Welcome to the Educate For A Change EduBlog!
Educate For A Change is dedicated to the proposition that we can change the American public education system, and that we can reverse the rising trend in drop out rates and under-achievement in our public schools.
With a national drop out rate of 30%, with 30% of high school graduates not continuing their education after high school, and with 40% of entering college freshmen being required to take remedial courses before they are granted enrollment in college level classes, we must face the disturbing fact that our K-12 public education system is failing to meet its stated goals for over 75% of the students it serves.
Students don’t just suddenly fail; they don’t just suddenly drop out. Their cumulative records show patterns of failure and under-achievement through years of enrollment.
The last three decades have been filled with innovative interventions for low achieving students, but ultimately, only two options have persisted through years of debate: Retention & Social Promotion.
Though the debate continues over retention vs. social promotion, researchers working on both sides of the issue have agreed that neither option results in higher achievement. We understand the relationship between retention and dropouts: most dropouts have been retained one or more times. We also know that most dropouts who have not been retained have been subject to social promotion.
Every innovation or intervention program in use today has been around for years and has appeared in multiple times and places over the last 30 years. None of these innovations have turned the tide in American Education. They have been implemented, had some minimal effect, and then have fallen out of fashion as the next “solution” comes along. These programs are expensive, and they are extremely difficult to administrate effectively because they add heavy loads on the already over-burdened human resources of the school.
This all begs the question: If neither retention or social promotion work, and if student achievement has been spiraling downward over the last 40 years inspite of all of the intervention programs that have been tried, then isn’t this indicative of a major systemic problem? Doesn’t this suggest that after years of trying to fix the system, it might be time to consider changing the system?
We insist that the time has come for a dramatic change in how we do things in our public schools. We believe that real change requires real change. We believe that it’s time to Educate For A Change.
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The links that lead to commercial sites are really annoying. You might try wordpress or blogger for a free blog that doesn’t have this stuff. Other than that I am interested in what you have to say and I think we are in agreement.
Changes! A million Yes! I agree that the American Public Schools need changes, From facilities to re organization of Faculties..
Nice Brave Post!
I just found your site from an comment left on ed.week. Your ideas are truly inspiring and I wonder how you are spreading the word. I also want to know what can be done to change the way we do business in the public schools. The NCLB leaves little room for innovation.
3rd Grade Teacher in NM
You are on the right track. I, too, found this website link in a comment to an EdWeek article. When I read the article I was struck by its emptiness. The researchers surveyed a bunch of teachers. They found a range of attitudes, and then they divided those attitudes into three categories (and gave them names). Then they described how the teachers in the three categories differed from each other. As one poster said – DUH!!!! Of course they differed from each other — the RESEARCHERS defined what group they would be in by how they differed from each other!!! I was happy to see so many comments from TEACHERS who recognized the shoddy logic of this. The reason I emphasize “teachers” is that I once had a publisher tell me, “Teachers don’t buy books.” The implication was that teachers are not professionally inquisitive or engaged. But, if it is true that teachers don’t buy books on education, it is because nobody writes books FOR TEACHERS. Instead, they publish this social scientific stuff that takes us to the periphery of education, instead of to where teachers work — at the center of the battle for the education of our young people.