Spring Ch. 7, Marlowe Chapters 10, 19 and 20

Spring page 177

“Once the state or local district accepts federal money, then they have to accept the regulations and requirements that accompany the program.”

Money is something that many people have a hard time refusing, which makes it the perfect incentive for something to get done.  Last week in class, we talked about the world of business becoming more and more dominant in the education system, but this reading talks about the gain of the government in our school systems as well.  The government has found ways over the recent years to have more control over our public school systems, taking away local (and some state) control.  In order for states to get the money that the government offers, states must adhere to whatever laws that the government has set as mandatory for each state.  These laws may be good or bad for states, but when a price tag is behind them, many look beyond the good/bad nature of them and do anything just for the money.  My fear is that this money incentive may look very appealing to many states, leaving the states to change laws that may end up harming their education system and the educational careers of the children. An example of this money incentive changing the educational laws of states is President Obama’s new “Race to the Top” incentive.  In order to receive extra federal funding, schools must agree to change a number of things (a few of these including becoming a member of the common standards consortium, has plans to make it publicly available to improve instructions, etc.) * My worry with all of these new regulations that states must have in order to receive funding, is that all of these laws may not be what is best for local schools or the children.  Also, if these laws are made by people in our federal government who have not been in a school system for a long period of time, how are they going to know what is best for the local schools in each state?

*http://www.newamerica.net/blog/ed-money-watch/2009/state-eligibility-race-top-grants-13918

Spring page 181

“The high-stakes testing required under No Child Left Behind is having consequences for how teachers and principals are paid, real estate prices, instructional time in the classroom, profits for corporations making the tests, and contributes to the nationalization of public schools.”

This statement shows just some of the negative effects that NCLB has had on our school systems.  Although I already knew about the money incentives behind teachers to have their students earn higher grades on the standardized tests, I never related the test scores to the real estate market. The state test scores are made public via internet and newspapers after they are given each year.  By making them public material, an area that has low test scores will end up not having many perspective new buyers for the houses in that area.  Consequently, people who are currently living in an area with schools that have low AYP may have a more difficult time selling their houses.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, people who live in a passing school district will have an easier time selling their houses, and according to Spring, houses in the areas are actually going for more money (just because of their school standing).  These areas will have more perspective buyers because people, in general, want to send their children to schools that are proven to test well.  This is not helping our already low housing market, but it is also not helping the issue of segregation in our school system.  Schools that have low AYP are not going to get the higher income families, and the schools with high AYP are in areas that have too-high housing markets for low-income families to be able to afford.  Is there a way for the authority figures in our government to read what I am reading as a student and do things that would change these true statements?  If we see these negative things happening due to these laws, doesn’t it make our government want to make changes that would have a more positive affect on our students, families and school systems?

Marlowe page 107

“A map isn’t of much use to people who don’t know where they are headed.”

This quote is in relation to teachers wanting their professors to teach them more about classroom management, the “uglies” behind teaching a classroom full of students, etc.  I must admit that as a current teacher candidate at CCSU, there are times when I wish that our professors here taught me more about how to manage behavior in my classroom, how to deal with the stresses of testing and regulations that are always breathing down our backs, or just general ideas on how to teach in a way that includes the test but also relates to each individual student. However, Marlowe states that the good professors don’t give us all of the answers to our questions because it is our job as teachers to figure them out as we go.  “The path to simplicity is littered with complexities.”  Page 106.  Our professors set, in our hearts and minds, a sense of purpose behind entering into a classroom every day.  This purpose will help us to get through all of the other complexities that come with teaching as time goes on.  The world of teaching is a very scary world to enter, especially today with all of the laws about standardized test scores, etc. and because of that we want the confirmation that it is all going to be ok by getting as many answers as possible to things that we have not yet experienced.  According to Marlowe, this is not the best way to go about things, however, I still can’t help but feel ill-prepared in certain areas for my future teaching career (so far in the program).  So, what is the best way for teachers to act when in school learning how to be a teacher, do we not ask questions that we may have or do we ask them anyway and be prepared for not getting the answer we are looking for?

Marlowe page 185

“The larger goal of education is to assist people in seeing the world through their own eyes, interpreting and analyzing through their own experiences and thinking, feeling themselves capable of representing, manifesting, or even, if they choose, transforming all that is before them.”

Going to school is supposed to provide all of these opportunities of equality and growth for each student.  In essence, education then is linked to freedom.  These goals are likely to be coming true in the higher income schools where privilege and money is found more in the everyday lives of the students that live in the neighborhoods.  However, in the lower income societies, where money is scarce and people don’t have the same privileges that people with money have, the likelihood of these goals actually standing at the forefront of every school is very slim.  Instead, these schools’ goals include having enough notebooks or textbooks for each student, clean walls and windows, enough teachers that for each classroom (never mind qualified teachers), etc.  These lower income schools are in urban areas where the majority of the population is usually Hispanic or African American, not Caucasian.  So if these are the differences in goals in school systems that are in America, how can our country ever unite to create equality in the education system that is already supposed to be there?  Should the new goal of the education system be to make sure that the current “goals” that exist in the suburban schools become the same goals in the urban schools?  Could our country ever become truly equal and give the aid that is needed to our urban schools so that every child gets an equal education?

Marlowe page 188

“Understanding 1: Informative Assessment Isn’t Just About Tests”

If informative assessment is not just about giving a child a test and grading them on that test to see how well they mastered information that they were taught, why is it that our government is using standardized tests as the best way to score and track the learning of each student?  Marlowe talks about helping students to learn in the best way for each of them, or something CCSU calls multiple intelligences.  In the education classes I take, we are always talking about getting to know each student so that as teachers, we can learn how to teach each subject in the best way for each of our students to learn.  Sometimes, as Marlowe states, the best way to assess the progress of students is by looking at what they do in the classroom, listening to them talk about the topics taught in class and by looking at their everyday school work.  If these are better ways to assess how well a child has learned something, then why is our government focusing so much on standardized tests?  These tests do not include or take into account the everyday lives of the children, each individual learning style, the community in which they live, the teachers they have, or the resources they have in which to use as tools to learn with.

Marlowe page 194

“Informative assessment is not an end in itself, but the beginning of better instruction.”

Informative assessment helps teachers and students to see how well the students have mastered a subject through means other than a high stakes test.  It can be very stressful for children when they have to take a test because there is a lot of pressure on them to get a good grade.  Sometimes, this pressure takes away from the learning process all together.  Also, if the child does poorly on the test as a result of stress, then an accurate score as to how well the child has learned a subject cannot be given.  Along with added stress on the students, it is also stressful for the teachers because instead of teaching the students what they want to teach them, the teachers have to teach what will be on the tests the students are taking.  A better way of finding out what the children have learned is looking at what the children do each day in class (how they react to the subject, how they respond to tasks given in class, through conversations in class, etc.)  Doing this also lets the teacher know if they are teaching in a way that is confusing to the student, or in a way that is not helping the student to comprehend material.   Informative assessment helps the teacher to learn how to become better and more efficient at teaching.  It helps the students to actually engage in the learning process and not just memorize something for a test.  If informative assessment is proven to be a better way of assessing how well a child has learned something, how do we focus more on that when our government is focusing so much on standardized tests?  Can we, as teachers, use informative assessment and still teach the children how to take a test at the same time?  If it’s not something to be afraid of (informative assessment), then why is our government not using it?