Latest results from the New Jersey Collegiate Basic Skills Placement Test and the Scholastic Aptitude Test indicate that not only are students not improving their performance, they are regressing.
Obviously educational reforms, at least in New Jersey, are not working. The reason may be that true reform does not show instant results but takes time. True reform requires a top-to-bottom overhaul not merely applying band-aides on failing practices already in place. Current inadequate practices have enormous inertia and are almost impossible to change. True change gets at the root of the problem and does not merely attempt to treat the symptom. There are three places where change needs to occur to get at the root:
- Child care programs which nurture the physical, intellectual, social and emotional development of the child from birth to age three.
- Teacher education programs which encourage, train and nurture young people who have the desire, ability and temperament to be outstanding teachers.
- School choice programs whereby schools give up monopoly protection which mitigates against change. Changes in these three areas are difficult but not impossible.
True reform requires a top-to-bottom overhaul not merely applying band-aides on failing practices already in place.
The good news is we do not have to start from scratch or re-invent the wheel in order to accomplish these changes.
The research studies have been done and we know what works.
Other countries and other states have begun to incorporate these findings into programs which are successful. All that needs to be done is for our state to follow the leaders to help all New Jersey children as other states and countries are helping their children. Let us start with day care. We can look to France for that program.
France believes that children are a national resource and are everybody's responsibility and that the day care system is to help children to develop and thrive. There is mandated paid parental leave for childbirth and adoption. All day care providers are licensed, and receive benefits like sick leave and social security. Day care programs are visited periodically by trained pediatric nurses.
Teacher turn-over is low and the providers receive good salaries and subsidized training. We have far to go to meet France's standards. Further delay can only make the task more difficult. When children are nurtured from birth, they come to school enthusiastic, curious, creative and ready to learn the school's curriculum. They should expect to have teachers who know how to nurture these qualities. Otherwise what has been a good beginning can have a tragic end.
Poor pedagogical practices produce dropouts. Arthur Wise, president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, gives only one example: forty percent of our math teachers did not major in math and are not certified to teach it.
Most colleges require that teachers take disconnected "how to" courses, in many cases taught by professors who are not themselves master teachers. Many teacher training programs do not have a vision of the kind of teacher they want to produce and do not have a thoughtful philosophy of education based on research and sound educational practice. Finally, good teachers require school systems which encourage and nurture their talents. Public school monopolies which do not do this must be challenged. One way to do this is the Charter-School concept which permits teachers to start and run their own independent public schools under a charter with a local school board.
Another way is to do what Dade County, Florida did and hire a company like Education Alternatives to run a school. Research has shown us what is needed to make our schools work for our children. It is time the citizens of New Jersey and the United States take action to demand that changes be made which get at the root of the problem.
We have failed many students of this generation. Let us try to do better by the next.
First published in 1992
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