Responsibility in the Classroom and Beyond

Which school district do you reside in? Clearly it can't resemble that of Collier County, Florida, which is likely now on a different planet (analogy courtesy of Representative Barney Frank, D-MA).

During the past few years, I have watched the powers to be in this southwest Florida county remove more and more responsibility from the hands and minds of students and throw them onto teachers. The result is that students are learning less and not necessarily enjoying it more. And teachers are increasingly unable to effectively teach for reasons too numerous to describe here.

Let me set the stage for you.

Florida, like most other states, has to meet Federally mandated educational levels annually. Under the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) umbrella, EVERY student must be at or above grade level by 2014. Good luck! This is an impossible task under normal circumstances as none of us are necessarily fully successful at EVERYTHING we have to do. Yet, state and county school systems have to do it.

Thus states have implemented testing, evaluations and other requirements to ensure that "annual yearly progress" (AYP) is met. It's now possible for schools to be rated top-notch by state standards, but fail national NCLB standards. Some schools in Collier County currently face this dichotomy. Go figure!

So Collier County, recognizing that the educational system isn't perfect has made the following changes to their educational practices. In some schools, students can't be given grades that are less than 50%. This is to lessen the chance that students will give up if they get one or more zeroes for not doing various assignments. Of course, if they get a 50% for doing nothing, why would they work at all to earn a 51% or higher? Many school district administrators and some principals believe this "incentive" will encourage students to do better!

The schools also want student test scores to go up. Toward this end, students are allowed/encouraged to retake tests several times, if necessary, to improve. Of course, teachers have to keep administering these tests, over and over again to a small, but growing group of students.

Now, students in middle schools will no longer have to complete homework for a grade. This is because all students in middle schools are not doing their homework, all teachers are not grading it properly and perhaps some parents are doing it for their kids.

Instead, homework will be viewed as "academic practice." Teachers will still have to go over it in class (even if students don't do the work) and teachers are supposed to review the students' "academic practice" to ensure that students know the material. Only when teachers feel that students know the material can students be tested. I ask, what if the students never know the material? Does that mean that those students aren't to be tested? And this is supposed to improve a student's ability to master concepts (sarcasm intended).

There are also some students who can manage homework, but may be poorer test takers. Even when only counted as about 10% of a final grade, this graded material can spell the difference between a passing and failing class grade.

The analogy presented by the Collier County School Board is that students continually practice BEFORE they take their driving test.

My counter example involves the high school football team (or any team or individual high school sport). Yes, the team practices daily, but players never get to take a test (i.e., play in a game) unless their ongoing "graded" performance is of a caliber to warrant playing on Friday evening.

In fact, the U.S. is a sports-centered society. We want our team to win, to beat the other team. But no professional athlete (professional, minor league, Olympic) is worth anything without endless practice. We demand that of our sports coaches, but we don't do the same for our classrooms. What is wrong with this picture?

Of course, all of this is in a setting in which teachers are required to continue moving forward, covering new topics, even if students haven't mastered a previous concept yet. This is because Florida State testing for a full year of content material arrives in the February-March time frame (about 6 to 7 months into a 9 to 10 month school year).

All of the Collier County Public School System efforts continue to take more responsibility away from kids and transfer it to the teacher. Hence, by 2014, I predict that students will be deemed fully at grade level, just for showing up in school; on the other hand, teachers will be blamed for the students knowing nothing. The Federal government will claim success in its educational efforts and our society, as we know it, will be even more separated by the few who know and those who know little or nothing.

No, it's time to rethink the entire process that we've put in place during the past 20 to 30 years in the guise of educational reform. Any knowledgeable adult knows that in days of old, drill and practice was mandatory and that we had to perform well (or at least try hard) on everything we did in school - tests, homework, classwork, and more.

But the Collier County Public School System in their infinite wisdom chose to only obtain input from principals and "research" to make their decision. They really didn't do a good job on their homework (or is this "academic practice"). Where were the teachers and the general public? Where were representatives of the local job market and local universities?

There is still time to return to an era in which sensibility ruled the educational system, but time is running out fast, at least here in Collier County, Florida.

Thus, I have written to the School Board, the local newspaper (the Naples Daily News) and several media talk shows urging them and their readers to ask the School System to rescind the policy immediately and then finish their homework properly.

If you live in Collier County, FL (or even if you don't, but have an interest in education) and you want to help change the policy (or even if you support it), I hope you'll contact the School System leaders. You can reach them via e-mail links at

http://www.collier.k12.fl.us/board/members/index.asp and
http://www.collierschools.com/contactus.asp

NOTE: Regardless of school board and school administration thoughts, a poll by the Naples Daily News (in the first few hours of online availability on 8/25/09) showed that 67% of respondents favored grading homework.