School Daze

In a recent article in Newsweek Magazine, George Will examined American education. He focused on Arne Duncan, Obama’s Secretary of Education. He came to the job with an impressive resume. His family is rooted in college academia, his father being a professor of psychology. His mother ran an after school center for mostly disadvantaged mostly African American children in a economically challenged Chicago neighborhood.

Duncan, himself, is a magna cum laude Harvard graduate with a degree in sociology. After graduation, he went Australia and played professional basketball for a number of years, succeeded by a stint back in Chicago in mentoring underprivileged children. That, in turn, led to numerous other government social work type jobs, culminating in being appointed CEO of the Chicago Public School System. His success there is either praised or vilified, depending on one’s point of view as is all things in education.

But his stint was viewed as a success by Chicago’s favorite son, Barack Obama, and he is now the top gun educator in the United States.

George Will states that Duncan takes a realistic approach to the status of American education believing the most American students are unprepared for college. His is also aware of the anomalies in our system. For example, although we spend more on education per pupil than any other nation except for Luxemburg, performance levels of American students only equal those of Estonia and Poland which spend ½ as much per pupil.

He also apparently realizes that class size is irrelevant as to the learning ability of students once they get passed 3rd grade. I wrote last week that I learned more mathematics in a Catholic school setting with 50-60 in a class, than I did in a public school setting which then had class sizes around 30. Mr. Will commented that the class size argument made continuously today are fed by unions hoping schools will hire more teachers that will pay more union dues. I’m not sure Mr. Duncan is that cynical, and neither am I, but then again one never knows!!

Mr. Duncan and Mr. Will seem to agree on one thing. While one can argue about class size until the cows come home, the quality of the teacher at the head of the class makes a difference. Singapore ranks 2nd internationally in math performance for 15 year olds while American rank 25th. In Singapore, you must be in the top 30% of your academic class to be accepted into its education schools. Translated: all teachers in Singapore are in the top 1/3 of their class! In the United States, only 23% of our teachers come from the top 1/3 of their academic class. In fact, the average student entering an education school ranks only the 41st percentile in math and the 46th percentile in critical reading on applicable college boards. This, in turn, leads Mr. Duncan to the conclusion that he would rather have a top notch teacher teach a class of 30 than a mediocre teacher teach a class of 20.

As in any such debate, statistics can be slanted one way or the other. Anecdotally, they may be right, especially when looking at the hiring practices of various school systems which seems and abortion between hiring sports coaches, bus drivers, secretaries…and oh yes…someone to teach science.

At the end of the day, the problems in education are more likely rooted in the decline in our culture as a whole, a decline in the American family structure, and the legalities imposed on schools by the courts. How does one fix that?

Reference is made to MR. DUNCAN'S SMART LESSON PLAN by George Will; Newsweek Magazine; February 7, 2011; Page 16.