- Joined
- Jan 6, 2007
- Messages
- 4,829
- Reaction score
- 1,223
- Location
- beneath the surface
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
I'm sure her study is correct. My point would be that things are getting worse in this area, with districts preferring to pay for commercially-available plans or local administrative consultants rather than facilitating the development of effective planning by teachers. I've found little research to show that scripted instruction improves student learning, but there is research to show that student performance improves when teachers at the school level cooperate to design curriculum.
I have a couple of other concerns about this trend as well. First, high school dropouts report that "being bored" and "not learning anything" are the primary reasons they leave school--that's more likely to happen in a less-challenging-curriculum situation. Maye lower SES kids drop out more because of how we're teaching them.
Also, public schools are supposed to be leveling--they aren't supposed to reproduce the same class relations that already existed, which the research you cite tends to suggest.
That's the result of having our public schools paid for by our Property Taxes. Property value > Property Taxes > School funding > type of classes > type of students > type of worker > type of income > property value, and repeat.
SES is a major factor in determining all of this. It determines the health of the student (as in health insurance), the home atmosphere, type of parents, it's neighborhood, it's school, etc etc. It is most definitely a cycle.
Public schools will not level off as long as property taxes is what pays for our public schools.
Third, the economy of the future requires workers with greater skills. We need what Robert Reich calls "symbolic analysts," which requires higher-order thinking skills for the majority, not just the few.
Finally, good teaching depends substantially on the engagement of the teacher. Bored teachers are bad teachers. Powerless teachers are bad teachers. This method actually shifts public funds away from teachers (who don't need the same level of training if all they do is follow someone else's plan) and toward the private corporations that produce textbooks and lesson plans.
Can you talk more about the method you are referring to? Describe it.