A quick scan of the state web site shows that hundreds of bills have been introduced in this legislative session that include the word “school.” While municipalities administer our public schools, the state provides a significant amount of the funding and enforces certain statewide standards (MCAS, No Child Left Behind, curriculum frameworks).What do you foresee as the major challenges for Massachusetts with regard to education? Are we currently heading in the right direction? Do you believe that charter schools are a good idea? Does too much emphasis on the MCAS take away from areas such as art, field trips and physical education? Should the MCAS be abolished as a graduation requirement? Has No Child Left Behind helped or hurt public education? Would you support a law, such as one passed in Utah, which allows local authorities to ignore provisions of NCLB if they conflict with the goals of school districts?
10 comments:
http://bostonnow.com/community/blogs/rocinante/
Jimbo,
Just a thought that for these Hubster Forum Questions you might want to have the candidates set up a special login or have them email responses to you for direct posting just so that someone doesn't post a response in their name without permission. I could see that getting ugly and diverting attention from what you are trying to do here.
That would be pretty outrageous. Any candidate who takes that chance is foolish. I like the idea of a special log in if thats possible. Is it?
The Hubster Forum: Week #2
by Mary Berninger
Candidate for State Representative
Believing that education is a benchmark for assuring the success of any society, I am also aware that there are significant challenges for our society to overcome before that success can be achieved. The most glaring challenge to the education system in Massachusetts is how to guarantee adequate funding to allow for the education of our children. Revenue is often lost because industries have left the Commonwealth, either going to other states or being out sourced by major corporations to overseas job markets. When jobs are lost, there is diminished income tax revenue being generated and the exiting companies no longer pay into the corporate tax revenue stream.
Another challenge for educators, and by extension taxpayers, is to prepare students for college (four-year, two-year or vocational schools of higher education.) There have been media reports about the increase in remedial instruction necessary at the college level for students who, by virtue of being awarded a high school diploma or GED certificate, should have reached a level of proficiency of core subjects. For public-subsidized college education, that is a financial burden. It is viewed as teaching the students twice, especially in the areas of writing proficiency and basic mathematics.
Having curriculum frameworks and time and learning standards codified have helped steer the educational engine in Massachusetts in a way that, ideally, will create a more equitable educational experience for all our students. I think the final chapter is yet to be written on whether equality has been achieved, but I think strides are being made. Accountability, transparency and greater parental involvement should go far toward cementing that equality. The accountability works where there is an elected school committee, but in Boston we are not given that luxury. I have always voiced my concern that we need to return to the elected school committee and that concern has not abated.
The concept of charter schools, where accountability and creativity would be ingrained in each school’s mission, has appealed to me. Experimental in nature, those schools held interest for parents who felt their community schools were not providing the necessary educational tools for their children. Maybe those parents wanted a more structured environment away from the social and safety challenges often found in urban settings. Maybe the parents wanted a smaller school where they could feel more connected to the teachers, thereby better understanding what was expected of their children. I see the students, parents and faculty at the Excel Academy near my home and all seem genuinely engaged in the education of the students. The long-term data on success in charter schools must include standardized test scores, graduation rates at twelfth grade and drop out rates. We need to see the good data and the negative data to determine if the experiment has worked.
I think society needs, and should demand, a yardstick by which to measure the success or failure of its educational system. That said, I am not convinced that MCAS is the perfect model for that assessment. I do not think “teaching to the (MCAS) test” serves any purpose in the classroom because too much time is, then, devoted to only one aspect of a student’s education. I certainly do not believe that MCAS should be used as a sole criterion for determining eligibility for graduation. There are too many discrepancies in learning capabilities and there are too many different teaching styles in our classroom to guarantee uniformity of achievement on MCAS. I think a better way to determine graduation eligibility would be to assign a point system for the many facets of a K-12 education. Such facets could include a student’s GPA, the level of difficulty of core subjects (average or advanced,) whether extra courses were taken and completed by a student, national merit rating on advanced courses, and MCAS. Each would be a weighted consideration, not an “all or nothing” consideration, and a student with an aggregate score of 70 points or more would be deemed ready to graduate.
Art, field trips and physical education are often victims of budget cuts in many districts. I don’t think that can be blamed solely on the time devoted to MCAS instruction, but it is indicative of how the budget drives our children’s educational experiences. Other victims of budget cuts have been advanced learning courses and enrichment classes in some districts. Some parents opt to enroll their children in private schools that will provide the “extras,” but it’s a fiscal reality that not every parent can afford to do that. Therein lies a distinct inequality in education: poorer students who possess academic talent are at the mercy of a challenged school budget, but they often have no way to address the inequality. It is up to the education system to bridge that inequality by funding the enrichment classes.
The federal program No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is important in that it seeks to bring uniform standards to all schools in such areas as reading and mathematics. I think the premise is a sound one and there are many positive aspects to the program. Striving for quality teaching and standards of evaluation in testing, classroom work and professional development are commendable components of NCLB. The program aims to exact accountability from administrators and teachers by measuring student achievement, beginning in grade school and continuing into high school. That system should allow ample opportunities for remedial attention before any problems go too far.
I do believe that there are many pitfalls to NCLB. First, when the federal government fails to fund adequately its own mandated programs, that failure leaves states holding the bag financially. Second, NCLB was supposed to let parents know when a district was deemed “needing improvement,” so that the parents could exercise their rights to the school choice option. I wonder how many parents ever receive that information. Is enough being done to publicize a district’s classification? Third, I also wonder if districts are notifying parents if their children’s teachers are deemed “not highly qualified.” Fourth, if the focus of NCLB is reading and math, and individual states design their assessment tests (e.g., MCAS) so that schools are “teaching to the test,” how is that fair to students when a broad-based education should be a desired result? Fifth, I have always felt it is appropriate to provide accommodations under NCLB for special education students. However, I don’t think accommodations beyond one school year should be allowed for students with limited English proficiency. If such students cannot demonstrate proficiency at year’s end, then a repeat of that grade level must be mandated. That approach addresses the concern that the delaying of immersion into the English language by encouraging a reliance on other native languages only delays a student’s success in school. Finally, I would be comfortable with the kind of law Utah passed, for one important reason: what is the constitutionally guaranteed authority for the federal government to impose education mandates on states, especially if the federal government is not prepared to fund fully those mandates?
The reauthorization of NCLB bears watching.
I know the importance of a quality education. I graduated from East Boston High School and worked full-time to put myself through college earning an associate’s degree from Bunker Hill Community College and a bachelor’s degree from Emerson College. As a parent, I have taken an active role in my children’s education. I have worked to improve our schools through my involvement with the School Parent Council at the O’Donnell Elementary School and the Boston Parents Organizing Network. I believe family and community involvement are essential components to improving our education system. I fully support putting Family and Community Outreach Coordinators (FCOC) in every school. Schools that have an FCOC have shown a higher participation rate among parents, volunteers, and the community. We need to invest in our schools, work towards greater parental and community involvement and promote education reform.
Today, we have a high teacher-to-student ratio and too few resources. Teachers are being asked to pay out of pocket for classroom supplies that should already be in the classroom. We have a teacher shortage in our schools. We need to make sure that our schools and teachers have the resources they need to provide a quality and complete education to every child.
Charter schools are an excellent alternative for many children however they are draining much needed resources away from our public schools and hurting our children. We need to look at the funding formula for charter schools and reassess the way in which funds are distributed so the charter schools don’t harm district schools. We should also look at the innovative practices that have been effective in charter schools and work to implement them in our district schools.
The MCAS is effective as a diagnostic tool. However, as the sole graduation requirement the MCAS sometimes unfairly penalizes children and forces teachers to narrow the curriculum that they teach. We need to focus on educating the whole child by utilizing emerging technology and also enhancing our enrichment programs to include arts and culture. School curriculums should include new technology, cultural tolerance, financial literacy, civic engagement, analytical thinking, team building and non-violence.
No Child Left Behind has been an unfunded mandate by the federal government and the cost of implementing it has hurt our schools. I don’t think we should be required to implement federal mandates if they don’t come with the necessary resources.
Our methods of teaching and the allocation of resources reflect how we value education. We must provide the necessary support for our children, teachers, and administrators so that our schools can excel. As your next State Representative I am committed to advocating for our schools and ensuring that they are given the resources needed so every child has the opportunity to succeed.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss these important issues. I hope that I can count on your vote on September 25th.
Gloribell Mota
Candidate for State Representative
I agree with Ms. Mota that family and community involvement are keys to success in our schools. In fact, the one large school system in the United States that does well at minimizing the achievement gap is that of the Department of Defense. At these schools, which have a high percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch, students are achieving. The research on these schools suggests that the consistency of the message from school, family, and community are keys to helping all children to succeed. As Ms. Mota points out, family/community coordinators at our schools can assist in making connections so that our students hear the same message at school, home, and in the community.
I would also urge the candidates to push for a value-added approach to assessment in our public schools. Too often urban schools get labeled as poor while affluent surburban schools are labeled excellent based on MCAS scores. These published test results have a huge impact on public opinion (and real estate value) but tell us much less about the quality of teaching and learning taking place in a building. A better measure is to look at how much progress students are making over a year or over the course of their career at a given school. Other states are using value-added assessments rather than one time scores such as MCAS to measure the impact schools are having on students' lives.
Again the two “unknown” candidates, (read non-allied), answer the questions, thoughtfully and with opinions that people can take issue with and debate. The two better known candidates (read the candidates with the most graffiti up and the backing of Mayor Menino, State Senator Petruccelli, City Councilmen LaMattina, past Senate President Traveglini, past Clerk of Courts Nucci, you see the pattern,) give us nothing or something insipid.
Family/Community coordiantors are the way to go. We have to find a way to really target parents and plug them into whats going on in the schools. East Boston is known for being very community oriented neighborhood and if we take ownership of our schools we could possibly be sending thousands of students to great careers and then focus on how to keep them here.
I want to thank Berninger and Mota for answering this question. I have to admit that I am more impressed with Mota's answer than Berninger's. I like that Berninger appreciates the problems with using the MCAS and NCLB in general. I was also impressed with the argument around the inefficiency in recent high school graduates needing to take remedial courses once they get into college.
However, I found most of her comments to be too broad to come to any conclusion about her on this issue. The few comments of substance made me pause. For example, the question about whether parents know about their school's classification (meeting AYP versus needing improvement) seems to be poorly thought through. First, the comment presumes that the threat of losing students will somehow make a school magically improve its MCAS stores. Second, it is contradictory to question the value of MCAS as an adequate assessment measure but at the same time use the classification scheme that is entirely based on MCAS as an adequate measure of the school as a whole. I find that her comments do not fully appreciate the complexity of teaching, particularly teaching low income children or English language learners.
I was particularly bothered by the suggestion that English language learners are somehow able to take the MCAS within 1 year of English instruction. NCLB requires that teaching and assessment methods be "scientifically based" and decades of research on this matter has shown that children generally need three years of English language instruction to be considered fluent. Calling for English language learners to take the MCAS after only 1 year of instruction is simply setting them up to fail.
Berninger obviously is not aware of everything that is required under NCLB, otherwise she may not have made the comment about the number of highly qualified teachers. As it turns out, every teacher in every school district in every state had to be "highly qualified" by the September 2006. Of course, not every school district has managed to do so, but most of the "deficient" teachers happen to be instructors in those enrichment subjects that we all would like to have reinstated in our public schools. More importantly, going back to the scientific literature, there has been quite a bit of research looking to see if meeting the federal definition of highly qualified actually results in academic achievement. So far, the results are mostly in the negative, meaning that most studies do not find that having a "highly qualified" teacher has anything to do with academic achievement as it is generally measured. Finally, I do find it interesting that Berninger calls for public schools to let parents know when their child's teacher is not "highly qualified" but do not call for the same in the charter schools. Charter schools receive quite a bit of public support, and should be held to the same transparency standards as other public schools.
Mota's comments demonstrate a better understanding of how the schools work and what it takes for children to succeed in school. To be sure, accountability is important for taxpayers - we pay a lot of money for our schools and we'd like that most of our students are able to read, write, and do basic math when they leave. I'd also like them to have a basic understanding of civics and history. However, plenty of experience and research demonstrates that parent and community involvement is key for any individual child or school to succeed. It is only the most exceptional child and exceptionally well funded schools that can achieve academically with little to no parent or other support.
It is too bad that Basile and Drago did not address this question.
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