It's Not Just About The Benjamins: The Fight For Our Children's Education

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

                                                                           -Nelson Mandela

Parents all over Chicago have become entrenched in the #GetItDoneIL movement, pressuring legislators to balance the budget, and fund our schools. While fiscal commitment is the backbone of any institution, it is only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. As evidenced by the challenges seen in other bureaucratic systems, such as health care and criminal justice, money provides a temporary solution to a long-term problem. So how do we "fix" our educational system?

Teacher Training

Being a teacher in the United States is a grossly undervalued profession, and as a result, the rigor of undergraduate and graduate programs reflect this. When looking at education super powers, such as Finland and Poland, the restructuring of their training programs was the first step in revolutionizing the countries' academic performance. Recently, I had hip surgery, and felt confident in the surgeon's skills, because he had years of supervised training, with a gradual release towards independence. Teachers spend a few months in a classroom, graduate, and are hired for a grade level or subject in which they may have no experience. As a country, we need to value the training of educators in the same vein as physicians, with high standards, mentoring, and eventually competitive salaries.

Peer Collaboration

I hate to use the medical profession as an ongoing comparison, but I will:) It is a field steeped in peer collaboration and review. This provides opportunities to reflect on process, procedures, mentor, and improve personal practice. In an attempt to refrain from sweeping generalizations, I can only speak to my experiences of classrooms with closed doors, Principals who must give notice before observing, inconsistent practices across grade levels, and an unhealthy sense of competition.  With high stakes testing factoring into teacher performance, and the adoption of new evaluation methods, this only further negates opportunities for risk taking and enhancing skills; thus, creating a climate of mistrust and contention. These little and big people are "everybody's" students, and we must rely on the village. This becomes ever so challenging when teachers must put their survival above the students. 

Commitment & System Evaluation

Reading First, America's Choice, Common Core, D.A.R.E., SEL, and PBIS, what do they have in common? All are a few of many federal initiatives that have burst onto the scene only to be cut by the federal government or eliminated with changes in school based leadership.  Countless dollars are poured into program development every year, and as most veteran teachers realize, if you hang around long enough, it will probably disappear. Schools commit to the latest fads, without a game plan, realistic timeline, or adequate training, in order to make data based decisions regarding its effectiveness.  Often, the result is implementation without fidelity, lack of results, and an assumption that the program, not its leaders, is flawed.

The concept of commitment is strongly correlated with system evaluation. Any educator versed in Response To Intervention recognizes that you need at least four data points to determine if an intervention is working. These individuals also must consider factors such as fidelity or treatment integrity, which in layman's terms, are the following questions: 1) Did we follow the directions at every level? 2) Are the individuals responsible for providing the interventions appropriately trained? 3) Did the tools selected to measure growth align with the skills being taught? Instead of taking the time to answer these questions, many districts and schools will proclaim the initiative is not working, and phase it out well before the recommended period of implementation has expired. Some of this derives from a desire to avoid tough answers, but also the need to produce immediate results for a variety of stakeholders including parents, school boards, the district, and state. Commitment and system evaluation require grit, perseverance, and feedback, all skills necessary to impart upon our students. Who will be their role models?