Although, don’t discount the importance of the cool stuff.

The Cool Stuff Arms Race: There is an interactive white board in my classroom and has been for two years.  I’ve rarely used it.  And I’ve been told by my school and district to be very careful about how and when I use it because the bulbs are very expensive.  WHAT!?  So, you buy me a Lamborghini and then tell me to take it easy on the accelerator because gas is expensive?  Don’t get me wrong, the white board’s not that nice.  I mostly just use it to watch CNBC during the day when I can and when it’ll help with my lesson and to show YouTube clips that help drive a point home or provide a great example.  Nevertheless, every permanent classroom in my district has one of these boards and most of our portable units have one as well.  It brings me little solace, having 35 students in most of my AP classes, knowing that the district is spending big bucks on bulbs.  Each school has its own little unique thing it uses to pitch the parents and accrediting agencies.  Most of these have very little direct correlation to learning.  My students do pretty darn well on the AP tests and most days I lecture.  Now, it’s a lot more like a Socratic dialogue, but it certainly doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment.  And that bugs the crap out of my administration.  They’d rather I used the white board, but I don’t do that well.  So far, my scores have been good enough to keep them off my back.  That won’t last forever.  And there’s something else frustrating about this whole thing, the notion of capital reserve never seems to occur to anyone.  Had the district considered the fact that these sorts of investment require future expense, I’d be a little less irritated, but it’s like they never expect things to wear out or budgets to shrink.  Again, part of the reason is that we have to keep adding new and cool stuff to look good to parents, the media, and accrediting agencies.

So, how do we know if our kids’ teachers are doing a good job and our district is a good one?: Ask your kids and watch what’s going on with their scores on standardized tests.  Just like people are duped by the left into believing in the fairy tale of endless government money, people are duped into believing the facade of education.  Look deeper.  Ask your kids’ teachers what the kids are supposed to learn and ask the kids about those topics.  Talk to your kids about the content of their courses.  I beg my students’ parents to do just that.  If you’re kids’ teachers are worth their pay, they’ll be glad you did.

Also, homeschooling isn’t always the answer.  Sometimes it is and I absolutely applaud you folks who can do it, but I expect there are precious few folks qualified to teach their kids AP subjects in multiple disciplines.  Private schooling CAN be the answer, but it doesn’t have to be in a lot of places.  The public schools where I live and teach are among the best in the country, they really are.  But even in the best schools, waste plays far too large a role.

Look past the BS for reality.

I look forward to your thoughts and insight.