The Culture of School

Thomas Armstrong, in his book “The Best Schools: How Human Development Research Should Inform Educational Practice” asserts that we should address the issues happening in high schools by developing appropriate practices based in human development theory. In chapter 6 of his book, he discusses the notion that we, as educators should be trying to prepare students to live independent lives outside the walls of the school. Are we, in the educational community doing all that we can to help students to reach their potential? Or, are we falling short in our push for turning out college bound academic achievers?

Armstrong uses a great example of the number of highly successful people who were either high school or college dropouts. Most of the list he generates include people such as Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Colonel Sanders, Dave Thomas, Richard Branson and Bill Gates. In fact, Gates addressed this issue in a speech he gave in 2005 at the National Education Summit on High Schools. (link to transcript) In which he stated: 

“America’s high schools are obsolete…By obsolete, I don’t just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed, and under-funded – though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean that our high schools – even when they’re working exactly as designed – cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.”

So, then a question is formed in my mind about what exactly is it that our kids need to know today to be successful, independent people? How do we create an environment that teaches them what they need to know? Is it by overburdened teachers who are forced to teach to a test whose outcome is irrelevant to actual lasting knowledge? Is it by revamping the education system to be so narrowly focussed, that other broader concepts are exchanged for a few “important” ones? And, who is it that is deciding what students should know? Are their expectations relevant to the communities in which families live and work?

Steve Jobs said: 

“... If you ask who are the customers of education? the customers of education are the society at large, the employers who hire people, things like that. But ultimately I think the customers are the parents. Not even the students, but the parents. The problem that we have in this country is that the customers went away. The customers stopped paying attention to their schools, for the most part.” 

I agree with Jobs to some extent, and I also agree that it should be the parents and the local community who decides what students living in that community need to know. Uniformity has never been a societal value here in America. America at its very core is all bout individuality, diversity and opportunity. Each child has equal opportunity under the laws that govern our country to receive an education. Equal opportunity does not always translate to equal outcome. I think this is why so many people are opposed to Common Core. It is because the suggestion of uniformity reeks of socialism and communism to the extent that it takes away the choice of the parents, teachers and educators to teach what students in a particular culture or community need to know about where they live, and how they fit into larger society. This fits along the lines of the Multiple Intelligence research of Howard Gardner, and it defines the notion that there is much more to being intelligent than just obtaining academic knowledge.

Where does the concept of developmentally appropriate practices play into this narrative? Armstrong addresses several ideas that should be part of the overall practices in order to create strong framework for constructing relevant, authentic learning communities. He also describes the importance of not making “administrative decisions about students’ futures before their brains have fully developed, and before students themselves have been given a voice in their career aspirations.”  Some of the things that Armstrong mentions are:

Small Learning Communities

Theme-based magnet or charter schools

Career Academics

Internships

Entrepreneurial Enterprises

Apprenticeships

Democratic communities

Interestingly enough, Jeff Jarvis founder of Google, and writer of the book “What Would Google Do?” addressed many of these exact practices in a chapter entitled “Google U.” (hyperlink to actual chapter) Jarvis discusses within his book what Google would do if they had the opportunity to take over certain parts of society, and this chapter addresses mostly universities, but these same issues apply to High School education as well. Jarvis says, 

“Call me a utopian but I imagine a new educational ecology where students may take courses from anywhere and instructors may select any students, where courses are collaborative and public, where creativity is nurtured as Google nurtures it, where making mistakes well is valued over sameness and safety, where education continues long past age 21, where tests and degrees matter less than one’s own portfolio of work, where the gift economy may turn anyone with knowledge into teachers, where the skills of research and reasoning and skepticism are valued over the skills of memorization and calculation, and where universities teach an abundance of knowledge to those who want it rather than manage a scarcity of seats in a class.”

WOW! Why couldn’t high schools follow this kind of model? Could this work in a way that would teach students how to be independent and self motivated, if we treated high school as a job, or career that develops a passion for lifelong learning?  Can we make the test less about memorization and more about demonstration of a particular skill or ability to receive a diploma?

I've been reading for my Applied Learning in Adolsecent Development class this week, and our readings discuss the importance of appropriate developmental practices for adolescent students. The excerpts for our reading are from Thomas Armstrong's book "The Best Schools: How Human Development Research Should Inform Educational Practice." 

I really do believe that Mr. Armstrong has some extremely important things to say with regard to the idea of Middle Schools and High Schools, and I want to take the time to point out some of the things that he mentions and my thoughts about what he's saying. First, Mr. Armstrong quotes a study that was done by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute called "Mayhem in the Middle: Why we Should Shift to K-8" This report was written by Cheri Pierson Yecke, and focused harshly on the concept of what she calls "middleschoolism." Yecke goes on to state that the invention of middle schools has contributed to a decline in academic achievement for these grades. After reading some of the quotes stated in chapter five, I decided to see if I could find more of this article, my research led me to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) website, and an article filed in the Educational Leadership tab. There are some fascinating thoughts in this article, and I would highly recommend that any pre-service teacher of middle school grades read it and think long and hard on what they will expect of their future students. The report goes on to discuss the middle grades and how, in these grades that academic scores plummet.  Yecke makes several observations as to why this might be happening, she states:

"Too many educators view middle school as an environment in which little is expected of students, either academically or behaviorally, on the assumption that students must place self-discipline and high academic expectations on hold until the hormone-driven storms of early adolescence have passed."

WOW!! That is a loaded statement, and as a parent of two adolescent-aged children, I would have to agree. I have seen how expectations have gone down in the name of "not wanting to hurt the developing feelings of adolescents" and I've also seen how students are passed on from one grade to the next when they are not demonstrating their mastery of the subjects. This promotes the same destructive behaviors by the same students as they progress into High School, until it becomes (recently) apparent to our college professors that new college students are unable to do college level work. In fact, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the percentage of first time college students requiring remedial or developmental (non-college level) courses is between 28-40%, and in some instances, higher than 50%

Yecke then asks the question:

"But if surging hormones truly drive middle school students' supposed lack of capacity to focus on academics, why does this phenomenon strike only in the United States? Other countries don't experience a similar decline in achievement at these grades.?"

What a great question, and I wonder as I continue in my reading what would help to stem this drop-off in the middle grades? Should we have Middle level schools? Yeche and others say that because of the apparent lack of success in the middle school model, it might be time to abandon it in favor of K-8 schools, and she cites many of the largest school districts in the country are following this conceptual idea to see how well it works to increase academic achievement for the middle grades. This idea raises questions in my mind about the effectiveness of separation between lower and middle grades in the first place. I know that the idea behind the middle school concept was to separate ages, in order to allow students to socialize and interact and learn to understand themselves in relation to the outside-of-middle-school world, and in the process, the academic piece of middle school has somehow been written out.

As I think of what Thomas Armstrong is saying in our reading, and I compare the reputation of the three "middle schools" in my own school district here in Corvallis. We have one K-8 and two traditional middle schools which contain grades 6-8. The academic environment at the K-8 school is MUCH more demanding, and has a higher "academic achievement" reputation than the other two schools in our district. Armstrong states in this chapter about middle schools that No Child Left Behind has taken the developmental needs of Middle -Schoolers off the table and replaced it with the expectation of high test scores instead. If considering the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex of the middle-school brained child, and their emotional and social development needs, we would know that to demand such high expectations with regard to testing that students in these grades need more understanding, and help to navigate their changing bodies, minds, and social needs. What does that look like in the context of developmentally appropriate practices for middle school students? Armstrong identifies 12 practices that should be the foundation of the best schools for middle grades:

Safe School Climate— Rather than dealing with problems in middle schools by merely suspending those who cause trouble, we should be proactive in our interventions to get at the root of problems.

Small Learning Communities— smaller schools at the middle level are less likely to have high dropout rates, they tend to have higher levels of motivation amongst their students, and better success at academic learning.

Personal Adult Relationships— Armstrong notes that middle schools that shuffle students along through classes at only 42 minutes, that they spend much less time with adults, forming adult relationships, including parents. This can be rectified by students being assigned an advisor who continuously has contact with them throughout their middle school journey.

Engaged Learning—As mentioned above in the Yeche study, it has been attributed to students in middle grades as a result of puberty to have lessened capacity for learning. Armstrong states that the achievement drop-off seen in the middle grades is more likely attributable to high quality learning environments where students are able to make more choices as to what they study.

Positive Role Models— Parent Volunteers, College professors, Mentors in fields related to science, arts, and technological fields can help students to learn, as well as thoughtfully consider what they will do as their future career.

Metacognitive Strategies— Students can be taught to exercise their new found ability to think about their own thinking.

Expressive Arts Activities-- Students who are experiencing so many physiological changes should be allowed and encouraged to express themselves using a variety of arts related activities such as music, dance, painting, drama, dance, sculpture. 

Health And Wellness Focus-- Learning to remain healthy during the many changes that are occurring physically and emotionally in the middle grades, students should be focusing on their own health and well being and what to expect during this normal part of growing.

Emotionally Meaningful Curriculum-- Students are experiencing a heightened sense of emotion during this period and teachers should build curricular activities in a way that addresses these topics, rather than the same old boring reading writing and arithmetic. 

Student Roles in Decision Making-- Students should have a say in how their learning environment operates, how decisions that affect them are made, and how they can contribute in a way that expands their abilities as well as increases their value as contributory members of society.

Honoring and Respecting Student Voices-- As mentioned above, Students should be involved in the decisions that affect them, their education, their voice, and their ability to become autonomous members of society.

Facilitating Social and Emotional Growth-- the point here is to realize that if we focus on Academic Achievement only in the middle school discourse, we relinquish the unique way that the passion of middle-school kids can help to revive the school system, change our teaching strategies, and enrich our communities.

Haven't been able to blog much lately. School has been keeping me very busy here. I really miss reading the happenings with all of you on Tumblr, but I just haven't been able to keep up for now. I have many new articles I've kept in Pocket so that when I come back, I'll share!