A recent poll by Gallup and Phi Delta Kappa pried into the minds of the American people to determine their opinions on American schools. The results:
Teaching was the top priority, well above standards, testing and fixing the worst schools.
Support is high for charter schools.
Don’t fire principals and teachers or close failing schools, just provide comprehensive support.
College education is absolutely necessary.
Funding is the biggest problem.
State, not Federal, government is responsible for public schools.
Teacher pay should be aligned with student achievement.
Teacher time to learn new and better methods is essential.
Increasing student motivation by paying students money is opposed.
The “grades” respondents gave their schools have been stable for 35 years.
Our governance leaders at all levels are supposed to reflect the wishes of the American people. So what have they focused on for American’s 55 million K12 students, 3 million teachers and 100,000 schools for the past couple of decades?
Standards, testing and trying to fix the worst schools, a host of new federal mandates and a single innovation – charter schools.
What did they not address in any substantial way?
Teacher (pay, education, professional development, practice, placement, support), funding (regulations, levels, and sources), student motivation (success, individualization)
If you will put up with my engineer-entrepreneur bias I will have a go at the mismatch of citizen opinion and leader action:
Our governance leaders are actually pretty smart. Although ideology varies there is an overriding realism in their decision making that keeps them from putting major investments into unproven areas. Standards and testing cost almost nothing (a few $million). They closed only a few of the failing Arizona school (a few more $millions). Hundreds of charter schools are supported since the teaching results compare to District schools and cost is usually less. Charter schools also provide a venue for innovation.
Aggressively improving the current legacy pedagogy within the teacher and student relationship carries risk. No other state has done it. The increased annual investment would be significant about $2 billion a year for Arizona. At best the results would be only a modest increase in academic performance.
The alternative way to address the opinions of the American and Arizona people is to break from the 19th century legacy system and embrace the 21st century means and methods. More to follow….
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