Policy Prescriptions from Darling-Hammond The policy prescriptions that Darling-Hammond lays out in the final chapter of her book The Flat World and Education are organized into five key elements:
1. Meaningful learning goals 2. Intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems 3. Equitable and adequate resources 4. Strong professional standards and supports 5. School organized for student and teacher learning Throughout her book she puts forth much information to inform arguments for the needed changes in our U.S. school systems and the policies that support them. I would like to now consider the key elements that she states should guide our reform and discuss in what ways these policy changes could affect change in education. I will then do some blathering because this is a blog and this topic of educational shift is strongly felt. Meaningful learning goals for students is the learning of real life problem solving skills through project based learning and as the vehicle for instructing the Common Core Standards. Meaningful learning is the purpose of the child to be in our classrooms. The nurturing of the students' mind to construct their own learning and how to work well with others is to instill the 21st Century life skills that U.S. students are so desperately in need of. Teachers continue to make strides, but the policies, curriculum and evaluations need to continue to improve as well. The high stakes standardized tests of the NCLB era became the the unfortunate end goal for this government policy which lead to the return of the old fashioned factory method of instruction, "I teach, student listens, I give a test, how well a student paid attention determines his grade..." A simple shift in this thinking and policy making could see to the lessening power of testing publishers and thereby the positive effect that this can have on education. As seen in earlier chapters, while money does not always fix the school problems, money used to properly train teachers does. While teachers continue to hone their skills in the classroom to meet the needs of the 21st Century student, the tests are not able to evaluate meaningful skills such as collaboration, communication, and citizenship. The intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems wherein the government is held accountable for the learning opportunities of its population, is a much needed shift in our school reform. As teachers we have experienced the need for more accountability and this comes in the form of more tests. In the past it seemed out of fear that teachers did their best to 'perform' and get tests scores up, regardless of any actual meaningful learning that was happening in the class. Pedagogical shifts have happened many times in my 20 years as an educator, unfortunately, rarely is it accompanied by meaningful professional development, mentoring, or even time to learn the new program shift. I would like to see the change from administrators coming in to evaluate, to administrators coming in to support and assistance in the learning process of the instructor. It would be interesting to see the accountability system use a trickle down method rather than the trickle up that has teachers jumping through hoops. Equitable and adequate resources, here Darling-Hammond would like to see federal funding equalized throughout the nation and more importantly as it applies to teacher professional development and education. This leads directly into her policy prescription for strong professional standards and supports. I am in agreement with all of her policy reforms but here I think the most. Although, we do often wonder if more government is the answer. A huge concern has been the mismanagement of monies in California and its lasting effects while, comparatively, the radical and effective reform of New Jersey schools was due to positive money management. It remains to be seen if those in power can be responsible to their people. To establish equity throughout our country seems like a daunting task. The training of an entire staff, much less a district, state or country seems impossible. When I look around my lunch table in the staff lounge and I think of our various backgrounds and life experiences, I think of how we all have something to add to the teaching of our students and each other. However, I am often concerned about what is lacking in our collective and individual educational experiences. We all went to different colleges, studied under different majors, went to varying teacher credential programs, have experienced different professional developments ...I understand that in a country as big as the U.S. it would be a far greater task than the overhauling of the teacher education that happened in Finland and Singapore, but some kind of base level uniformity of practice should be attained. I think an attempt at uniformity was in the implementation of the new Common Core Standards, of course this is just another set of student goals and in no way prepared teachers in supporting kids to reach them. This practice is subjectively taught within the districts. The idea of implementing a rigorous and uniform teaching program that was over the course of several years and paid for by the government is a policy change that I strongly support for new teachers. Throughout this course I have been inspired to bring to my class real life problems and challenges in order to promote problem solving and to create a meaningful learning environment. Unfortunately, it is only with increased discomfort that I face these challenges due to real life problems of my own. Darling-Hammond proposes adequate training and preparation time for instruction. I could not agree more! I am supported by my peers, my classroom is fully stocked with what is needed, I have some parent volunteers, and support staff is available, but where is the time? The elementary classroom teacher receives an inequitable amount of planning time in comparison to their Secondary School counterparts. Where is the administrative support? We are asked to sit in meetings having the Common Core Standards repeatedly explained and read in small group, whole group, alone...We look at test data continuously and are constantly asked to create lessons and plans to remedy the dismal outcomes. The creation of solutions is then written down on a data form for the administration to see that there is accountability and outcomes from the meetings. Sadly, the remedy is rarely met because the preparation time does not exist. Much study at our school deals with different practices, not one study is done on the preparedness of the instructor and its impact on the classroom. Or wait, maybe that is what the failing test scores DO show! Primary teachers are unprepared to teach their MANY lessons; L.A., ELD, Phonics, Science, Math, P.E., Social Studies...(many lessons taught in small group so this means that more lessons are planned while the purposeful lesson is being taught), and this shows in test scores. A common joke is that if you are teaching something well, chances are you are not teaching a few other things that you should be. If teaching and learning is going to happen on a deeper level, then so must the planning to do so. Just like the students, the teachers need training, collaboration, processing and then TIME TO WORK! Drop Mic.
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