Tony Wagner chronicles his experiences trying to find out what is wrong with the American education system. He says that the education system is not broken, its obsolete. "Schools haven't changed; the world has (kindle loc. 295)." The high stakes testing has not improved education or accountability, it has made it worse. Teachers teach to the tests, students memorize content without knowing how to think critically.
There are two achievement gaps that he references. The first is the gap between suburban, rural, urban, whites, minorities, and socioeconomic conditions. This is the one that receives the most attention, however the second has much more importance; the gap between the best schools and the rest of the world. The US is behind and other countries will continue to increase their lead. The jobs will continue to flow overseas because more qualified people exist outside the US. This is Wagner's focus - the global gap.
Schools stifle creativity. Creativity, discovery, and inquiry are valuable learning methods. Effective ways of cultivating these tools is through hands on activities such as exploratory lab exercises. Wagner says that he sees too little rigor in classrooms. Teachers do not challenge students to explain their answers. Teachers do not like when students challenge them on a topic.
The Scientific Method is more important than the content of science. In the unending quest for better performance, teachers are often forced to push content. Content is not as important as knowing how to find it, how to analyze it, how to use it, and how to create. I have witnessed this in my own life. I took Molecular Biology in 1997. In 1999, it was obsolete. A process called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was developed and made radical changes to the field of Molecular Biology. Many more changes occurred afterwards.
In order to understand the needs of future workers, Wagner consults business leaders about what they look for in prospective employees. The responses are shocking; they need people who can think critically. He had expected content as many people would. Unfortunately, the very skills business leaders are looking for are being pushed aside and the things that will be obsolete soon are being pushed ahead.
Wagner casts a very dim light on the education system in the US. Unfortunately, he is correct. According to TIMMS (2007), a national report on test scores shows the US near the bottom in Math and Science among developed nations. Though he disagrees with all of the formalized testing, the report shows a continuing downward trend. The often quoted report, A Nation at Risk, described the "rising tide of mediocrity" found in schools. Almost 30 years later, it seems that we are still there.
I deeply agree with A Nation at Risk's statement about the "rising tide of mediocrity" while having a fundamentally different philosophy of education than the writers of that report. I like Wagner's mention of socio-economic conditions and the emphasis on creativity in the educational process as things to focus on going forward.
ReplyDeleteDiane Ravitch, who played a central role in the formation of high-stakes testing as an outgrowth of “A Nation at Risk,” has now done a complete about-face and has very different ideas about the best ways to educate American students. She speaks with great clarity and conviction in the following link about the connections between poverty and inadequate education. Without an attention to the “whole person” of the student from basic nutritional needs to mentoring and guidance to content and reinforcement of content to challenge and motivation, our students will not succeed. And high-stakes testing in its current form isn’t getting us closer to that success either, it seems.