Fixing Public Education: 7 Things That Will Not Work and 1 That Will

American Public Education continues to rank poorly compared with other developed countries. American students ranked 17^th overall among 40 developed countries. In 2009, U.S. mathematics students ranked 25^th out of 34 developed countries. Many approaches and solutions are constantly being discussed and many have been implemented over the past years and decades, yet these studies show that our students are not gaining ground.

As a student then later a mathematics teacher and educator for 30 years, I started with the new math during the race to space and I have stayed through many changes both in course content, methodology, and teacher training. Yet, American students performance has declined. Instead of being able to brag about all the success of these changes we are still talking about how to fix public education.

I have the only solution that will absolutely work. I doubt many will accept it. So, I want to point out the errors in these popular solutions first. Maybe, the discussion will then turn towards the only solution. So, first a look at what will not improve the performance of our students.

Get Rid of Bad Teachers. Bad teachers are not something that have just came along. We've always had them and always will. Getting rid of bad teachers is impossible in our current society. It's not because we don't know who they are. The administrators, teachers, and parents knows who they are. But, there are three reasons bad teachers are still teaching:

1. Is there a good teacher available? An examination of the Department of Educations website where a list of teacher shortages by State is listed will convince anyone that there are always areas where demand exceeds supply. There is, has and always will be a shortage of teachers.
2. Why not train more good teachers? For two reasons that is “easier said than done.” (1) All the current bad teachers had to graduate from some teacher training institution which implies that there are some institutions letting some bad ones graduate. Right? (2) Given a choice any administrator would hire the better teacher. They would never hire their best friend's child or a student they taught years ago over a better teacher. They would never hire a winning football coach when they could get a really good teacher instead.
3. Is there a will to fire the bad teachers? We don't have to worry about lawsuits, political correctness, protects by civil rights groups or a biased judge's orders--Do we? If it would help improve education would you willingly be fired, or support your child or your friend being fired? Or, would you call the teacher organization? Do you know some who would?
4. Is tenure the enemy? If you get rid of teacher tenure, what prevents administrators from firing a great teacher to hire a less capable friend. Tenure was not created to protect bad teachers it was created to protect good teachers from bad administrators.
   Getting rid of bad teachers is harder than it sounds. It seems such a simple solution. But, “the devil is in the details.”

Institute Performance-based Pay. There is no empirical evidence that performance-based pay helps student achievement. Maybe, all the factors that affect student success in a classroom are too hard to define and control to construct a valid study. However, the fact that more pay does not result in better teaching can be proved by looking at the current system. Most systems currently pay teachers who have advanced degrees and teachers who have the most experience the most. One would expect these teachers would be better than the beginner, but that has not proven to be true. I support performance-based pay, but it is not the solution to the poor performance of students.

Properly trained and motivated teachers have been doing a good job for hundreds of years. So, why not institute performance-based teacher pay to motivate the bad teachers into better performance and to reward the good teachers? I support it. I think good teachers are not getting compensated for the work they do. But, as with any solution this one comes with its own set of problems. Most significant is how do we separate the bad teachers from the good ones? Consider the following:

1. If you use student achievement on teacher made tests, what would keep bad teachers from lowering the standards on their tests? Doing this would improve the test scores of their students thus making them eligible for the performance-based pay.
2. If you use student achievement on standardized tests, then how do you account for the many factors besides the teacher than influences achievement scores. Factors like--parental involvement, natural ability of the students, and outside tutoring--must be neutralized to be fair to the teachers. Some have suggested that providing preschool for all would level the field. While studies have shown Head Start Programs have proven successful at raising the achievement of children. They have also shown that these successes are not permanent. These gains disappear once the intervention activities are stopped.
3. If you use evaluations by supervisors, then you have the possibility that personal relationships will influence the evaluations. This would allow bad administrators and bad teachers to do a little “you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back” resulting in both of them getting good evaluations and performance-based pay.
4. If you go with outside evaluators, then you have to come up with even more money to pay the evaluators. If outside evaluators would work, why are they not being used now to eliminate the bad teachers before they gain tenure?

While performance-based teachers pay sounds great, “it is a can of worms” that I doubt our society is prepared to honestly handle or that taxpayers are prepared to fund until they are assured that the money is going to only the good teachers.

Providing the Latest Technology. Giving every child an iPad is great. I support it. But, it will not make students perform better or learn more. I personally assisted in the introduction of the Internet and other marvels of technology into a county school system. I saw them mushroom across the system. Everybody wanted a modern classroom. I could only dream of the revolution in education I was helping to bring to my hometown. However, all this technology did not universally improve the teaching. In some classrooms it did, but the percentage was low. In general, what happened was that the same things were taught using the same pedagogy just with shiny modern equipment.

If we can't replace all the bad teachers with good ones, then will using online learning or distance learning to supplement instruction or to replace them entirely provide a better quality education program? The research does not support this happening. The best results of online learning studies is that kids do no worse than in traditional classes. These results were obtained only in hybrid programs were some of the work is online and some is done with the help of teachers. The research does not offer us any hope that the answer will be found here.

What about using other types of technology to compensate for the lack of teacher skill or effort? Would turning every room into a multi-media room and giving every teacher and student a laptop improve the results in the classroom of a bad teacher? I've seen it done. I've helped do it. You just don't get your money's worth. Consider this: No matter how much high tech or robotics is involved, you would not send a GP doctor in to perform brain surgery. Similarly, putting all the tools of a carpenter in the hands of an English teacher will most likely not get a house build. While these examples are a bit far out, they do accurately point out the problem with implementing technology into the classroom. Teachers need to be trained and motivated to use technology.

The Internet, online learning, distance learning, or any type of technology do offer education some powerful tools. But, putting any of them into the hands of a bad teacher is like putting a power tool in the hands of Tim “the Tool-man” Taylor. In case you are too young, let me say that nothing good ever came from putting a power tool in Tim's hands.

Online Learning or Distance Learning. The best results of online learning studies is that kids do no worse than in traditional classes. These results were obtained only in hybrid programs were some of the work is online and some is done with the help of teachers. I believe, it's because the higher order learning skills need personal teacher-student interaction.

Early Education (Preschool for all). Most of these type programs talk of preschool and daycare programs for kids living below the poverty line. While studies have shown Head Start Programs have proven successful at raising the success of underprivileged children. They have also shown that these successes are not permanent. These gains disappear once the intervention activities are stopped. I believe every child five years of age should have public preschool available, but its not the solution to the poor performance of our students.

The Calendar. I fully support year-round schooling. For decades, all educators have known that a big break in learning means lost learning. Often, the first weeks of a new school year are busy getting students adjusted back to the routine and reviewing what they forgot over the break. So, I believe in year-round schooling, but not as the solution to public education.

Solution: To fix education—fix our priorities. Based upon 30 years in public education, I can say that the solution is not modern equipment, the curriculum, the teachers, their methods, the calendar, or the buildings. If we really want to fix public education, we must get our priorities in order. Education performance will start to improve when:

• Sports and band return to being extracurricular activities in the minds of school leaders.
• Parents are more concerned about their child's perform in the classroom than in athletics.
• Students take more pride in their grades than anything else.
• Teaching is esteemed as a high calling worthy of appropriate compensation.
• We can honestly evaluate a teacher based only on performance.