The First Step to Saving Our Schools
As of this year my younger brother is no longer a public school student. Like me, he attended public elementary and middle schools, however, when it came to choose a high school, he and my parents decided that he would do better at a private school. Fortunately, they made a good decision for my brother. He is now at a school that he loves, he really succeeds in and he feels does a good job in educating the students.
Out of curiosity, I asked him what the difference was between the public school he had attended and his current school in terms of educational value. His answer was quick and simple: the adults in the building have time to care about the students.
In the NYC education system, the first step to improving schools is creating a situation in which educators have time to care about the students. This can only come for significant reductions in class size and teacher load.
One problem with my brother's public school experience, he said, was the feeling that whenever he approached a teacher for extra help or just general academic support, he felt as though he was burdening them, like they didn't have the time to help their student. This is a major problem and it is not the teachers' fault.
Through my high school experience so far, I can count on one hand how many of my classes were below the union cap of 34 (even though the City claims the average is 25). As a member of the NYC Student Union, I know students from every corner of the City, and over and over I have heard the same sentiment when it comes to class size. Just as problematic is the problem of teacher load, the total number of students a teacher teaches at any given time. This number is often around 170 in high schools.
Education is based on relationships, the most basic and important being that between a teacher and a student. Large class sizes and teacher loads, prevents many teachers and students from developing the relationships necessary to make education happen. Furthermore, while classes of 34 are extremely difficult to manage and teach effectively in, it should be noted that they are equally difficult to learn in. When I entered ninth grade, when confronted with larger classes, I came to an academic standstill. I tried to do the work and do well on tests, but inside I knew that I was just not learning as effectively as I had in previous schools.
Because these factors make teaching and learning just so impossible, they also prevent the clear evaluation of new academic strategies, as even the best programs are doomed to fail under these conditions. Thus, as the title reads, class size and teacher load reduction is the requisite first step to saving our schools.
What we need in New York City, is an education system that makes education possible. When educators are so overburdened that they don't have time to care about the needs of individual students, this is not the case. When the classroom is completely unmanageable and knowledge can not pass through the barrier between teacher and student because of population overload, this is not the case. And when students feel as though they are just another "problem" for the all-to-busy adults in the building, this is not the case.
It is time to cut class sizes and trim teacher loads. If we really want to save our schools, that is the first step.
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Education
And the next step...
First of all, let me say that I completely agree with Seth Pearce's statement that cutting class sizes, at all levels, is the first step toward improving our public education system.
The next step is to give teachers more freedom to teach. The current administration (Bloomberg/Klein, hereafter referred to as "B/K") bases most of its decisions on the assumption that teachers are no different from McDonald's workers. The result is an agenda that is laid out for the teachers, and must be strictly adhered to.
In addition, the over-reliance on high-stakes standardized tests to measure academic achievement not only requires that valuable class time be wasted on practice tests, but also removes individual judgment from the teachers' store of resources. Education is an art, not a science; it cannot be measured in hard numbers. Allow teachers to teach, and the results will be far better.
It should be noted here that while B/K tout their "rising test scores," the only scores that are rising are on tests that they control. NYC children's scores on national tests, which were rising before B/K took over, have flattened. In other words, B/K are failing our kids -- even by the one measure that they consider valid.
Put more teachers in the schools, give them the freedom to teach -- the third step is supportive parental involvement. If you absolutely must judge a school system by one and only one number, then use the percentage of parents who attend parent-teacher conferences. Parental involvement means children are more likely to be in class, to be attentive, to do their homework -- in short, to learn. Teachers also feel more empowered when they know that parents are backing them up.
The great thing about steps two and three, beside the fact that they work, is that they don't cost anything, or at least very little. Hiring more teachers obviously costs money, but letting them teach may only require a little more money be spent on individualized classroom materials. Getting parents involved is a matter of reaching out to them, and that doesn't cost anything at all.