An Ounce of Prevention

What works better – an ounce of prevention or a pound of cure?

This is not a trick question.

This is serious.

12.01,2015 Section D, pages 1, 2, & 6.

Section D page 6 goes into the problem as it applies to the state algebra exam, an exam with a horrible failure rate. An exam that the state Board of Regents is trying to figure out what to do about it. (Hint: CAN IT!)

Section D, pages 1 & 2 talks about a solution, but in an offhanded way, manner. You choose the word.

I'm not going to waste time blogging about how terrible and useless all the mandated exams are. They show nothing, prove nothing, and the teachers get the scores back too late to be useful. (2 weeks, maximum, for the teachers to be able to make changes in instruction. Ideal would be 2 days. Yes, days. And given the amount of money that is paid for them, there needs to be a financial penalty against the testing company for every day over 2 that the exam scores are not given to the state and the schools. )

Solutions? Yes, let's talk solutions. The Career Collegiate Institute has a low student to teacher ration. According to the best research, student learning declines in classes bigger than 15 students, so the socialist solution is to cap class sizes at 15 students. It's what private schools do. They claim it works. Finland does that and they have one of the best systems in the world, so let's do it. Picture a 45 minute class with 15 students. The possibilities are endless. And each class can be unique, rather than the same old boring stuff.

Of course that means opening up some of the old schools, modernizing them, and hiring more teachers, but these are our children and our future. What type of future do we want?

Secondly, nobody has any research that shows that the state mandated NCLB (aka No Child Left Untested) regime works. We know and can prove that it increases the drop out and failure rate. So, what does work?

The socialist solution? Portfolio Assessments. Yes, that portfolio that shows all the student work – class works, homework, quizzes, tests, group projects, videos of speeches, etc. Everyone knows what they are. I saw a racing team trying to get a sponsor using a portfolio presentation (pictures of the car, trophies won, certificates earned by the mechanics,  a spreadsheet of their finances, etc.) I used one, and many jobs now require a portfolio during the application process, so why not in school instead of the tests that cater to a specific learning style? (If you judge every animal by how well it can climb a tree….. show me an elephant that has climbed a tree. Or a goldfish.)

Portfolios show the widest range of student abilities. That's why businesses and colleges are more and more asking for them. So, why not start using them in education to show all that a student is capable of?

And grading needs to change. What is graded, how it is graded, why do we even need to grade some things? There is a specific personality that thrives on grades and crashes in the real world. No grades. So let's reform that aspect of the system as well. Rubrics work well. They tell the student exactly what you are looking for and how it will be evaluated. Teachers that I know that use them enjoy using them because they remove arbitrariness and the teacher can specifically address student weaknesses and showcase strengths, and track growth. And they can be made quite easy from the learning standards.

So what works? Not what we are doing.

Knowing that, let's do some real changes that show the real possibility of students succeeding.

In class and in life.