Michael
Jun 8th 2009, 07:47 PM
This is a topic I normally avoid because it is both frustrating and a political quagmire.
First and foremost, it is important to note that US public education has traditionally been considered one of the best and most successful public education systems in the world. As such, all of the problems that presently plague US public education are modern and contemporary developments - not something anyone can blame on 'history' or 'culture' - or dismissing by observing that 'its the way it has always been'. Fact is, it hasn't always been this way at all.
Secondly, the US public education system is presently failing according to pretty much every possible measure one can use, so it is trite to pretend that a single 'cause' can be identified or that there is a 'silver bullet' here in the form of a single policy solution. The problems are many and originate from a variety of sources so no single solution is going to address all the problems.
So that's the basic outline of the scale of the problems facing US public education. I firmly believe that all the wounds that US public education has suffered over the years are due entirely to one of two causes - self inflicted wounds from self-styled education bureaucrats and 'experts' on the one hand and politics on the other.
I further believe that US public education is exactly in the condition that policy has directed it to. That is to say, the present non-functional system is a product of policy.
As for the types of problems facing US public education, I'll start by just listing a few of the most important 'meta-problems'.
1. Funding source. This is a loaded gun aimed at public education. By forcing school funding to rely upon local property taxes means that some schools have practically unlimited funding and other schools can't afford to pay for janitors. This funding imbalance tends to cause additional problems over time as the best quality teachers tend to transfer out of schools/districts that have inherent and endemic funding shortfalls and into schools/districts that have robust budgets.
2. Teacher's Unions. Because school funding is funded locally through property taxes, teachers who are paid by the school boards have traditionally been at the mercy of property taxes for the security of their livelihood. As such, it is entirely rational and predictable that teachers would create and support some of the strongest and most politically powerful unions out there. The only security of their paychecks comes from union political muscle to politically fight against property owners seeking tax cuts.
3. Politics. Because of powerful political interests are constantly pushing for tax-cutting and government shrinking, education is one of the few large budget items available for cost cutting once the massive federal national defense spending, social security and medicare are taken off the table. This tends to limit the ability of the federal government to use a 'spending' authority to address the funding imbalances produced by the local property-tax funding formulas used for public education. The Federal and State governments are far more attracted to high-profile post-secondary schools (colleges & universities) for their 'investments' in public education, leaving the burden of k-12 public education almost entirely on its own at the mercy of local property tax funding - each of which is controled by local county politics.
So these are the 'big-three' meta-issues that affect the way US public education has been allowed to deteriorate over time. Hovering in the background is of course the 'race-issue' which is intimately involved in the historical process by which 'some' local counties found themselves with serious property-tax funding problems (aka 'white-flight' from cities to semi-rural suburbs redrawing the 'property-tax-map' in the process).
All that is just background of course. :D
One can't even begin to talk about actual education policy in the schools without noticing the above 'funding issue' over-rides everything.
But of course, the topic of actual education policy is the one I do find particularly interesting. Most specifically, it is the infamous 'child-centered-learning' program that was adopted in the late 1960s and has become institutionalized policy in education departments in government and teachers schools across North America ever since.
The failure of this pedological (nasty looking word that is!) policy compounds all the other problems the educational system is facing. It is my understanding that this approach is a massive systemic failure of education policy. Now there has been some good news over the last half-dozen years that the 'worm has turned' in educational theory circles and while they aren't ready to blame their theory for its failures, some are acknowledging that it isn't working (the data is usually negative on the issue and has been for years).
One thing that has always disturbed me most about this issue is the intitutional intertia of large bureaucracies that can keep on perpetuating old discredited theories long after they are discredited in academia. This is the topic I find most interesting.
Here are two articles from a contemporary education-focused webjournal that show just how far and how deep this ideological policy 'rot' has corrupted US public education.
Pedagogy of the Oppressor (http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_2_freirian-pedagogy.html)
Social Justice (http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_ed_school.html)
Warning, these are both fairly long articles, but very interesting! :)
Anyway, neither of these articles actually ever mention the infamous 'child-centered-learning' technique that has been at the heart of North American educational theory since the late 1960s. But you can sense it hovering in the background. It is all one giant octapus of a theory that reaches everywhere. The theory was adopted on faith with all the fever of the self-righteous convert. I fear that it will not be swept away because there is no 'new' theory to do the sweeping with. All we are really left with is ressurrecting the older techniques that were discarded as 'old-fashioned'. There's nothing sexy or exciting about that, so there is no fashionable movement to do it. As a result, educational policy just drifts along, never officially breaking with the discredited but well established policy, but many people know it doesn't actually work. And there are lots of 'true believers' that will defend the theory no matter how much failure you show them. And the inertia of education bureaucracies will keep perpetuating it...
I fear that the damage is irreversible. :erm:
Any thoughts or comments on this complex issue? :D
First and foremost, it is important to note that US public education has traditionally been considered one of the best and most successful public education systems in the world. As such, all of the problems that presently plague US public education are modern and contemporary developments - not something anyone can blame on 'history' or 'culture' - or dismissing by observing that 'its the way it has always been'. Fact is, it hasn't always been this way at all.
Secondly, the US public education system is presently failing according to pretty much every possible measure one can use, so it is trite to pretend that a single 'cause' can be identified or that there is a 'silver bullet' here in the form of a single policy solution. The problems are many and originate from a variety of sources so no single solution is going to address all the problems.
So that's the basic outline of the scale of the problems facing US public education. I firmly believe that all the wounds that US public education has suffered over the years are due entirely to one of two causes - self inflicted wounds from self-styled education bureaucrats and 'experts' on the one hand and politics on the other.
I further believe that US public education is exactly in the condition that policy has directed it to. That is to say, the present non-functional system is a product of policy.
As for the types of problems facing US public education, I'll start by just listing a few of the most important 'meta-problems'.
1. Funding source. This is a loaded gun aimed at public education. By forcing school funding to rely upon local property taxes means that some schools have practically unlimited funding and other schools can't afford to pay for janitors. This funding imbalance tends to cause additional problems over time as the best quality teachers tend to transfer out of schools/districts that have inherent and endemic funding shortfalls and into schools/districts that have robust budgets.
2. Teacher's Unions. Because school funding is funded locally through property taxes, teachers who are paid by the school boards have traditionally been at the mercy of property taxes for the security of their livelihood. As such, it is entirely rational and predictable that teachers would create and support some of the strongest and most politically powerful unions out there. The only security of their paychecks comes from union political muscle to politically fight against property owners seeking tax cuts.
3. Politics. Because of powerful political interests are constantly pushing for tax-cutting and government shrinking, education is one of the few large budget items available for cost cutting once the massive federal national defense spending, social security and medicare are taken off the table. This tends to limit the ability of the federal government to use a 'spending' authority to address the funding imbalances produced by the local property-tax funding formulas used for public education. The Federal and State governments are far more attracted to high-profile post-secondary schools (colleges & universities) for their 'investments' in public education, leaving the burden of k-12 public education almost entirely on its own at the mercy of local property tax funding - each of which is controled by local county politics.
So these are the 'big-three' meta-issues that affect the way US public education has been allowed to deteriorate over time. Hovering in the background is of course the 'race-issue' which is intimately involved in the historical process by which 'some' local counties found themselves with serious property-tax funding problems (aka 'white-flight' from cities to semi-rural suburbs redrawing the 'property-tax-map' in the process).
All that is just background of course. :D
One can't even begin to talk about actual education policy in the schools without noticing the above 'funding issue' over-rides everything.
But of course, the topic of actual education policy is the one I do find particularly interesting. Most specifically, it is the infamous 'child-centered-learning' program that was adopted in the late 1960s and has become institutionalized policy in education departments in government and teachers schools across North America ever since.
The failure of this pedological (nasty looking word that is!) policy compounds all the other problems the educational system is facing. It is my understanding that this approach is a massive systemic failure of education policy. Now there has been some good news over the last half-dozen years that the 'worm has turned' in educational theory circles and while they aren't ready to blame their theory for its failures, some are acknowledging that it isn't working (the data is usually negative on the issue and has been for years).
One thing that has always disturbed me most about this issue is the intitutional intertia of large bureaucracies that can keep on perpetuating old discredited theories long after they are discredited in academia. This is the topic I find most interesting.
Here are two articles from a contemporary education-focused webjournal that show just how far and how deep this ideological policy 'rot' has corrupted US public education.
Pedagogy of the Oppressor (http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_2_freirian-pedagogy.html)
Social Justice (http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_ed_school.html)
Warning, these are both fairly long articles, but very interesting! :)
Anyway, neither of these articles actually ever mention the infamous 'child-centered-learning' technique that has been at the heart of North American educational theory since the late 1960s. But you can sense it hovering in the background. It is all one giant octapus of a theory that reaches everywhere. The theory was adopted on faith with all the fever of the self-righteous convert. I fear that it will not be swept away because there is no 'new' theory to do the sweeping with. All we are really left with is ressurrecting the older techniques that were discarded as 'old-fashioned'. There's nothing sexy or exciting about that, so there is no fashionable movement to do it. As a result, educational policy just drifts along, never officially breaking with the discredited but well established policy, but many people know it doesn't actually work. And there are lots of 'true believers' that will defend the theory no matter how much failure you show them. And the inertia of education bureaucracies will keep perpetuating it...
I fear that the damage is irreversible. :erm:
Any thoughts or comments on this complex issue? :D