A Road Map for Education Reform

This week President Barack Obama and Colin Powell announced a new education initiative with America’s Promise Alliance called Grad Nation. Grad Nation is a 10 year campaign that is dedicated to getting 90% of today’s 4th graders to graduate on time. The majority of this educational reform effort is going to be spent on approximately 2,000 schools which produce over 50% of our country’s dropouts.   The campaign is ambitious, and,as we all know, highly necessary.  True education reform is long overdue. No Child Left Behind had good intentions, but as far as its actual reform, it began and ended with the over-testing of our children.

Disengaged students. by Mexikids @sxc.hu

Education reform needs a plan, a distinct road map, with support from all aspects of our community. Reform this massive needs leadership on each level.  Having spent some time in our public schools, both in our suburbs and our inner cities, I can provide some ideas that I believe will help get our schools and our young people on the track to repair.

Teachers and Training

Real educational reform begins with teachers, but it cannot end there.  It is a huge burden for teachers to bear alone. Many situations exist where teachers with passion, drive, and determination enter the classroom with little tools for success.  The situation is stacked against them.  They are dealing with students from broken homes and broken communities.  They are, in many situations, the only trusted adult that these students see all day. Many teachers are ill-prepared for what they face. On top of that, they are dealing with lack of funds and ill support from burnt out administrators. Schools and universities need to provide teachers with training in facing the unique challenges schools of poverty face. However, teacher reform cannot end with these workshop.  There needs to be follow-up sessions after the training to provide support on implementation in the classroom.  Teacher mentors should come and observe the classroom to provide feedback and support for struggling teachers.  They should provide guidance to teachers on how to engage their students and provide a dynamic learning environment. This must be done in a non-confrontational way with a team approach. These follow-up  and mentorship sessions are absolutely essential in creating lasting  change and educational reform in the classroom.

Elementary Schools vs. High Schools

The  media, and consequently significant reform efforts, tend to focus on the the failures of high schools.  While this is a significant problem and this is where we often see the majority of “drop-outs” take place, it certainly does not tell the whole story.  High school teachers face an impossible challenge when students are passed on that do not know how to read, write, or perform simple math problems. How do you catch the students up from 8 failed years of school, in the remaining four?  How do you accomplish this while attempting to overcome the massive disenfranchisement that exists within these students?  Early childhood education and elementary school reforms MUST be a focus moving forward. Often students enter elementary schools already behind.  They have had little early childhood education and have received little instruction at home. There needs to be a mechanism in place to identify and give these students the proper attention they need before they are passed from grade to grade.  Each student enters school with a willingness to learn.  But when they face the fact that they are behind, and not receiving the support they need, they quickly become disenfranchised in the system and check out. We need a way of capturing these kids with early intervention programs that provide students with a fighting chance.

Early childhood experiences. by capgros @sxc.hu

Mini-Grants

A major problem within poverty schools that have a low success rate is the lack of funds. These classrooms have books that are falling apart (or worse, not enough books for each student), lack access to technology, and do not have the math and science implements that will help our students compete in the 21st century.  Local, state and federal dollars simply do not provide enough support for these schools to survive.  Each school should establish a mini-grant program where they identify business and individuals in the community that may be able to help with supporting classrooms programs.  The schools will ask each teacher to provide a list of needs or project ideas that will make a difference in their classrooms.  Schools can then advertise these needs to businesses and individuals willing to help fund these projects.  In many cases, $500 or less direct to the classroom can begin to make a real difference to teachers and students.

Mentorship Programs and the Community

It is real easy for the general public to sit back and say that there is a problem in our schools.  However, the majority of people do not act on this problem.  In order for our schools to succeed, we need to establish and expand mentorship programs within our communities and schools.  It is time for people with a vested interest in the welfare of our children and our communities (i.e. parents, business, community organizations, everyone) to begin to take action and to stop sitting on the sidelines.  Spending one hour per month at a school volunteering while teachers receive helpful training can be extremely helpful in lessening the burden on a teacher.  Spending an Saturday afternoon volunteering at a Boys and Girls Club or for Big Brothers/Big Sisters can help to change a life for the better. Volunteering for the PTA or other youth community programs can build just that, a sense of community and pride that can turn a neighborhood around.  We must not be afraid to leave the comfort zones of our own nice schools to help those schools with greater need.  successful schools, yet these students are being left behind again and again.  Education reform cannot be just about schools failing our students and how to go about changing that.  Education reform has to reflect how we ALL fail our students as parents, families  and community.

Parents and Families

Many students in failing schools live in struggling families and face unique problems. Education reform must take on the fact that broken parents and broken families lead to broken students. Therefore, it becomes the burden of community groups and schools to reach out to these parents and provide parenting education, parenting workshops, and parenting mentorships that will teach parents on how to engage their own children and help them succeed.  We need to give parents the tools they need in order to fight greater societial problems.  Without this support, we will never reach the true potential of our educational reforms.

Educational reform is a difficult subject that will require entire communities in order to bring about real change. Community leaders, teachers, parents, and administrators each need to bear some of the burden for changing our schools.  Each student can succeed.  It is our job as society to give them the tools to do so.

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