Some thoughts on Fixing Education – Part I

Sam Dillon’s article in today’s New York Times, Inexperienced Companies Chase U.S. School Funds, framed several disturbing trends in education that bear examination. For one, his well-chosen title illustrates a two-pronged problem rather simply: a) inexperience and b) fund chasing. Or, to put it another way, everyone’s an expert, so let’s make it pay. Education is far too important and complex to let these two issues of lack of experience and fund chasing to be the primary forces to shape it.
In so many of these articles, there is also an elephant in the room, frequently the elephant in the room in so many contexts that do have to do not only with education, but so many other things: socioeconomic class or demographics. The district in which I teach has a high status – my High School is a silver medal school, boasts college acceptance in the high 90% range, consistently ranks high in the MCAS and AP races, and people keep moving there “for the schools.” But the community is generally middle to upper middle class and actively “supports” education in that parents and guardians email with concerns, have jobs which allow them to take time off for meetings, and attend extracurricular events. Do my colleagues work hard? Absolutely. Are we well-educated ourselves? Yes. Do we care? Certainly. Do we know our students? Yes. Do we spend unpaid time with them after school for academic help, clubs, activities, or because they want an adult to talk to other than their parents sometimes? Yes. Are we teaching to a test every day? No. Is there a threat of violence hanging over the student body or faculty or the town itself? No. Can we as a school district take full credit for the successes of our students? Absolutely not. There is a confluence of reasons that result in the success of the district and students and socioeconomic class and the fact that most families in town are living above if not well above subsistence.
There are many things we can and will and already do in fact do to ensure the quality of the education of our students, including what some of these consulting companies suggest.