Week #2 blog

How have we become a nation that is saturated in mediocrity? The United States has always been the most advanced, resilient and courageous country in the world. We have rapidly sunk toward the middle (or lower) of the pack, trying valiantly to stay afloat in this sea of competitive education. We have failed to provide the scaffolding students need to work their way through the curriculum and become what society has judged to be a proficient student. Research has shown us the accepted methods of instruction in our country are not even close to being best practice. We continue to take away opportunities for higher order thinking and problem solving. Direct instruction, rote memorization, and inefficient testing practices have contributed to the dysfunction of our education system today.

 The IRI is a perfect example. For weeks we “racecar read” and instruct our second grade students not to worry about anything but getting 92 words correct in a minute. We show them how to skip words they don’t know because chances are you can get five more words correct if you skip words you may not know instead of taking the time to sound them out. Three one minute timings, three times a year determines whether or not I am a good teacher and if my students have learned everything they need to move on to third grade. This is absolute craziness! How can any teacher, parent, administrator or politician look at that test and believe it accurately assesses second grade proficiency without looking at math, comprehension, writing, science or social studies? I believe this policy would change very quickly if the creators of this test were held to the same standard as these students.

Unfortunately, most countries have some sort of high stakes testing in place. Instead of raising the expectations we have for ourselves and our students, we lower the bar which artificially increases our proficiency rates, but in reality sets our students up for failure down the road.  For example, an employee currently working in the valley is being investigated for allegedly taking a group of special education students in his previous district, and creating new transcripts for them that put them in the next grade level. For whatever reason he didn’t want their scores influencing the grade level they were currently on. With the rapidly increasing incidences of teachers cheating (which includes manipulating anything that may lead an unbiased observer to believe a student is better at a skill than they would be with their own God given talent) to ensure merit pay, job retention and our own professional reputation it appears the sky is the limit.

 At times we as a nation have become so lazy in our teaching practices that we won’t change for the betterment of the children, not because we don’t know better, but because it is just easier not to. I do believe in continual assessment throughout the lesson to ensure correct understanding and mastering of standards. We need guidelines to ensure some sort of uniformity from one state, city, classroom or teacher to the next. If we combine what we know about learning, ensure each classroom has the supplies they need and provide highly qualified, enthusiastic teachers in every classroom, our students will receive the tools they need to compete in a global economy.