Assessing schools is, in my opinion, one of the most
difficult aspects of education. There are so many factors that contribute to a
schools´ success or lack thereof that it´s hard to pinpoint those that are controllable
and measurable and should be used to hold schools (and teachers)
accountable. Eliot W. Eisner, in “What
does it mean to Say a School is Doing Well,” points out that many believe “we
have a national problem in American education and that national problems
require national solutions” (327). Eisner agrees that using standards and
rubrics in the education system is beneficial in that “if you don’t know where
you’re headed, you will not know where you have arrived” (328), but goes on to
question the current favorite method of evaluating schools based on test
scores, as “curriculum gets narrowed,” that “Tests come to define our
priorities” (329). Eisner also mentions how the pressure surrounding a focus on
standardized tests to provide data about school “effectiveness” has markedly
negative results as both teachers and students worry more about grades and test
results than about actual learning, and the many other important things that
should go on in classrooms other than preparing for tests.
I recently took a survey for a doctoral student doing research on test anxiety from teachers and students’ point of views. As I don’t teach a “core” subject, there is (so far) no standardized test in my content area, and I’ve largely avoided any of that stress. As I answered questions about how often I remind my students they’ll be tested on the content, and to what degree my stress over the testing affects me in my career I realized how lucky I feel to be excluded from this, at least for the time being. With talk of rating teachers, and maybe even paying them based on students’ test scores, I often joke with my husband after grading a set of tests that I might be out a job soon. It’s hard for me to stomach the fact that, even though I am doing everything I can think of to help my students be successful, I have one class with several students who refuse to do hardly anything in class and absolutely nothing outside of class, and, if judged only on their test scores with no consideration for the research-based strategies I’ve tried, the parent contact I’ve made, the conferences with their other teachers, etc., I would look like a failure. Maybe I’m not trying as hard as I think I am, and if the stakes were higher I would find something that works better than what I’m doing now, but I don’t think it’s fair to place sole responsibility for these student’s failure on me as their teacher.
This leads us back to the original question- what a good
school looks like. If I don’t want that responsibility, and I don’t want to say
my school is a failure either, who is responsible for those kids who are
continuing to fail? I guess in my opinion a good school is so connected to the
community that the community as a whole (school and teachers included) shares
the responsibility of producing productive citizens. As they say, it takes a village. It’s easy for policy makers to come up with these ideas that things
like teacher tenure create lazy teachers who are unmotivated to work to do
better, and performance based pay would solve all those problems. How would they feel if their salary were based upon the unemployment rate? And what would
they do differently to suddenly solve a problem that they’ve so far been unable
to settle?
Nel Noddings in “The Aims of Education,” quotes John Dewey,
“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the
community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow
and unlovely” (433). Our country, based on capitalism, is so competitive that
most parents don’t necessarily want the same things for their children as for
all children. They want better for their own children so they’ll have an
advantage, more likelihood to be successful. This causes a break down between
school and community, as community often believes that between family and
school the kids will be fine, and we know this is too often not the case.
When I read the title of this week’s blog, I did a quick
Google search on “what does a good school look like?” This list was
among the first I found, and I agree with many of the things listed, even
though some I hadn’t considered before. I found it interesting that it never
mentions “has high test scores,” but it does mention community involvement over
and over again. Similarly, Meier’s chapter “The School at Work,” in which she
describes Central Park East and Central Park East Secondary School, she
repeatedly mentions how closely connected the schools are to families and the
community. She says the schools “are more often faulted by kids for being too
close, not too distant, from their families and communities. It’s amazing how
much can be done to bridge the gaps if we eliminate some of the obvious
barriers” (52).
I wonder how many schools have such a close connection to
the community? I know the administration at our school encourages us to stay in
regular contact with parents, but they haven’t put anything into place to make
that easier for us, like the limited number of students each teacher deals with
at the schools Meier describes in her book. I love Dave Egger’s idea
about getting local writers involved in tutoring. I think that’s something
every community should work on. My school is considering a new model next year
in which students have study hall built into the day, a way to combat the
problem we’re facing in that not all of our students have parents who support
them in doing their homework, and in this way we can provide that lacking
support. Egger’s tutoring center is the same idea, but I think the community
involvement makes it a better option than our plan. Obviously one problem is
that kids would still have to choose to go to the center, but I think it’s
important for them to be in contact with professionals other than their
teachers. We’re often encouraged to talk about college with our students
because it’s likely that we’re the only person in their lives who went to
college. This could be a way for them to see other successful professionals
(college grads or not) who care about their learning, and maybe that would make
academic success more appealing to them. In her article, “The Importance of Community Involvement in Schools," Anne O’Brien sites examples of the
positive relationship between community involvement and successful schools and
gives tips on where to start such an overwhelming task.
Overwhelming as it may be, I believe this is a key factor in
school achievement that is often overlooked. As hard as teachers and schools
may try to improve teaching strategies and test scores, outside factors often
affect students more than any one institution can hope to control. A good
school is one that has the community backing it, so all students are encouraged
and provided with the tools and resources they need to learn.
