Sam Jones: Raise our education bar
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
How is it possible that our educational standards are so low? During Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia’s Monday visit to Steamboat, we heard that 30 percent of children finishing third grade in Colorado can’t read proficiently. Granted, that is a problem at the state level. That is not, however, our problem here in Steamboat, where our test results show we are well ahead of the state standards for reading and math. We have done a great job meeting the bar of proficiency; kudos to our local teachers and administrators. Our problem is accepting this standard as good enough.
The world is turning quickly now, and it seems the public school system in Colorado is being left behind. We continue to look for ways to close gaps between underachieving groups like English Language Learners when we should be looking at the gap in skills between our public schools and those in China, Korea, India or even the private school next door. If we are accepting of merely proficient in the basics as our standard of excellence, we will watch sadly as our children fail to get into college. Almost 30 percent of college applicants are now foreign born, and they are becoming a tough crowd to beat in terms of academic achievement.
Proficiency in reading and math alone as a standard is like saying my child is a great skier because he/she knows how to put his boots on. Yes, it is a requirement, but it is only the first step toward real achievement and being a well-rounded student.
Twenty-first Century Skills offer a set of tools that will help us craft well-rounded students who can compete with global standards. Thankfully, these skill sets are becoming part of the discussion in public schools with 17 states formally adopting this initiative (Colorado is not one of them). Unfortunately, the awareness is happening almost 10 years late, and we need to catch up. I am hopeful that the new director of curriculum to be hired is aware of these new skill sets.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.ps21.org) provides an easy framework for those interested. These skills include the 4 C’s of critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, collaboration and communication (written and oral). They include technology and media skills, global and environmental awareness, leadership and organizational skills. When do we start these subjects and programming? The first day of first grade.
If the state of Colorado is stuck on working toward proficiency in reading by the end of third grade, we’re going to have to raise the bar ourselves in our community, with our own leadership, our own money and our own effort. Our schools can reflect the excellence that our Steamboat community represents, but we need to set our standards a lot higher first.
Sam Jones
Parent, Steamboat Springs
Comments
kathy foos 1 year, 7 months ago
Sounds good to me.Making students aware of how to help the government,community,along with themselves, function properly in an ever changing world.Sounds like a great thing to work toward.I wonder how much environmental education is completely covered and stressed.The generations growing up need to be well informed ,what avenues and resources are available for changing a bad situation.,Not to give up,making a difference.The kids now need to be encouraged to invent also.Why not?We need clean energy's ,future foods improvements ,air travel ,planet exploration,protecting nature and animal's.They need to learn how to be heard as American citizens and how to actually accomplish what they would like to,have the tools and know how to get it done,
ybul 1 year, 7 months ago
Unfortunately, the current paradigm of educating our students fails to account for differences in development. All kids are taught at the same pace and so those kids who do not fit the model either are held back or feel incompetent and lose self esteem. Fortunately we have gate so that some kids get to learn at a different pace, yet their are even differences in these students and interests differ and that tends to create elitism also.
The Montessori method of teaching is being sought out by the Chinese because they realize that their current paradigm (much like ours) fails to teach all the skills sought above. A friends brother was hired by the Chinese to set up several middle - high schools in China to help with critical thinking and creativity (which most engineers lack in China).
So maybe taking a deeper look at an extremely successful model for education that exists in our district - which has a wait list - should be looked into as a way to achieve the above goals. The multi age classrooms helps to reduce the number of classrooms a school has - facilitating smaller more widely dispersed schools (reducing the need for busing).
It is too bad that there is such a rift in the school that the wait list for the Montessori program could not be eliminated. The multi age classrooms tends to break down the clicks that form and in addition reduce the prejudices and student animosity (this as all kids get to be the big kids in the classroom every three years). In addition kids are inspired by their peers to learn more as they want to learn what the older kids learn.
While the partnership for 21st century skills are great to strive for. Most of those goals can be attained by simply examining expanding the existing Montessori program.
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