“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must we want for all children in the community. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy”
John Dewey, in his quote above, indicates a logical truth that has not been accepted nor demanded by large sections of our nation because it requires a level of empathy and foresight that cannot be attained due to entitlement and ignorance. While education is understood to be the most consistent way for one to positively change their socioeconomic status, education in this country is anything but consistent. As outlined in her book “The Flat World and Education” Linda Darling-Hammond makes reference to all of the inequities that exist in American education. In particular, when considering the learning environments in low socioeconomic areas, disproportional negatively impacting students of color, Darling-Hammond and Dewey’s insights converge as it becomes apparent that we are not providing what is best to all children in our community. If we continue to ignore this inequity, assuming that we have not reached this critical failure already, we will eventually face a society that is further divided by race, class and socioeconomic status as those indicators will directly translate into what levels and quality of education are realistically achievable. Darling-Hammond outlines a policy prescription that she believes will start to close the widening disparities in American education. In examining her 5 key elements, this is how I believe changes to current policy and practice should affect change in modern education.
2. Intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems In order to truly make education a cause for social change, along with standards for student learning, we need to ensure that students are receiving the best education they can from educators that are highly trained and qualified in their field. Darling-Hammond suggests teaching standards of practice as well as teacher training that would allow teachers to reach this standard. On a national level this could look like a change in the way that teachers are certified and an increase to the minimum requirements for receiving a teaching credential. It would also mean quality professional development for teachers, structured around the needs of students and taught by experienced teachers to ensure authenticity. 3. Equitable and adequate resources Successfully implementing this key strategy would require strict communication between federal and state agencies. At the state level, individual states would have to communicate need based on opportunity indicators and at the federal level, resources would have to be made available. The hardest resource to allocate is the human resource of teachers so there would need to be an established incentive program for experienced teachers to work in areas that are in greater economic need. Furthermore, other resources including money, will be properly allocated in order to ensure that students with the most needs are able to meet the same standards as those without those needs. 4. Strong professional standards and supports Knowing that the greatest inequality is created by the distribution of teachers which sees the most qualified and prepared instructors going to school districts that are the most affluent, it is imperative that we fix the teacher recruitment processes. This could include offering incentives for working in less affluent districts or more effectively offering coaching to new teachers by experienced teachers in order to develop strong competence internally. Once teachers are in place we must train them, reward them for being highly qualified and create pathways for experienced teachers to lead schools. We must leverage the expertise that is gained from years in the classroom. 5. Schools organized for student and teacher learning Darling-Hammond indicates that school will need vision, capacity and policy support to create more productive schools. School districts need to enforce state and federal policy that requires schools to provide quality education to all students while simultaneously offering the supports that schools need in order to make this happen.
2 Comments
Tess Giner
10/6/2018 05:43:22 pm
I really enjoyed the book. But my mind kept going back to money. In this 25 year career, I've always taught at the most impoverished schools. It never made sense to me why the poorest of schools were punished with cuts in funding. Like you wrote, money has to be properly allocated to meet the most needy.
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Rafael Garcia Avila
10/6/2018 09:20:10 pm
As I read the book, your blog and reflected in my own blog, I could only think about Eutopia. It is very hard to reach a state of balance that will allow all perspectives and stakeholders to align and agree to making this radical social change. Eutopia is possible and it will require work; hope is what we should never give up. We can start with our classrooms and little by little it can all change for at least our students. Then, it can spread!
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