In a recent post titled “Solving Education: Big Huge Barriers” we talked about several issues holding education reform back. The first was blind adherence to ideology.
As an example here, I will use the issue of private vs. public education.
It is all the rage now to say “Hey, let’s just do away with government in schools, and go private with vouchers. It will cost less and students do way better in private schools”
Not so fast…
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
Volume 17, Issue 3, pages 373–392, Summer 1998
•This study found little to no difference in student achievement for private vs. public schools
•They did find better graduation and college attendance rates for students attending Catholic schools
•The analysis also found a higher overall projected cost in a voucher system vs. the current public school system
So, send your kids to Catholic School, right? Wrong. Who are these kids? You guessed it, usually more affluent. Furthermore, Catholic Schools often report more parent involvement.
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
March 20, 1996, Volume 18, Issue 1, Pages 1-18
This is yet another study that found:
•No difference in student performance across the board in private vs. public schools, once controlled for preexisting differences between students (socioeconomic status, demographics, etc). In other words, student x will, across the board, do just as well in public school vs. private school.
•A clear improvement in student performance in magnet vs. public schools.
•Catholic schools again performed better than the others.
So, yeah, it seems that when I am able to select out which students I want, or pick from an indoctrinated population, the students perform better.
Don’t believe those stupid scientists? What do they know? Well here: Listen to scientists and parents and teachers.
A more important factor is parent involvement! This confers upon the child the mind “set” to value education. So let’s try to figure out how to achieve that. Notice, I didn’t say “blame parents more”. I said let’s figure out a strategy to get them involved.
I am not saying that it is bad to go to private school. I am not saying either that there aren’t ineffective public schools. What I am saying is that we have to change the conversation to one where we are looking at the evidence and trying to figure out what to fix, not which scapegoat to use or which ideology to “believe” in. Those are solutions that make us feel safe, but don’t really solve anything.
My friend Josh asked me for solutions to some of the barriers I identified. Here is my solution to this one:
Study the Problem before you open your mouth (or wallet) to support a solution that, in reality, may not even work.
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December 30, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Bill Meyer
Kwame,
Great point. Ever since getting involved in Phys Ed in the public school sector a few years back, I’ve seen and heard a large amount of blame being put on the parents for not being involved enough in their child’s lives. It’s easy to blame someone else, hell at our country’s deepest roots, we found the North vs the South pointing the finger at one another saying “well if you wouldn’t have done this, I wouldn’t have done that!”; leading to our country splitting in two before it really had its legs underneath it. I believe blaming without an idea or a solution is rooted deep into our generation as well as the upcoming generations; and hopefully through forums like this we can find better means of problem solving rather than “well, it’s not my problem any more, it’s not my kid”.
Second Point – Private vs Public – being in both settings at one point or another in my life, I don’t feel like either gives an advantage. Friends can be made in either, both the “popular athlete jock” and the “quiet, keep-to-yourself poetry lover” attend public and private schools all over the world, and with the popularization of “nerd-ism” through movies such as “Superbad” and bands like “Weezer”, it’s not as difficult to find friends as a high schooler anymore.
On another note, I truly feel that a child’s outcome and how they (the scientists) gauge “success” is dependent upon their level of effort and exertion towards a diploma or degree. There are enough movies, songs, and tv shows out there shoving it in kids faces that preach that even YOU can achieve great things if you stay focused, and stay off the streets after dark, no matter the color of the skin or city they live in a la “Lean On Me” and “Hoosiers”.
A parent’s decision to invoke their child’s desire to NOT GIVE UP and to make positive choices from birth on will help tip the scale of whether they find success or not. And alas, we are back to the involvement of the parent. The hardest job in the country with absolutely no education or prerequisites to learn from. Hmmmm…
As someone who specializes in fitness, I tend to lean more towards getting parents involved in some sort of “take-home P.E.” that must be completed with their child(dren). This would display responsibility, communication, trust building, overall health improvements, and guidance from a parent to a child. Who wouldn’t like that?
Now let’s put our heads together to figure that out!
January 2, 2011 at 12:59 am
Dr. Kwame M. Brown
Great points Bill, especially about how our societal roots (and I would really extend your points to all of humanity) inform our current plights.
With regard to parents: Many parents are contributing to the problem, especially with regard to self-efficacy in children. We certainly see the effects of this “age of the helicopter parent”. I can’t tell you how many parents of teens I have talked to that are calling me because they are looking for a job for their child. Why doesn’t the child call? Because they have never been shown the possibility that they could do this themselves.
But, blame per say is overrated. It doesn’t produce any effect. My preference is to educate parents and others on choices.
I definitely also like your take home PE idea. While I think homework should be cut down in other areas, and more work done in the classroom in lieu of lectures – I think PE homework should increase, because this can be family play time.
Also, while I appreciate your perception of the movie and entertainment environment and it’s supposed empowerment of kids, I don’t think this is true. There are more popular, and even sometimes non-stereotypical gay characters in the media now than ever. Yet our gay youth still feels set aside at best and tortured at worst. I think that we must realize that our messages start at home / school / neighborhood with how we treat each other. Furthermore, there is far more “bullying” of anyone different by the media vs. empowering of those who are different by the media. So certainly, the media is an area that can improve in the messages that they are sending to children and families. While the media can help, it is at home where the catalytic converter of self efficacy lies.
To execute ideas like this en masse – our corporate / work structures must change to give people more time with their children. But that will in turn take a paradigm shift away from the “5 year cycle” philosophy in business.
January 4, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Bill
You know it’s funny about the “being gay” thing in America these days. I seem to be watching shows and documentaries on youth “coming out” to their parents and friends and the overwhelming response that I see is:
“Oh honey, I’ve known that all along.” or
“That’s ok with me, you’re still Brian, my good friend I like to rock climb with.”
Now this may be the minority of course, but it begs the question: Are gays making too big of a deal about coming out than necessary in 2010?
When people hide something from others such as sexual bias, interracial dating, or pregnancy; they are typically afraid of other’s reaction, whether physical or emotional, however, what are parents teach us as children is usually the opposite. I was taught to not hide as I’m sure you were, meaning, if I kicked the soccer ball through the window, or I took the car for a joyride when I was 15 and bumped into a parked car and scratched the bumper, the parent’s response is simply: I would rather you tell us straight away and be honest than hide it, deny it, or tell a crazy story to shed the blame.
Now I know that gays have issue with bullying because our generations and beyond are instructed to think that they are different and in some cases, the choice to be gay is actually contagious. This is utter nonsense of course, and needs to stop through education. Education and exposure that just because someone is gay, it doesn’t mean they can’t sing as well, or run for a touchdown any better or worse. Our heterosexual youth are afraid of stepping out and saying “I don’t mind sharing a locker room with him/her” because they are probably taught from birth to just go along with the status quo (sheep) instead of being a leader and creating their own path (shepherd).
But it’s hypocritical. Pure and simple. When you need to get something off your chest whether good or bad, just do it………………….but not if you’re gay. Jeez…
Additionally, let’s talk about time wasting. I’ve seen parents react to their child coming out to them when they are in their 20′s, 30′s, and 40′s and a lot of the reactions are “Wow, now I know why we haven’t had a real relationship this entire time, I wish we could have the time back cause it’s really not a big deal.” That’s also a shame.
This situation is similar to religion in a way. I am a Christian as we have discussed, and whether or not others around me believe or agree with me on certain issues, I’m still proud of it and claim my faith for all to hear. Hiding away from it brings shame to my God, as I’m sure hiding your sexuality brings more and more shame to the person hiding it. This probably compounds over the years and makes it much worse than it really is.
So how does all of this end? Education and involvement. Turn the tv off and interact with your children. I’m changing the status quo of my “5 year plan” of business by planning on bringing my future child with me to work on certain days, teaching them my trade, and aligning my schedule to make sure I’m there for homework, and for Field Day. This isn’t possible for everyone I understand, but that is simply their choice. They chose that expensive mortgage and 2800sqft house, they chose the Mercedes that has a $700 monthly payment, they chose to spend the extra $200 a month for restaurant eating where a simple packed picnic in the backyard would suffice.
Parents – enrich your life and the lives in your family by making smarter choices to be able to spend more quality time with your children. How will I start this with my future wife? We’ve already decided to not buy them a Wii or an XBox and the endless amounts of $60 games that follow suit. It’s like I tell my clients about nutrition, “if you simply DON’T buy the potato chips at the grocery store, then you CAN’T possibly eat them as a late night snack.”
January 4, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Dr. Kwame M. Brown
Bill:
Wow! And I thought MY responses got long!
We are getting a little off subject, but that’s certainly my fault (as usual) so let’s go with it. I agree with most of what you say here except:
Having had a TON of friends that are homosexual (a much better phrasing to define the person as a whole person that isn’t defined by just one characteristic: I can tell you unequivocally that many of them have horrible experiences when coming out to family. Furthermore, we must acknowledge the fear of coming out to family would be amplified precisely because society shuns these kids so violently. They don’t want to risk losing the last bastion of safety / comfort / love.
So no, I can tell you they are not making “too big a deal” out of it. There is real fear based on real events and circumstances. It is the rest of us that need to change, as you acknowledged in the rest of your comment.
But your overall point is well taken, especially about shame. I will expand that even, because I believe you have touched on something. Shame is a big part of our problem with education – shame of being pigeon holed as “academic”, “jock”, “geek”, etc. People, and especially children, are almost never one thing. They are almost never only a girl, or only a jock, or only a musician.
The solution: Stop compartmentalizing education and by proxy – compartmentalizing children. We must learn to appreciate our children as whole individuals, and make their journey more about process and character, than results and characteristics.
January 1, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Josh
You and Bill both are on to something.
I think a solution is to do what Caesar did – divide and conquer. You have mentioned several problems with schooling and physical education in your blog posts, Kwame.
What are the top 3 problems that we can directly influence? Maybe:
1. Lack of parental concern/involvement (stemming from lack of cultural value, and including ignorance of child development
2. Untested/poor standards for education (including ignorance of child development, assumption that test scores are best measures, adherence to ideology and lack of freedom for teachers)
3. A feeling of powerlessness in the children themselves (as we all know, children can have huge influential power over adults/parents).
Just a thought…but if you could focus your efforts (or the efforts of three different groups) in these areas, there might be significant change.
January 2, 2011 at 1:01 am
Dr. Kwame M. Brown
Josh:
You are right (at least in part).
While I am addressing the “6 Big Huge Barriers” as separate, for sure you are correct that the solutions can be grouped. By the end, it will be evident that is what I am doing.
For example, for all three above, at least part of a common solution for all three is to take the evidence out of the ivory tower and put it out there.
Another solution that has effects across the board is the empowerment of children.
January 3, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Dr. Kwame M. Brown
Thought I would share this as well. I am not sure I agree with everything this author says (still thinking) – but a thought provoking read nonetheless
http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2009/04/ideology-and-education.html
April 28, 2011 at 11:52 am
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