Blog 6

Five Changes to Education

1. Move away from high stakes testing promoted by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. As they are currently being implemented, the tests do very little to assess or improve learning in schools. We need a more well rounded way to assess the performance of schools, teachers, and students. 
2. Every school should have two principals – one that serves as a CEO and focuses on the financial aspect of the schools and one that focuses on the academics of the schools. The academic principal should have at least 7 years of teaching experience, and at least 5 years at the level that they will serve as an administrator.
3. Get rid of charter schools, and give public schools more autonomy. If charter school achieve success because they are more independent and can operate under their own direction, why not allow all public schools to operate in the same way? (Note: (I don’t believe charter schools are more successful, but the president does)
4. Invest more money into low performing schools, rather than taking their money away. Added funds should be used to reduce classroom sizes, add well-trained teachers assistants to the classroom, make schools a place students are excited to go to by physically renovating the campus or building a new one altogether, provide school breakfast and lunch for low income students, provide a quiet place for them to do homework on campus for 2 or 3 hours after school.
5. Continue to develop a national content and skill based curriculum. Develop some idea of what a high school graduate in the United States should know and should know how to do. Academic Principals (see #2 above) should review all teacher syllabi and department to curricula to see where these content and skill based standards are being taught. Syllabi and curricula should be posted on the school website and clearly show the areas that focus on content and skill standards for the public to see.

Most Meaningful About Ravitch

The part of Ravitch’s book that stood out to me was the way in which “reformers” always implemented their reforms in an authoritarian manner. Whether it was in District 2, or San Diego, or back in New York, or nation-wide, the approach to creating reform was generally antagonistic and demeaning to teachers, and sometimes parents. No reform will ever be successful if teachers do not believe in it. When administrators and elected officials create an environment that bullies and ignores teachers, they will never achieve successful reform no matter how good their ideas are. In the end, teachers are the ones who are in the classroom, they are the ones responsible for educating the students and carrying out educational policy. If they don’t believe in it, they will not do it. And if they are coerced into doing it, they will not do it well. Any reform to education must include teachers by gathering feedback and including them on early decisions. I personally think most of the reform ideas discussed in the book are not good for education, but they had no chance for success because of the manner in which they were introduced and implemented.

What Can You Do as a Teacher and a Citizen

Generally, the reforms discussed in Ravitch’s book limit teacher’s freedom in the classroom. Placing immense focus on the statewide standardized tests forces the teacher’s attention in one specific direction, narrowing our ability to develop creative lessons that encourage higher level thinking skills in the students. In the classroom, the best a teacher can do is try to balance the kind of pedagogy that we know enhances student engagement and learning with the memorization and test-taking skills emphasized by the state tests.

Outside of the classroom, it is incumbent upon all teachers to talk about the negative impacts of federal policies with our friends, family, and anyone else who will listen. We have to acknowledge that we are experts in education policy because we are the primary actors in its implementation. We have to assert ourselves as experts when we talk with people about education policy in our country. We must be vocal about the state of education in our country and about what we think needs to be different to make it better.

National and State Associations

California Council for the Social Studies – The CCSS is a non-profit organization for social studies educators that advocates for the importance of social studies in schools and provides resources to make teachers more effective. The two services provided by the CCSS that would be most useful to me are their annual conferences and their new publication that is about to be launched, The Occasional Paper, which includes the latest research on social studies education.

National Council for History Education – The NCHE is meant to be a gathering place for everyone who teaches history, from K-12 teachers to university professors, to museum curators. The Council hosts an annual conference, provides free publications, and connects to a wide range of other historical organizations. They offer professional development programs that team teachers up with an academic historian, a master teacher, and a learning specialist for a seminar that is individualized for the teachers needs.

Resources

Bay Area Experiential Resources

-       Rosie the Riveter Monument in Richmond – This National Historic Park showcases the efforts and sacrifices many American civilians made during World War II.

-       Mission San Jose – Build in 1797, Mission San Jose was the fourteenth Spanish mission built in California for the purposes of allowing Spain to colonize the west coast of North America and convert native Americans to Catholicism.

-       USS Hornet – An aircraft carrier that was used in battle during World War II is now moored at Alameda point and serves as a museum of American military history.

-       California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento – The museum features various exhibits that showcase the history of railroads and the impact that the railroads have had on California and the rest of the west.

-       Port Chicago Naval Magazine – This is the site of an accidental explosion at a naval ammunition storage area in Pittsburg, CA. In all, 320 American were killed, many of whom were African American.

Books

1.     Habits of Empire: A Story of American Expansion by Walter Nugent

2.     Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides

3.     No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

4.     A History of the American People by Paul Johnson

5.     Democracy in America by Alexis de Toqueville

Journals

1. Journal of American History
2. American Quarterly

Conferences

1. The California Council for the Social Studies 52^nd Annual Conference
1. March 8-10, 2013 in Burlingame, CA
2. The California Council for History Education 7^th Annual Conference
1. October 19-20, 2012 at San Jose State University

World Experiential Resources

1. Sojourn to the South – students and teachers travel to the south to immerse themselves into a journey along the path of the Civil Rights Movement through five states.
2. Mesa Verde National Park – the cliff dwellings of the Native American Pueblo tribe have been preserved for visitation.
3. Ellis Island Immigration Museum – twelve million immigrants to the United Stated passed through the Ellis Island immigration station. The museum showcases various exhibits that include artifacts, photographs, videos, interactive displays, and oral histories that tell the story of the millions of immigrants.
4. The Alamo – the site of a significant battle in the running conflict between American settlers in Texas and the Mexican government that led to the Mexican-American War. This is a significant historical site in the American story of Manifest Destiny.
5. Lyndon Baines Johnson Museum and Library – the library houses forty-five million pages of historical documents about Lyndon Johnson’s entire career. This would provide an immense amount of information about the Vietnam War and Cold War – important parts of the story of America as a World Power.