Stop Educational
Genocide in NC
Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard E. Manning, Jr., writing in the
Leandro case, said that NC was committing "educational genocide" by not educating its students in the public schools.
This ostrich would like to take her head out of the sand and describe a radical reform program that addresses underlying causes, aims to end the genocide, and elevate the quality of the education that we North Carolinians give our children.
The
debate about "Common Core or not" is a travesty for teachers, and by extension, students. To remove this curriculum, just implemented two years ago, is embarrassing. Will the curriculum be
on again,
off again based on who is in control of the state legislature? Yikes, this is bush league. Pick something and stick with it for five years, for pete's sake. Give the teachers something to count on and build around.
Irrespective of that debate, however, we have a more fundamental structural issue in our public schools. This is my heart blast of desire that dreams of actually educating our children, rather than corralling them like cattle in a system that teaches them mainly how to hate school.
* * * * *
NoGeno Reform Model
Segregate schools
based on parental involvement in the students’ education.
For students with actively involved
parents, keep the current curriculum and administrative structure.
For students without actively
involved parents/guardians:
(a) put their school in their neighborhood;
(b) make maximum class size 15 students so that the teacher
can instruct the students in the social skills necessary for them to
constructively participate in group endeavors;
(c) compartmentalize the curriculum so that students repeat
small units until they master the content, regardless of age or native language;
(d) manage the school so that it becomes the surrogate
family for the children – teams, expectations, extracurriculars;
(e) have a menu of vocational skill classes in all grades
that students would choose for themselves;
(f) give the school the ability to expel students, who would
then attend a school with rigorous disciplinary structure and limits on
personal freedom; and
(g) annually, conduct a dutch auction for
teaching positions at these in-neighborhood schools, effectively guaranteeing a
sufficient number of qualified teachers.
Whatever excess compensation over prevailing levels is spent in these schools
will be subtracted from regular schools; the PTA at the regular schools will be
encouraged to make up the difference. (see dutch auction explanation below.)
At teacher colleges,
teach the skills that instructors need to succeed with high-poverty
populations.
(a)
Just as a teacher can be certified for teaching
“gifted” or “reading,” there should be teacher-preparation curricula that
generate graduates specialized in teaching low SES students. Fifty percent of public school students are
from the low SES strata, and the charter school movement will increase that
percentage.
(b)
Seventy percent of high school math teachers are
white and a disproportionate number of low SES students are not white. Clearly, for a teacher to be effective in the
classroom, s/he needs cultural orientation to appreciate the students’ home
setting, and the complex array of regulations and resources relevant to this
population.
(c)
This college curriculum will attract students to
enroll if the in-neighborhood schools:
a.
Pay teachers and staff via a dutch auction compensation system
b.
Have an administrative structure that is
effective, efficient, and permits the teacher to impart learning to the
students
c.
Are promoted by the State of NC giving scholarships to teachers
who commit to teaching for five years.
Treat teachers like
the vital resource that they are . . . the sine
qua non.
(a)
Give them a system and classroom in which they
can actually accomplish instruction, not just day care and entitlement
compliance.
(b)
Ensure stability of goals. Stop changing the goal line every year with
the annual revision to objectives, methods, and priorities. It makes teachers feel like it is impossible to
be competent at what they do, given the already demanding exogenous environment
of radical technological evolution.
(c)
Endow them with transparent leadership and
professional courtesy. Eliminate all the
administrative double-talk necessitated by rhetoric designed to rationalize the
gaps in performance. Eliminate the part
of new-employee orientation that speaks to the new hires as if they were just
paroled from prison.
(d)
Require that administrators have more management
skills training than pedagogical training.
Create active citizen
oversight without the baggage attendant to the local school boards.
(a)
Elected school board members may support
schools, but they may have other goals:
nexus to real estate developers, political springboard, interest group
advocate, or job security. NC local
Boards of Education have not ended the genocide.
(b)
Require each major urban school district to have
an elected Education Watchdog Council whose sole purpose is to monitor strategic
performance and articulate the college and employers’ view point of what
they want from public schools
a.
long term assessment of the college or employment
suitability of NC high school graduates
b.
market share of students by category: public,
charter, independent, home school, dropped out, judicial system
c.
performance statistics (graduation, GPA,
employment/college, ACT scores) of
students by category
d.
assessment of data quality from the school
district (accuracy, timeliness, relevance)
e.
assessment of
i.
“brain drain” risk (NC students moving out of
state for full-time employment)
ii.
skills gap in the NC workforce vs employment
opportunities
iii.
surplus in the workforce of particular skill
sets
Benefits of this Proposal
Benefit
|
Rationale
|
Remediates the primary deficit plaguing low income students: lack of adult support.
|
Learning is hard work. Humans
do not embrace hard work absent motivation.
The family surrogate aspect of in-neighborhood schools allows students
to cultivate motivation.
|
Makes the teacher compensation battle easier to understand and solve.
|
Fundamentally different pay scales are necessary for groups that
teach students with actively involved parents compared to groups that teach
low SES students without parent involvement.
|
Increases the supply of willing teachers, in that it reduces some of
the nightmares legendary in public schools.
|
Ends the curriculum volatility, phony administrator rhetoric, and
enables classroom control.
|
Enables and motivates students to attend school even if they have no
parental guidance.
|
School is near the student’s residence and the student wants to be
with their friends and “family.”
|
Conquers the formidable problem of social promotion.
|
Compartmentalized learning units can be taught to students of any
age, ending the problem of seating a 16-year-old next to a 10-year-old, both
learning fractions.
|
Maximizes possibility of learning for low SES students by giving them
small class size, well-trained competent teachers, and a standard of
“learning to mastery.”
|
Small class size eliminates the chance to be invisible or anonymous,
and promotes teacher’s ability to deal with needs of low SES population.
|
Pragmatically, acknowledges that not everyone will attend college,
but that everyone needs job skills and guidance toward self-reliance.
|
Statistics bear out this reality.
No one has a capped academic path.
Occupational skills create a greater chance for self-confidence,
competence, and buy-in to the community life and laws.
|
Adds a fundamental respect for the human dignity of kids channeled
into alternative discipline schools by requiring mandatory occupational work
and literacy.
|
Ends the abusive practice toward children that have not had anyone
demonstrate an interest in their learning.
|
Places importance on LEARNING, not on the political aims of the
several parties to this debate.
|
The several parties to this debate organize into political factions,
each of which pushes its self-interested agenda. This incrementalism prolongs the genocide
and ignores the authentic human dignity of the NC children growing up likely
to hate school. Hatred of school
promotes dropping out and antipathy toward social mores.
|
Acknowledges the inadequacy of the historical 25 student classroom
setting for kids from low SES homes that have not been properly socialized to
function within a group.
|
To function in a classroom, students need emotional and social
maturity, including the ability to delay gratification. Small class size allows the teacher to
include this instruction and to elevate expectations.
|
Places a sophisticated yet democratic layer of surveillance on the
job performance of the School Board and School District, with an eye toward
strategic outcomes.
|
Parents and other taxpayers are broadly dissatisfied with the current
regime, and have lost confidence in its leadership. While this preserves the leadership in
place, it adds organization and sophistication to the collective assessment
of the job they are doing.
|
Addresses the cultural issue of black strivers being accused of
trying to “act white.”
|
At a majority black school, strivers are not accused of trying to
“act white.”
|
Represents a comprehensive solution to the persistent “achievement
gap.”
|
Instead of trying out the latest consultant program marketed to
administrators eager to close the achievement gap, this approach focuses the
effort on treating the root causes of the problem.
|
Objections to this proposal
Objection
|
Counter
argument
|
It is foolish to expend more resources teaching the lowest achieving
students.
|
The NC Constitution demands that we educate our students. We either abandon the low SES students to
chance or we design a system that works.
Mass-producing uneducated North Carolinians cripples future workforce
development, burdens entitlement spending, and crowds prisons.
|
African American community leaders will dislike the possible
concentration and lack of diversity at the in-neighborhood schools.
|
Many African Americans community leaders support the KIPP schools
where there is no diversity but there is much success.
|
African American community leaders may construe this as a Trojan
horse intended to resegregate schools.
|
If this idea were screened with pastors from African American faith
communities, they might see the intrinsic desire to do right by the low SES
children who are being dramatically underserved in the present arrangement.
Also, as evidenced at KIPP Charlotte, there are plenty of parents of
black children who are actively involved in their child’s education, and
thus, all such children would be integrated into the regular public schools.
|
We do not have the budgetary funds to build/create in-neighborhood
schools.
|
Wealthy sponsors will advance funds for concepts that are radically
committed to authentic learning.
|
Suburban school parents will howl in protest over unequal resources
for their kids (“reverse discrimination.”)
|
Suburban school parents will be delighted with the resulting higher
functioning public schools, and can be persuaded to take this resource
reduction in exchange for a more effective, efficient school.
|
Public schools are required to accept all students regardless of
emotional, physical, or cognitive impairment.
|
In-neighborhood schools will accept all such students, and will cope
with the extra demands of this population by limiting class size to 15
students; by having the freedom to expel students who cannot participate
constructively; and by hiring instructors certified in the unique needs of
the low SES population.
|
Maybe this would work if you started from scratch, but there is no
effective transition method to get there.
|
Where there is a will, there is a way.
|
You are never going to solve the problems of poverty.
|
If a child has an IQ of at least 75, he can graduate from high school
if he has a surrogate family structure and someone committed to push him toward
learning to mastery [Ron Clark Academy,
KIPP.]
|
The Achilles heel of this idea is the alternative discipline
school. The ACLU will not accept the
limits on personal freedom required to make this kind of school work.
|
We have alternative discipline schools already. The only criticism of them is that they are
disproportionately populated by minorities.
The in-neighborhood school goes a long way toward redressing
that.
|
Teachers will be wildly opposed to different pay standards for
employees with equal education and tenure.
|
As long as each person is paid what they think is adequate for their
needs, they should be willing to accept that another employee has a subject
area for which the market has a greater shortage, thus driving the price up.
|
Low SES homes may not have e-mail, phone service, or the language
skills to connect with the teacher.
|
Students in these families will receive the benefit of learning in
smaller class settings.
|
What is a Dutch
Auction?
A dutch auction is a method to find a price level for a
service. The level must be low enough to
appeal to buyers and high enough to motivate sellers to offer the service. Buyers and sellers must be treated fairly.
How does it work?
(a)
In this case, the “sellers” would be the
teachers, because they are the ones who would receive money for services. The “buyer” would be the school district.
(b)
The school district publishes criteria for
candidates to qualify for a job.
Interested candidates submit an application to be considered. The school district then notifies all the
candidates who have been deemed qualified to submit a bid for available
positions. It is important for the school district to ensure that there are
enough qualified applicants to fill all the openings. It continues recruiting until this is
true.
(c)
The school district solicits sealed bids for all
open positions. The teachers submit
confidential sealed bids indicating the lowest salary they are willing to
accept to perform a job.
(d)
Suppose the bidding for two open positions was
as follows:
KG teacher
Ten positions open
|
|
High school physics teacher
Five positions open
|
Teacher
|
Bid
|
Teacher
|
Bid
|
A
|
45,000
|
M
|
65,000
|
B
|
43,000
|
N
|
63,000
|
C
|
41,000
|
O
|
60,000
|
D
|
40,000
|
P
|
60,000
|
E
|
35,000
|
Q
|
55,000
|
F
|
35,000
|
R
|
55,000
|
G
|
35,000
|
S
|
55,000
|
H
|
33,000
|
T
|
53,000
|
I
|
32,000
|
U
|
52,000
|
J
|
28,000
|
V
|
48,000
|
K
|
27,000
|
W
|
47,000
|
L
|
25,000
|
X
|
45,000
|
For the KG teachers, ten employees are needed. Counting up from the bottom of the list, it
takes a salary of $41,000 to obtain the services of ten teachers. Thus, all ten teachers would be paid $41,000
for the coming year. Teachers C through
L would be hired, and teachers A and B would not.
For the physics teachers, five employees are needed. Counting up from the bottom of the list, it
takes a salary of $53,000 to obtain the services of five teachers. Thus, all five teachers would be paid $53,000
for the coming year. Teachers T through
X would be hired, and teachers M through S would not.
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