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Commentary:
Redesign High Schools to Improve Student Skills
Colleges dumb down courses to accommodate high schools
Barry E. Stern, Detroit News, December 20, 2005
For more articles like this
visit
http://www.bridges4kids.org.
When somebody
asked Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays what he did for a
living, he replied "I catch, throw, hit and run, and I do them
every day." The fundamentals of the workplace are reading and
math, and we do them every day.
Despite billions of dollars being poured into improving these
scores, a third of our students who leave high school are not
reaching proficiency levels in reading, and almost half aren't
cutting it in math. According to the National Center for
Education Statistics, 40 percent of entering students in
four-year institutions take some remedial education as do 63
percent in two-year institutions.
Yet college remedial programs do not perform all that well. A
healthy percentage of students (25 to 40 percent) don't even
pass (get a "C" grade or better). Unfortunately, to accommodate
students with poor skills, many colleges dumb down their
curricula and graduate students who are not employable.
College money wasted
So instead of increasing their investment in programs to support
the advanced skills that industry needs, colleges divert
resources toward remedial "developmental education" courses that
teach what students should have learned in high school. They do
little to address the needs of the economy.
Not so long ago, a person with poor reading or math could earn a
family wage in a factory. Those days are over, as unskilled jobs
move to developing nations.
So we have this huge dilemma that has persisted since the
publication of the U.S. Department of Education's "Nation at
Risk" study in 1983 and passage of the No Child Left Behind
legislation in 2001. During the past two decades, our rate of
spending per student has far exceeded the rate of inflation.
Many states and local school districts are following the stern
advice of multiple blue ribbon commissions, business roundtables
and the like to increase standards and mandate tougher courses.
Michigan is starting to follow this trend with a proposal to
require students take 16 to 18 courses before they can graduate,
instead of the current requirement for one class -- civics.
High schools need change
While this national trend has yielded some improvement at the
elementary and middle school levels nationwide, high school
performance remains stuck. This is unlikely to change unless we
improve the incentives and redesign the high school experience.
Almost any warm body can get into college, and blowing off the
senior year has been the norm for decades. Perhaps the most
significant message that colleges could send to school districts
is that college admission is contingent on proficiency in
reading and math.
If colleges insist on keeping their remedial courses, then
eliminate state subsidies and let students pay the full fare.
Another option would be for school districts to give rebates to
students whose scores shut them out of college or jobs. The
rebates would allow them to purchase basic skills training from
alternative providers.
Districts need to redesign their high schools. ACT and SAT
scores haven't changed in 30 years, despite funding increases.
Most high schools are still organized like factories, where
students change what they do every 50 minutes in response to a
bell.
Stop the factory approach
A more holistic approach would substantially alter the way high
schools use teachers, organize curricula and the school day, and
connect with the community:
· Create smaller learning communities and let students
concentrate on a career theme. Teachers would truly get to know
their students as both would spend most of their day in a career
theme academy (such as business, engineering and technology,
health sciences or expressive arts).
A multidisciplinary team of teachers would run each department.
Technical subjects would be integrated with academic ones.
Periodically, students could change career departments.
Employers in a career pathway would help oversee curricula,
contribute equipment and mentors, and provide student
internships.
· Create morning-afternoon scheduling. Students would take
cross-disciplinary courses from teams of teachers who work
together rather than in isolation. Students would stay together
long enough to become part of teams that focus their attention
on solving problems that require knowledge of different systems,
just as they would in the real world.
· Ninth-grade students would take an intensive,
computer-assisted, eight- to 12-week course that rapidly brings
up their reading and math scores to grade level while providing
career orientation to high school expectations.
This program is modeled after Focus:HOPE's 15-year-old Fast
Track program and the state's Operation Fast Break demonstration
that ran from 2000-2003.
Converting schools into high-performing work organizations is
the key to engaging students and attracting and keeping the best
teachers. High schools must reflect the way the world really is.
When we are willing to embrace such changes, we will improve
high schools.
Barry E. Stern, a deputy assistant secretary of education under
President George H.W. Bush, is an educational and work force
development consultant in Ann Arbor. Please e-mail letters to
letters@detnews.com.
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