To the extent readers don't think that CT residents are delusional on this point, I point to our town budget hearing of two weeks ago. The President of the local PTO stood up and said she couldn't believe her luck in moving to town, because the schools just keep getting better and better. Even those opposed to the budget kept their comments focused on the need to cut spending and keep taxes down while maintaining the excellence of the schools. No one ever says out loud in public that the schools are not all they are cracked up to be.
The Westport Patch article is spot-on. My only complaint is that it misses two of the most critical reasons as to why our CT schools lag. The first -- horrible curriculum foisted upon us through the State DOE through vague state standards and state consultants that actually recommended poor curriculum to local districts. Any parent that has ever complained about the use of Everyday Math has heard the same justification that I have: it meets the State Standards. The State actually insists that we use this wretched curriculum, despite its short-comings, despite the parents' opposition to it and despite the rather weak research background of the program. The same goes for the whole language and balanced literacy that has largely replaced phonics and grammar.
The second reason that CT will continue to fail is the poor quality of our schools of education. Add to this, the difficulty teachers have crossing from state borders. A certified teacher from another state (with higher standards) must jump through hoops and incur expenses to teach in CT. Because we have a very small state, we should not be slamming our doors at the border to good teachers wishing to move in. The inability to easily move between states means that CT is overly reliant upon teachers graduating from our own in-state teacher colleges. That would be okay if those colleges were producing top-notch teachers, but that is simply not the case.
Anyway, from the Westport Patch, Nathan Allen says this about the Achievement Gap:
The fact is, poor and minority students are better educated in Florida and Texas than in Connecticut. Connecticut’s poor and Hispanic students are outscored by Moldova, and Connecticut’s black students barely beat Egyptian and Palestinian student scores. Our poor and minority students can’t outscore students from developing nations with 1/20th the per-capita income.And on our best students:
Internationally, Connecticut’s highest scoring 8th graders score behind Slovenia, Estonia, and Poland in math on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). And these are our best students.
That was a surprisingly good article (I don't expect much from Patch). Thanks for pointing it out. I think your point about the ed schools is interesting too, do you know if there are statistics available on the percentage of CT teachers educated in-state? I've heard of the difficulty teachers face in moving here from out-of-state before, but that was from my mom, a long time ago, so I wasn't sure if her portrayal was accurate.
ReplyDeleteOne thing though, the districts don't *have* to use Everyday Math. Ours doesn't, for the lower grade levels it uses Houghton Mifflin's Math Expressions, which is definitely better than Everyday Math. (We experienced that elsewhere.) Not totally sure what is used in higher grades.
Excellent. Many people are arguing now over whether teacher quality is a factor and shrinking the "achievement gap". But such arguments fail to consider the horrible curricula foisted on schools as you point out. Students from low income families, and who attend schools using Everyday Math and other NSF-funded atrocities don't often have the luxury of getting taught at home by their parents or from tutors.
ReplyDelete"Better teachers" is a meaningless solution if teachers are not given a choice but to adhere to the "fidelity of implementation" of EM and other similar programs. Also, teachers coming from ed schools, as you point out, have been steeped in the ed school thoughtworld of small groups, collaborative learning, and constructivist philosophies. Add to that the unrelenting resistance of schools to group students by ability in the lower grades, and you have the recipe for the disaster in education happening across the US.
kcab, you are correct that no district "has" to use EDM. The reality is that the State Dept of Ed has pushed very hard for adoption of EDM and other programs like it -- such as Trailblazers and TERC (Investigations). When our district was piloting several programs a few years ago, the State made a strong recommendation that EDM be the choice. And since the State tests are all aligned with EDM, most districts just go along with it. Few are willing to swim upstream, even as they see CT students sinking compared to other states and other nations.
ReplyDeleteAnd our teachers no longer have any choice at all. They can not "shut the door and teach" anymore. Every class moves at about the same pace, the homework is identical across classrooms and between schools every night. There is little wiggle room for teachers in the elementary grades.
Barry is absolutely right, fidelity of implementation is closely monitored.
It's a bit puzzling, the EDM push. How many years ago was it that your district went that direction? I haven't been here that long, coming up on 5 years, so I have a very imperfect understanding of the history even just in my district. But, thing is, a new superintendent was brought in about 3 yrs ago. Since the person hired came from the state level, it sounds like your experience is that they would have pushed for EDM. But instead, I think that is the year the district picked Expressions. I wonder if there was dissension at the state level, or perhaps the math curriculum was picked before the new super was in the office.
ReplyDeleteGiven that CT's math performance is very weak, pushing EDM seems like a great way to race to the bottom.