The thing that occurred to me this week is that there are a lot of problems that we are all aware of with the modern education system. I think that the issues come from the fact that the last time the curriculum was evaluated was in 1892 by three guys who were trying to decide what needed to be taught to elite students who would be pursuing scholarly careers. We are living in a different world than they were and students are entering college without the intention of continuing in to the realm of academia. The purpose of secondary education has changed also and although states have tried to adapt the mandatory curriculum to the constantly changing students by introducing high stakes testing they have unknowingly shifted the focus in the classroom from the student’s education to the test results.
What options are available for us to solve these issues? I think the first step is for everyone to stop blaming everyone else and to look around and see what the students need to be successful in today’s world. They need to know how to write, critically think, and read information closely. Students also need time to find out who they are and what they want to do with the rest of their lives. That is a lot of stuff to work learn and work through at one time. As the Harvard committee did originally it is important for educators to work together from the beginning to the end. That means that high school educators should be working with college educators to determine what needs to be taught where. I would like to propose that at the secondary level the focus is on the basic skills of writing, note taking, critical reading skills, and critical thinking skills. Then when the student enters freshman composition class the college educator will develop the basic skills they have been taught in to upper level writing and reading. I think that college should also be a time for students to explore other disciplines to determine what they would like to pursue in the future. No one fully knows what they want to do with the rest of their life at 18 and that is okay. Obviously, not everyone in the United States or the world will agree and it will take time for everyone to come together. It will require teachers such as myself asking questions and trying to work with college professors to rework the curriculum to improve the quality of students entering college. It would also help if college would reinstate the higher level of expected qualifications for students instead of continuing to lower the standards to increase enrollment.
I agree with you, Elaine, when you say “I think the first step is for everyone to stop blaming everyone else and to look around and see what the students need to be successful in today’s world. They need to know how to write, critically think, and read information closely.” Do the business leaders who complain about the preparation of students for the workforce give schools and universities any guidance about what exactly they want? I’m sure that some leaders have met and made some sort of recommendations, but I’ll bet they’re as vague as other mandates that instructors receive from legislative and administrative sources.
ReplyDeleteYou may already be familiar with this, but the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has instituted Texas College Readiness Standards (mandated by the Texas Legislature) that reflect your position and goals for composition. However, the standards are so vague that they mean little (to me, at least) in directing secondary instructors.
Those standards are at
http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/download.cfm?downloadfile=C9B4C756-ACDF-A9B7-71FC77A184ED1DB3&typename=dmFile&fieldname=filename
I think the ACT’s College Readiness Standards for Writing at http://www.act.org/standard/planact/writing/index.html are much more useful as rubrics from which secondary instructors (and FYC instructors) can gain some perspective.
As usual, though, both these documents still don’t give a handful of magic lessons that will work to increase the quality of student writing. (The ACT’s standards, though, do give some specific places to emphasize that will move students from one level of mastery to the next).
Dear Elaine,
ReplyDeleteThere is certainly a growing divide between the academic expectations of universities and what high schools are delivering. In Ontario, the threshold for university acceptance has risen from marks in the 75% range to 85% and above over the last 20-30 years. But the average mark for first year students at the University of Toronto, for example, is 60%. High schools are not really preparing students for university is what this number tells me.
There is (or maybe there was) an alignment initiative happening in Texas just like you mention. I was briefly on the committee here in the valley, which was probably 200 secondary and college instructors, and another 50 administrators. Of course, as you might imagine, the problem I saw was first that this was far too many people to get much done, but broken down by subject it actually was much better. The bigger issue had to do with standardized testing. It was made clear that the next statewide standardized test (the third version in 10 years or so) was already essentially done. I pointed out that all our work would be entirely ignored unless it became the basis of the test, and several platitudes later I decided to leave the group rather than get more enraged at each meeting knowing that in the end the high school teacher were of course going to teach to the test, because that’s the only way they are really evaluated. They’d be crazy to do otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that colleges ought to be more selective. Of course I’m at an open enrollment school—if you have a diploma or GED you’re in (though we’ll likely stick you in a year or two of “developmental”—read ‘high school’—courses). I’m glad to see students getting this high school material, though it burns me that low income areas like ours have such poor schools that so many students need remediation, so we’re essentially establishing a tax on poverty. I’d also add, incidentally, that some of this must be put on the students, who must demonstrate the motivation. A lot of our students are several years out of high school and have finally returned, realizing they screwed up. Frankly, I think we ought to let more people drop out of high school or go into trade schools; trying to force everyone to prep for college is an impossible goal and it ruins secondary education for those who really do want to achieve.
I’d add that I’ve been teaching dual credit (college classes for ambitious highs schoolers) for seven years now, and I’ve noted two things. First, the kids are mostly great, but really I wonder if what I’m really teaching, both there and in my regular sections at the college, isn’t what high schools should be teaching. I’ve also noted that the high schools love these classes. In what is likely a classic bit of fallacious reasoning confusing cause and effect, the Superintendent of the district noticed that DC students did extremely well on the state tests, so he decided to push enrollment. Suddenly we went from 2 sections to 6, and the classes were loaded with students who didn’t want to be there or weren’t really qualified, and my drop rate skyrocketed. But strangely, it seemed the overall quality of even those students who remained was lower as well. The sample is too small to generalize, but I wonder if extrinsic motivation is the root of many of our problems in high school, and perhaps in college too, now that the message is that college is a must for everyone.