Final Summative Paper for EDEF 607

By Karen Soper

It is the duty of a public educational system to prepare our students for life, when they graduate.If I had a magic wand, I would create an educational system that would prepare youth to function as good citizens; citizens that understand their world and who contribute positively to society. These are the important skills that need to be taught in school. Social skills cooperative learning, citizenship. I would incorporate aspects of Shapiro s peace education by teaching compassion, kindness, understanding and acceptance of those who are different (Shapiro, 2006). y Basics of mathematics adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, measurement and simple algebra. Leaving the higher level math skills for those who are proficient at math and desire to learn more. y Reading and writing reading and comprehension skills, writing skills, so they can communicate effectively and understand the communications of others. Literature should be used to teach these skills, so they can be exposed to good models. y History First national and then world history. It should be taught in such a way where they see patterns in history, so they can learn from mistakes of the past and to understand why things are the way they are today. Not taught as a mere memorization of dates and events. y y Science Interactive and hands-on, so it has meaning. Art and Music to develop the creative side and to encourage appreciation.

Physical and Health daily physical activity and care of self. Respect of themselves and human life.

Domestic skills - such as budgeting a household, care of babies and children, cooking, minor household repairs, minor vehicle repairs, awareness of career choices and how they affect your lifestyle.

Foreign languages Latin root words in elementary and middle school should be taught so students can more easily determine the meaning of words they are unfamiliar with. Spanish in high school for all students as it is a prevalent language in the Americas.

It is just as important how these things will be taught. In my educational system, the students would be highly engaged in their learning. Most of the learning would be done in groups and discussions. The teacher would be more of a facilitator than a dictator. The students would be given real life problems to solve. They would utilize the skills being taught to solve these problems. This type of learning encourages students to be critical thinkers, to learn group skills, to teach each other and see relevance to their world. While it takes a creative teacher who can take the educational standards that need to be taught in a certain grade level and find their relevance in a problem that the students can solve. But once the teacher has figured this out, he or she merely guides the students in their groups to a resolution. This style of learning is superior to rote learning. It gives the students skills that they can carry with them into their adult world. They will have the tools they need to solve problems and to work together with others for a common goal. This type of teaching makes standardized testing as a form of accountability more difficult, but not impossible. There are certain skills that can be assessed and should be assessed. I would propose an accountability system like Rothstein suggests:

Representative student samples should be assessed at the state level and on a regular schedule, not only in math and reading but in other academic areas science, history, other social studies, writing, foreign language as well as in the arts, citizenship, social skills and health behavior. As in early NAEP these assessments should include paper-and pencil test items, surveys and performance observations. (Rothstein, 2008, p. 148) However, I would not assess quite as many different areas. I would only assess math, reading, writing, science, social studies, citizenship and health. Mostly due to the complexity of developing so many tests and the amount of time it would take for students to take all those tests. Some of the categories he suggests can be included in one of the tests above. For example, social skills can be assessed as part of citizenship. This type of assessment would require an expansion of the present day National Assessment of Educational Process (NAEP), which would be federally funded. I also agree with Rothstein that NAEP scores should be scaled and not leveled by achievement. It makes it easier to compare quartiles with other states (Rothstein, 2008). Testing by age, rather than by grade, allows states to see if there starting age policies are working. I would follow early NAEP surveying of students after they have left the school system. I would however, suggest sampling 21 year olds rather than 17 year olds. Many 17 year olds are still in high school and at 21 they are either graduating from college or are close to it or they are working or attending some type of continuing education. I believe you would get a better idea of how well they were prepared for college or for getting into the work force. All of the assessments would be samplings determined by the state on a random basis. The samplings should not be left to the schools, for obvious reasons. This type of accountability would end the teaching to the test syndrome as the data would be used to improve the schools not to punish. It would bring to light areas of weakness and strength in each state s systems. NAEP would oversee the test development and administration. However, the data would be given back to the states to analyze and control the recommendations for improvements. As Rothstein states, U.S. Congress and Department of Education are too distant to micromanage school

performance (Rothstein, 2008).Local school boards, their superintendents and principals should get together to analyze the data from the testing and to come up with a plan for improvements in areas where they are weak. Each state s governor would require an improvement plan to be submitted to the governor or a governor assigned task force to hold each school system accountable for having a plan for improvement in areas of weakness. Each state should have its own inspection agency that comes in and evaluates each school to make sure they are safe, appropriately staffed, and are making the improvements in their improvement plan that they submitted to the governor. The teams of people from this agency need to be professionals who are trained in what to look for. They should have access to all classrooms and arrive with little to no advance notice. They should make clear recommendations on how each school should reform and schools that repeatedly fail in their reports over a period of three years, the administration and faculty should be replaced (Rothstein, 2008). I would do away with tenure for teachers. Administrators need to be able to get rid of bad teachers. There should be a clear process for getting rid of these teachers, but it needs to be a swift process, so that an entire class doesn t have to suffer through an entire year of a bad teacher. This process would include many observations and suggestions for improvement. If within 30 days, the teacher does not make the majority of the improvements, they are out. There is no reason for tenure other than to please the unions. I do not believe in performance based pay. All teachers should exhibit high performance, as with any job. Unlike the Israel studies referenced by Lavy, recentRand studies show that performance based pay does not have any real effect on student achievement scores in the United States (Lavy, 2007; Rand, 2011). Funding my education system would be multi-faceted. Federal money would cover all NAEP required testing expenses, but would not fund the schools directly. Each state would be responsible for funding its own schools. This is a radical idea, I know, but I think it could work. There would be a big

federal tax cut for individuals followed by a big state tax increase for education. The state tax increase would come from income tax withholdings as well as property taxes, sales taxes, lottery systems and corporation contributions. There would be some federal oversight to make sure that all states are appropriating a minimum amount to their schools. This would be based on the state s population numbers, number of schools, and socio-economic make up. If a state is unable to meet the minimum standard, due to a high percentage of low income individuals in the state, the federal government would supplement to bring them up to the minimum standard. State who have the ability to meet the standard and greatly exceed it, would have to pay the federal government a certain percentage of the amount by which they exceed the minimum standard. This money will be used to help the states with the low income issues. This way all states will at least meet a minimum standard of funding for their schools. From there each state will do the same within their own state. There will be a minimum set for each district. Those districts who more than meet the standard, would donate a percentage to the districts that cannot meet the minimum standard. All state corporations of a certain size, based on revenues earned, would be required to donate funds or the equivalent in products to the schools. These funds and products would be string free within the walls of the schools. No advertising in the walls of the schools may take place. However they are free to advertise on school newsletters home, yearbooks, sporting events, school websites, etc. Lotteries would be required to donate all funds to education alone. With similar standards for all states and all districts within a state, education would be more equalized. Each state would mostly be funding its own state. I have created a public school system that will educate all students to be good citizens, critical thinkers, possess skills to go on to college or follow a career of their choice, understand the world in which they live, and be able to contribute positively to society. The schools systems will be equitable regardless of the population. Each school will be held accountable both on a federal and state level.

Reference List
Shapiro, H. S. (2006). Losing heart: The moral and spiritual miseducation of America s children. New York: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. Rothstein, R. (2008). Grading education: Getting accountability right. Washington D.C. and New York: Economic Policy Institute and Teacher s College Press. Lavy, V. (2007). Using performance-based pay to improve the quality of teachers. The Future of Children, 17 (1), 87-109. Rand Corporation. (2011, July 18). New York City school-based financial incentive program did not improve student achievement or affect reported teaching practices. Retrieved July 21, 2011 from http://www.rand.org/news/press/2011/0718.html