This country spends $20B+ yearly on state testing. This expense is unnecessary and creates an environment where teachers end up teaching to the test instead of helping the students master necessary educational skills they will need throughout their lives. Who cares if a student can create a box and whisker plot if they do not know their multiplication tables, how to read fluently, or how to think critically?
The money being wasted on state testing and the associated curriculum (created by the same companies âwhich is a whole separate issue of monopoly and huge corporations fleecing school districts and controlling education) would better be spent on giving teachers raises and giving schools the monies needed for classroom supplies, projects, etc. Teachers need to be given the freedom to teach basic skills and have the funds to create meaningful educational experiences.
Amen, sister, Amen!
Schools abandoned teaching decades ago and became sinecures for teachers.
Why not set up a system of randomly choosing and testing students; and if that testing reveals a pattern of teacher failure, fire the teachers and deny them a license ;to teach in any enviroment for the rest of their lives?
The primary problem is that there is little accountability for teachers; and in too many districts, unions protect those who are incompetent or performing below par. This system must be changed. In addition to dismissal for non-performance, dismissal should also result for teachers who inculcate students with political doctrines, whether overtly or covertly.
Electronics today are cheap enough, good enough, and effective enough that there is no reason not to deploy multiple cameras in every classroom and to record all classes. Those videos should be placed online on a school website (websites could be developed at the district level and deployed for all schools) where they can be viewed by parents, students (who might need to review the lessons), independent teacher certification boards, and other interested parties.
The next problem in order of priority is recalcitrant students who hold back class progress. Classroom videos (see above) would also show disruptive and recalcitrant students who should be removed to remedial programs and ultimately disallowed access to public education if they fail to comply and commit to learning.
Education should be a meritocracy. Every classroom should be constituted of students of more or less equal learning ability. Pay teachers who are proficient at teaching slower students more money as an incentive and reward.
Finally, run schools like a business is run. In business, money is the measure; but in education there is an amorphous, institutionally selected measure of success instead of an independent established value exogenous to the system, just as money is a measure exogenous to business.
It appears that the US is awakening to the failures of public educationâs monopoly funding by government. Private academies will create a competitive environment. If public schools canât or wonât abandon their acquired habits that have led to the obvious and documented failure of American public education, then they deserve to go our of existence and all those in them who created the malaise deserve to lose their livelihoods.
I agree that teachers need to teach the skills for the class the student is in. We do need some type of testing to determine how well students are learning the subjects and can be compared on a state or national level. That way different programs can be looked at that have more students succeeding or failing. We currently have less than 20% being proficient or higher in reading and math at the 4th and 8th grade levels. We need to start using the test results to help get more resources or better teachers at failing schools and find out what the above average schools are doing that helps the students have better understanding of reading and math.
I have a unique perspective as I home schooled my own children, but now work in the public school system as a para, becoming a certified teacher currently. State testing honestly does nothing but waste time and money that could be better spent on the students, resources, and better teacher pay. Many of the low-performing students are that way because many parents no longer take any responsibility to teach or prepare their children for school. They are being raised by electronic devices, video games, and social media which are all working to dumb them down. The curriculum does not help (Common Core is AWFUL!). Teachers know which kids are proficient and which ones are not. The teacher training colleges are not preparing teachers to do the job they are paying tens of thousands of dollars to learn to do. We need a major overhaul of the entire system, but it will probably never happen due to how much money and ego is at stake in the current system.
I think prospective teachers could take 2 years in community college, learning the subject they want to teach, then spend a year apprenticingâ1 quarter as a paraprofessional, and 3 quarters under several different teachers. You learn way more on the job than you ever do getting a teaching degree. All prospective teachers should be given a Civics exam and a content exam prior to being licensed. Local school boards need to stop hiring those with whacked political ideologies to teach students. Get back to the basics in elementary school, then spend middle school on real-world skills (personal finance, business, etc), then let kids apprentice or start taking AP classes if they want to attend college. Which, by the way, is only necessary for 20% of the jobs in this country.
There was a time when students were assigned to classes based on their ability to learn and willingness to do so. In the hippie-dippie âif it feels goodâ â60s that practice was changed requiring âmainstreamingâ. That practice adversally affects good students who apply themselves because teachers have to set goals low enough for the lowest common denominator. There is no reward for merit but those who cannot or will not achieve are rewarded with social promotions. It has ruined public education.
I, for one (who was in public schools in the â40s and â50s), think that the trend to break up the public education monopoly by allowing tax money to follow students to schools of their parentsâ choice is the only thing that can save public education. Only by losing funding will those who administer public education be motivated to seek innovative solutions to attract students. The danger is that standards will be lowered even further to attract students; therefore, some standard tests will be necessary but they should be independently developed based on historical data and projected needs. Teachers and public school administrators should have no access to those tests and they should change signficantly year-to-year to prevent âteaching to the testâ instead of teaching to competence.
I say itâs time to experiment and put academics and expert psychologists to the test. Run ethical experiments to see what produces more effective intellectual and critical thinking students. Eliminate things they do not need like Chemistry, Trigonometry, Calculus and so fourth. This is academic bloat for students these ages, and students barely remember it by the time they graduate. Allow for resources for them to continue learning after school and even after they graduate. Form multiple versions of academic experiments and academic styles and see which one produces the best and optimal results.
I agree that school choice is PART of the solution, but the mandated testing is not. I come from the era before NCLB and I got a FAR BETTER education than what is being offered today. The teachers do not have access to the tests each year, but the companies that make the test create the curriculum that the schools use. In essence, we know what topics will be covered, so they rush to hit them all prior to testing in April. There is no time to master anything, you put your head down and ¨exposeâ them to everything. Common Core math is the worst thing to happen to education as well. It is confusing and complicated. We could teach math the way we were taught in the 70Ĺ and 80Ĺ and the kids would be way better off. The state standards are also pushing students to learn concepts before they are cognitively ready. For example, when I was in elementary school in the 70´s, we focused on reading in the 1st and 2nd grade, penmanship was stressed in 3rd grade (cursive), and we didn´t learn multiplication until 4th grade. That has all changed and 3rd graders are being taught multiplication (in an extremely convoluted way) but haven´t mastered addition and subtraction yet. Thus, they fall ¨behind.¨ We need to slow down and give these kids time to master foundational skills before moving on. There is so much that needs to change that I would have to write pages to express it all.
My personal experience in public education was so long ago (more than 65 years) that I have no inkling of what todayâs environment is. I do know that if you do not measure learning, you cannot manage the process . . . you cannot hold teachers and administrators accountable for results. Is there any other way to measure learning than by testing? If you know of one you are perhaps the only person who ever lived who does.
From reading your posts, the problem is not testing, per se, but is the curriculum, the teachers and the administrators who adopt and manage to the curriculum. Again, I am too far removed from the process to have any personal experience. My daughter finished public education more than 25 years ago; so even that proximity to the environment is remote for me.
My opinion is that education should be local, that there should be no influence or control from state or federal governments. Their role is to collect taxes and provide funding. Of course, Iâm not naive enough to believe that they will do so without interfering; so maybe they should be eliminated even as tax collectors and funders.
What would you think of a system that required parents to participate in setting curricula, by law? Maybe if you have a student in the system, you should be required to participate. Maybe school administrators should be required, by law, to find a way to make that happen. Perhaps the problem is administrators. I donât know the current statistics, but itâs my understanding that the ratio of administrators to classroom teachers is far greater than it was in the era of good, effective public education.
The part of society that is least changed by technology is education. If a person from a couple of centuries ago were to visit our time, the thing he would find least changed would be teaching. The changes he would observe would be mostly that so many are given educational opportunities, but the actual acts of teaching would be very familiar, except perhaps the legal constraints forcing egalitarianism to take precedence over meritorious performance.
Do I detect a bit of tongue-in-cheek?
I completely agree seeing that kids today are just not prepared to be in the real world . But they can pass a test ! We need to go back to teaching basics and real life issues to children of all ages and stop making them achieve goals on a schedule !
I am in the educational field. I was educated in the 70âs and 80âs, homeschooled my 5 children til they went to community college or to work, and am currently a paraprofessional getting my teaching certificate. School today is nothing like it was when I was a kid and certainly not like it was 100 years ago. Back then, they were learning higher math at a younger age. Todayâs students are not taught to think critically, just pumped full of useless,non-essential to real life junk. They are also not emotionally or mentally mature enough for rigorous instruction because manybparents do nothing to prepare them. Much of our day is spent on behavior management and remedial instruction. It is sad.
Testing is a BIG part of the problem, teachers teach to the test instead of teaching to mastery of skills. There is so much useless info that the students will never use, but it has to be covered because it will be on the test. Testing does not show how well the students are being educated. There was a time when teachers and districts were trusted to educate students and they did a pretty good job. Many parents are not preparing their kids for learningâŚthey come to school with no discipline, no respect for authority, and would rather be playing video games than learning. Many have no capacity to sit for an extended time and concentrate. There are many issues contributing to the problem, and there needs to be a major societal overhaul.
The problem seems to stem from standardized tests and that teachers know what will be on the tests. If thatâs the case, why not randomize the tests so that teachers will not know what is on them? The first standardized test I encountered (in 1960) was the SAT. It was so new then that the industry around prepping for it had not yet materialized. Despite that, when I went to college and took placement tests, I placed completely out of math and English and did not have to take the required curriculum in those disciplines.
Do away with standardized tests. Find another way to measure teachersâ performance. Re-institute advanced placement at all grade levels and allow students to skip whole grades when they perform well. Forget social promotion and fail those students who canât or wonât perform.
Yeah and it will help with our mental health as well by taking away stress.
We do need to get rid of standardized tests, but not for the reason you mentioned. Teachers know the general content, but not the specifics that will be tested each year. We arenât even allowed to look at the tests while students are taking them. The real problem is that the test makers also write the curriculum. Then teachers teach to the test instead of helping kids master the basics. They have to cover so many topics ( most of which are unnecessary), yet the kids donât read well, write well, or know basic math facts. Who cares if they know how to do a box and whisker plot in 5th grade if they canât multiply? Also, the state standards force teachers to cover way too much content each year and they push topics before the kids are ready for them. Get rid of state testing, common core, and state standards. Go back to teaching the basics and give the kids time to master them before moving on.
One presumes that you are a classroom teacher. Would you care to comment on the points of advanced placement and skipping whole grades?
I think that political motivations affect classrooms overmuch. I donât know if itâs true, but Iâve read that the preponderance of under performers are black. Iâve witnessed over decades that classes seem to be pitched to the lower acheivers but the practice of isolating them into classes where they do not hold back higher achievers leads to segregation based on ability (not skin color) which leads to complaints from parents of the blacks who are the most vocal. No politician wants to see a return to the street demonstrations and disruptions of the â60s and â70s; so students are left in the lurch to satisfy constituencies. Schools once rewarded merit and now focus on issues other than learning performance to too great an extent.
If Iâm wrong, please cite studies that will show me the light. Iâm not interested in political opinion or even that of teachers (who drank their particular brand of kool-aid when they went into the education departments of colleges and universities as the were required to do to succeed).
I have 2 nieces who are now retired who taught for more than 40 years each. I witnessed their indoctrination and the way in which the profession demanded adherence to a political orthodoxy. I witnessed it as my daughter went through public school. You might deny it, but Iâm an educated, retired former business executive with good powers of observation.
Let me address your issues one at a time:
First off, I home schooled my 5 children until they went to college or into the work force. They are all intelligent and doing very well. I am currently a paraprofessional working with special ed kids, but am close to being certified to teach in my own classroom. I have a very different approach to education from most of the teachers that you will meet, so take that with a grain of salt. I am not sold on the current way schools are run; I am becoming a teacher to make a real difference in the lives of my students.
Political issues do seem to be very prevalent in many schools. However, I work at a very rural school in western PA that is predominantly white and very conservative. Kids still say the pledge daily in the classroom. Even though we are a 99% white school, we have a high percentage (about 30%) of our students that have an IEP. In my district, underperformers seem to be mostly from the lower socio-economic strata, and there are a LOT of students from broken homes and welfare/disability situations. So, IN MY OPINION AND EXPERIENCE, socio-economics play a huge part. Children from more affluent homes usually do better academically. There is also the issue that student behavior has been declining at a rapid rate. Teachers do a LOT of behavior management, which takes away from actual instruction time. Plus, kids today have limited attention spans (thanks to social media and video games), and just arenât as interested in buckling down and learning. Parents also do not support their kidsâ academics the way they once did.
Next issue: schools focus more on teaching to the test than mastery. They feel the need to cover every topic that may be on the test and students do not have the time to master them. Ever since No Child Left Behind, federal funding has been tied to school compliance on testing, which is a shame.
As far as the arbitrary grouping of kids by age: I have always been outspoken about how detrimental that is. One 5 year old may be ready to learn to read, while another is not. I have always believed that children shouldnât be sitting for 6+ hours/day learning whatever the state says they are supposed to be learning at that age. Kids need more time to play, explore, and develop before they are pushed into sitting still in a desk for a full school day. I would rather see much less âacademicâ time in the early years and children grouped by ability rather than age. Older children need to be learning the basics and real-life skills: how to budget, how to fix stuff, how to cook, etc. They should have never gotten rid of shop and home ec.
I am very much in favor of home schooling, but realize not every family can or should teach their kids at home. For those who cannot home school, there definitely needs to be school choice. Parents need to be able to send their kids to the school that suits their needs the best. That would force public schools to be more competitiveâdo better or lose enrollment. Teachers and other staff also need to be paid more competitive wages to attract better people to the field. So much is expected of todayâs educators, and they just cannot afford to live on what they are currently being paid. It is a tough job that requires expensive education and they are training our future generations. As an example, I know several teachers in my district who borrowed $30K-80K to get their degrees. After college, they have to find a place to live, get a car, etc. to get established in the area that they are working in. Doing all that and paying enormous school loan payments is next to impossible when your starting salary is $32,500 (my district, others pay a bit more). People who are smart and capable often choose a different career path that pays better. The ones who teach either really love kids and want to be doing their job, or love having summers and weekends off. Most of my colleagues are in the first category. Many people will cite the fact that we only work 9 months of the year, but that is not exactly true. Teaching is HARD. We teach, manage behaviors, counsel, jump through ridiculous state mandated hoops, deal with kidsâ illnesses (the PK teacher was thrown up on the other day, she had a change of clothes with her and stayed) which means we are often sick (and usually work anyway). We cover other classes when there is no sub for another teacher. And most of us spend evenings and weekends prepping lessons or grading papers. Part of the summer is spent cleaning our rooms, then getting ready for the next year; often learning a whole new curriculum if the school decides to implement something new. We get switched between grades too, which means learning the curriculum and routines for that new grade level. We also spend a lot of our own money on school supplies, treats/snacks for the kids, and items for hands-on lessons. We can only write off $300/year for tax purposes (I believe that has been increased to $500 for 2025), even though we often spend way more than that.
This has turned out longer than I anticipated. So, to sum up:
- Make education local.
- Pay teachers/staff better. Which means fixing the bloated school budgets where the admin is top-heavy (and paid more than they are worth).
- Get rid of Common Core and state testing.
- Provide school choice (vouchers, etc.)
- Group students by ability instead of age.
- Teach parents to parent their children (hardest one of all to accomplish). It can be done, but it will take a HUGE societal shift that I am not holding my breath for.
- Drastically change the teacher education programs. Instead of 4 years of mindless, expensive classes that do not truly prepare teachers, let them study their chosen subject for 2 years in community college, then apprentice for a minimum of 1 year under several seasoned teachers to gain real classroom experience.
I would be happy to answer any other questions that come up.
Thank you for recounting your experiences. It was a well thought out and well written post.
Extrapolating from your post, I perceived the following:
- You view teaching differently than most teachers. I wonder why? I think itâs because you are pragmatic AND because you have not been indoctrinated by hyper-liberal schools of education
- Teachers are underpaid. For as long as I have been alive (nearly 9 decades) that has been the case. I think the profession attracts many who cannot perform to the standards of other disciplines (as well as those who are capable and choose the profession for the love of teaching). More pay without increased competence and better results is the wrong answer. IMO, a system for rewarding high-performing teachers and weeding out under-performers is needed; but unions (which should not exist for public employees) will not accept a merit-based system, and it is anathema to politicians. If unions were thrown out and politicians made to stay out, the profession would be improved.
- The system is administratively top heavy. I couldnât agree more. A good use of public funds would be to discover the appropriate ratio and to identify those administrative functions that increase the degree of learning transfer to students . . . then eliminate all others and base funding on student-to-administrator ratios. Of course, this would have to be done by agencies outside the profession to have a detached, objective view.
- I went through the public education system before 1960. My daughter went through it from â88 through â01. I witnessed first hand how the school environment and teachers have changed . . . and not for the better, IMO. Bad behavior is tolerated where it was not in my era. That we were given corporal punishment and that parents were required to discipline their children are conditions that no longer exist.
- Return to a system based on merit and group students according to ability and accomplishments. I infer that you believe, as do I, that social cohorting is a bad practice.
- Government programs intrude too much and are not effective (show me a govt program that is effective and Iâll show you some somalis in Minneapolis
). Government influence and control of public schools should be local and should set standards, not policy. - Parents cannot be âtaughtâ to parent (IMO) but can be given penalties. For example, why not impose fines on parents whose children are disruptive?
- You suggest changing teacher education programs. That is asking the leopard to change his spots. Those schools must all be abolished to cleanse them of their ill-considered social and political biases which they inculcate in their curricula and their students.
What did I get wrong? What did I miss?
Testing only confirms the memorization of information and not the actually intelligence of the individual taking the testâgood memory high test scoreâbad memory low test score. Another way of looking at it is how much does one remember what they memorized from their Driverâs license manual after passing the test?