You may have heard that Gov. Rick Snyder sent a special message on education reform to the Legislature late last month. Well, I have actually read it — something that took me a while. This is far from a twitter message; it is several thousand words.
Yet it is well worth the read. The governor’s plan is very good — and powerfully makes the case for wholesale reform of our education system. It shows why the status quo simply cannot be left as it is.
Schools need engaged parents to advance the cause of improved learning, educational research has found.
Want a sample? No fewer than 238 Michigan high schools produce no – as in “zero” – students who graduate ready for college in all subjects. Meanwhile, only 65 percent of children who began kindergarten this year showed up ready to learn the curriculum.
The governor knows this is unacceptable, and offers all sorts of suggestions. Some are relatively uncontroversial, like trying to find a way to eliminate the duplication caused by 84 separate programs dealing with early childhood education in Michigan.
Others have drawn heated responses, such as urging merit pay for good teachers. Yet the bottom line is: So far, so good. The governor is giving a lift to the long-time movement for educational reform. Much of that discussion has revolved around encouraging and/or beating up on schools and teachers. The implication is that good teaching is the only thing that matters.
But it isn’t. Just reforming schools won’t fix everything. Good teachers may well improve the odds of a child learning, but great teaching alone isn’t going to overcome deficits in parenting at home, cultural expectations in neighborhoods and communities and profound changes taking place in the entire society.
Those are things we are going to have to face regardless of who holds power in Lansing. I called Dr. Joan Firestone, the woman who first introduced me to the scientific evidence for early childhood programs some 20 years ago.
She works for Oakland County schools and is among the most respected national experts in how children learn. Firestone is, in fact, Oakland’s director of early childhood education. Her bottom line: “Fixing schools and helping kids learn is a lot harder than we all thought.” She has found evidence that how parents run the family makes an enormous difference in how their kids do in school.
But she replied, “We don’t have a lot of strong, consistent evidence that we can actually change the ways parents interact with their own kids at home that affect the ways they learn in school.”
What she does have is “good evidence that what parents do matters enormously: Reading and talking to your child from the moment she is born, for example. But if these things go against individual family traditions or the broader culture within the community, it’s very, very tough to change behavior within a family.”
Talk to parents with kids in public school, and quite quickly you hear anecdotes about parents who don’t attend Parent-Teacher/PTO meetings or won’t engage with teachers about their kids’ progress. The problem seems to be worse in heavily minority areas. Entertainers like Bill Cosby have spoken out about the effects of neighborhood black culture on academic achievement, for example.
But while they’ve received much publicity, that’s translated into few lasting results. Firestone, who is white, says the issue isn’t really a matter of race. It’s culture, whether within a given family or a wider ethnic group. She tells of a relative whose 3-year-old sat at a party, while her own child bounced around, talking and interacting with the adults. “My relative is of the ‘children should be seen, not heard’ school of parenting, while I think it’s better for a child to engage. That’s a matter of culture, not science,” she notes.
And our wider culture is changing, often in ways that shut off early and consistent mental engagement between parents and infants. Kids who used to talk with adults are now texting or tweeting. Some shopping carts at Wal-Mart have little videos attached. And, of course, some new cars have drop-down video screens so families can remain separate even during long trips.
Now, none of this is to argue that efforts to improve schools and teaching are pointless. Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan, points out that good schools and excellent teaching have enormous impact on kids, regardless of their home environment or neighborhood culture.
“Discussions of culture or environment shouldn’t be excuses for ignoring how much progress can be made by improving schools,” she said. Ball, a national expert on improving teacher training and preparation, adds “Being punitive about schools and teachers is by no means the same as working to build capacity and excellence.”
As Firestone points out, helping children learn much better is a tough challenge. But it can be done, even in distressed communities such as Detroit. Witness former State Sen. Doug Ross’ success with his University Preparatory Academy. But Ross would be the first to point out that it takes both great teaching and consistent parental involvement to do the job. Beating on teachers or trying to change family culture are both tough. But concentrating on only one is the equivalent of trying to listen to the sound of only one hand clapping.
Editor’s note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics. He is also the founder and president of The Center for Michigan, a nonprofit, bipartisan centrist think-and-do tank, designed to cure Michigan’s dysfunctional political culture. The opinions expressed here are Power’s own and do not represent the official views of The Center. He welcomes your comments at ppower@thecenterformichigan.net
9 Comments
I am not well educated like Dr. Firestone, but let me offer anecdotal case. My kids went to two different high school, one was where they the overwhelming majority wnet on to college (well prepared) and one where the beig event was graduation from 8th grade. The difference wasn’t the buildings, the teachers, it was the parents and how they talked t their kids from 3 years old on. It was the expectation they gave the kids and that expectation for college started early and was repeated, it was stuck to everytime there was push back.
Dear Dr. Firestone may want to change the family dynamics over the Wii box, but the reality is old or new family relationships will not have the necessary impact that simply coaching the parents in something as simple as raising the expectations for achievement by the kids.
The reality is that the schools (teachers and adminstrators) where I live today expect the kids to fail, surprises surprises the kids are meeting expectations.
If the Dr. is such an expert on childhood learning, why is it that kids from Asian cultures which has a very steeped tradition of not being heard and early on not being seen are noticably higher achievers than in the American culture, where Dr. Firstones view of kids being taught to speakout to their parents, are struggling of failing to achieve. I am not a professional education nor do I have any educational ‘expertise’, but the dynamics of behavior management maybe something to consider for kids, expectation-behavior-reinforcement.
I must also add that when we went to a couple of PTO meetings, they had nothing to do with the education of kids, the realtionship with your own kids or others, it was simply about getting money for teachers (it was when school taxes were neer turned down).
I surely respect you opinion of Dr. Firestone’s expertise in the field, but as I learned long ago ‘expertise’ is only worth what the results it delivers. I would lean to the collective knowledge of the community, give them a choice of ideas that they think would best achieve kids goign to college (or schooling after K-12), include in that choice such things as creating a discussion between parents and kids starting at three, parents simply saying everyday you will go to college, and a few other ideas from Dr. Firestone. See what they say. It isn;t the group think, but the aggragate of the population that will tell you what succeeds.
Get over the experts judgement, use them for ideas for prespective, but look to results for what works.
Nice to see things put in context, Phil, without suggesting we throw our hands up.
I have been actively involved as a parent and community member in Kalamazoo schools for almost 20 years. The poverty rate in our schools is about 70%. It is completely unrealistic to expect significant parental involvement in urban school districts with high poverty rates, or in any school district with high poverty rates, urban or rural. There are many explanations for why this is so, and it is a problem that our district has attempted to address, with very little to show for it.
The strategies that improve student outcomes include pre school programs, longer school days, and longer school years. These cost money, but there is abundant data that suggests that these types of public investments pay off in the long term in economic growth, graduation rates, and less involvement with the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, you don’t hear the realities of what doesn’t work and what does being discussed by our so-called leaders. Until the leadership in Lansing and in the business communitystarts thinking long-term and stops bashing educators, nothing will change.
Where is the real effort to focus on children learning?
When do we get rid of seat time and age grading as standards for progress in schools? (“One size fits all” doesn’t)
When do we open up teacher certification to “professionals” from other fields? (Schools of education aren’t the only sources of great teachers)
When do we allow the parent with the professional background or essential life experience to actually teach something instead of baking brownies, chaperoning field trips and leading reading circles? (Mindless tasks are turn offs to caring parents)
When do we allow the business community with proven success in continual improvement mentor the administrators at district and building levels? (Not all learning takes place in a classroom clocking seat time)
When do we face the reality that “standards” and “standardized testing” are meaningless in terms of learning anything and assessing progress? (the “scientific evidence” of the failure of standardized testing is overwhelming)
When do we allow individual teachers to contract with outside specialists to enter the classroom and support the learning goals?
When do we listen to the teachers when they show us with evidence that the current crop of students require additional adult support in the classroom? ( And eliminate the policy and contract language that prohibits this kind of flexibility)
When do we pry curriculum development and design from the cold, dead prescriptions of specialists who have never spent a day in the classroom or in the real world with a real job?
When do we accept the common sense that tells us that science, technology, english and math do not exist in isolation from art and culture and the real world of living and working?
And when are we going to lift our heads and honestly benchmark systems of education that work (Finland) and rally behind educators that are moving the needle of learning in their chosen context? (Kipp, Sudbury, Essential Schools, Big Picture Schools, High Tech Schools etc)
When are we going to stop blaming and start doing? Understand that the people that do the work, teachers, have far greater knowledge of what to do and the will and expertise to make it happen – if only we would let them.
Just look at what changed in the automobile industry when some Asian companies incorporated that understanding in their system of management.
I agree with Mr. Kirk. We must focus on what is working in our schools and stop scapegoating our hard working teachers for our educational problems. High quality education costs money. To recruit and retain our brightest teachers requires a commitment on our state’s part to adequately fund education. I think all legislators need to spend one week in their local schools preparing lessons, teaching, and grading the local students. I am certain they would be less critical if they actually experienced the job, I know I am. I volunteer every week in my children’s school. I am absolutely amazed at how their teachers manage the classroom while I struggle to deal with a small group of children. As class sizes increase and resources for special needs children decrease ALL of our children will lose out on learning time.
We need to be careful about comparing ourselves with other countries. Many countries “track” children which makes their graduation and success rates look higher than ours. In the USA, we must educate all children through grade 12, regardless of their special needs. We need to make sure we are comparing apples to apples.
We are at a crucial point in our educational system. There is nothing left to cut, without devastating the product. I am very realistic and realize that we are going to “get what we pay for” and possibly loose a generation of kids to inadequately funded education. If people think that educators have easy jobs with great pay and benefits, I say go back to school and start your next career. After volunteering in my kids’ school for five years, I say they need to be paid more money!
Thank you, Mr. Powers, for acknowledging the enormous influence that families have on their children’s school success. I agree with the above comments that there are ideas, albeit costly, that are proven effective and that the entire blame does not rest with the teachers.
The governor’s reference to duplication caused by 84 programs in early childhood education ought to be controversial, because it is not correct. The figure comes from a 2010 report “Building a Sustainable Future,” done by the Finance Project with the Kellogg Foundation for the Early Childhood Investment Corporation.
Even a casual look at the list of 84 programs in the report reveals that many are not 0-kindergarten early childhood programs at all. Only about 18 of the programs listed are specific programs or services for birth to kindergarten early childhood; another 20 to 25 serve children 0-K incidentally (along with children of all ages or as part of family-centered initiatives). The rest – more than half the programs listed – are efforts targeted at children kindergarten and older, services to adults, and administrative projects that provide no direct services to young children.
Reducing duplication is sometimes needed, but there are no 84 duplicative early childhood services on this list. Someone didn’t read the report carefully or is allowing misinformation to give credence to the idea of an additional state early childhood office to ‘fix’ a problem that doesn’t exist.
Early childhood programs that work directly with children and their parents have been shown to have a strong positive effect on children’s development, learning and later success. Those programs deserve support, but not an unnecessary reorganization or an extra agency in Lansing.
I am a fifth grade teacher in a rural district.
I love your piece entitled, “Lansing Can’t Solve All Our Education Problem.” I appreciate your support of quality education, and its connection to community/family contributions.
I pride myself in being a proactive teacher, engaging students with hands-on activities and high-interest lessons. I sing, dance, cheerlead, do cartwheels, whatever I can to make sure their day is enjoyable, interesting, and educational. Some days, I am very satisfied with the output, other days I am very frustrated. Sometimes it does not seem to matter what I do, I am ineffective to some children. Many of my students come to school hungry, tired, sick, angry, and simply frustrated. I have zero control over home life, although I try to connect with families. I invite students and their families to my house for pool parties, transport them to their ball games, take them on outings outside of the school day, and more. I love this community, raising 7 kids here. I want to improve the community and consequently improve educational outcomes.
Thanks for recognizing that even the best teachers need support at home. It takes the entire community to believe and support a child.
Thanks to Phil Power for his sharing and insights! On the Detroit scene especially….the school is broke, the city is broke and State Ed. funds are slim. Just maybe we need to tap a little more into one of the region’s greatest assets:
retired senior citizens from all walks of life, many of whom have lots of skills and life experience, many of whom are certainly qualified, motivated and AVAILABLE to come into Detroit schools as teacher aides, mentors, learning coaches. They are not a threat to the teacher’s role, but could do wonders to improved student performance, letting teacher concentrate more on teaching, and also helping to deal with bullying. Our kids are too isolated from caring adults; they are too often being left to feeling that peer influence, pressure and peer norms/expectations, “what other kids feel is “cool” is all that counts. Let ‘s give it a real college try! Would like to hear peoples’ comments on why involving seniors isn’t a helpful answer.