Can Educating Children Be Compared to Training Dogs?

"Dogs: An unusual guide to school reform" -- a blog by Marion Brady in The Washington Posts' The Answer Sheet.

I'm not sure I agree with the premise. It's like comparing apples to oranges but I do agree that our current ed system's grouping of students into grade levels guarantees that we lose many who have an aptitude for one or some but not all subject areas.

Students Are Bored! Duh....

Headline:

Latest HSSSE results show familiar theme: bored, disconnected students want more from schools

Some excerpts:

"The numbers between 2006 and 2009 have consistently shown a troubling trend among high school students in the U.S."

"'We've got similar numbers in terms of kids who are bored every day -- about 49 percent of the kids are bored every day, 17 percent every class. That's two-thirds of the kids who are bored at least every day.'"

"But students did clearly indicate what might motivate them. Asked to respond to the statement that they welcome opportunities to be creative at school, 82 percent said they agree or strongly agree. As for what methods they preferred in the classroom, 65 percent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, 'I like discussions in which there are no clear answers.'

"'Many students would be more engaged in school if they were intellectually challenged by their work. Discussion and debate is still one of the highest rated kinds of teaching, as are group projects,' Yazzie-Mintz [project director] said. 'Technology projects, art and drama projects also have a good number of kids saying they really like this type of teaching.'"

Now we need a study to determine if cause (bored) and effect (substandard performance) are in play--more money wasted on the obvious.

Blame the Teachers 2?

Back in July I addressed research that indicated that student performance is mostly (80%) due to environmental and cultural factors leaving only 20% due to teachers (13%) and schools (7%). Another study reported on by the author in the CommonWealth finds that "there is surprisingly little difference between the quality of teaching in so-called “good” schools (wealthy, suburban schools with high MCAS scores) and “bad” schools (inner-city schools with low scores) when the results are averaged across all teachers in the district and disaggregated by student demographics, specifically race and poverty." The author, Edward Moscovitch, president of Cape Ann Economics and chairman of the Bay State Reading Institute, using the data from the study goes on to debunk most of the popular carrot and stick reforms being initiated as a result of federal pressure: merit pay, charter schools, and firing teachers.

Must Read - Moursund

I am a strong proponent of project-based learning (PBL) and a fan of David Moursund, a prolific writer of over 50 books, many of which focus on technology in teaching and learning. Twenty-six of his books are available for free online and what I consider one of his most valuable books, Project-Based Learning Using Information Technology, is available from ISTE (David was the founder of ISTE) for $34.95 ($24.45 for members).

For a shortcut version of his thoughts on PBL see this website where he provides a syllabus, outline and other materials for a one credit course/workshop on PBL.