{"id":1025,"date":"2012-02-20T09:03:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T14:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2012-02-23T07:15:10","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T12:15:10","slug":"private-schools-and-educational-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/?p=1025","title":{"rendered":"Private Schools and Educational Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning while browsing through my feeds I came across this article \u201cWhy Don\u2019t Top Private Schools Adopt Corporate Driven Reforms<\/a>?\u201d\u00a0 (Thanks for sharing Skip) As someone who has worked in private and public schools it has always fascinated me why public schools do what they do. I am often bewildered by my experiences in public education.\u00a0 This may be because I began my career in private schools and have never fully transitioned my thinking into public education. Before you continue please read the article<\/a> as what follows in an initial reaction.<\/p>\n

I have taught in a wide variety of schools. For about half my teaching career in private schools located in Ghana<\/a>, New York<\/a>, Jordan<\/a>, Korea<\/a> and Saudi Arabia<\/a>. My most recent work experience is in a public school. My children attend\/attended public charter middle<\/a> and high schools<\/a>.\u00a0 I have worked with a range of students in my day. From students who wonder if they will have enough to eat and own just the clothes on the their backs (Ghana 1985 during the famine years, the school closed twice as there was not enough food to feed the students). To those who arrive in a chauffer driven car. One thing the majority of my students had in common was going to an English language school when English was not their native tongue. But I have found where ever I have taught kids are kids.<\/p>\n

In public education we are constantly bombarded with the notion of data driven decision-making. Everything we do in public education must be based on data.\u00a0 But I have yet to see a good explanation of the data used to create these mandates, standards and evaluation systems imposed on public schools. In fact the data I have seen suggests that these efforts do not significantly raise test scores.\u00a0\u00a0 There is data that supports the notion that a rise in test scores leads to a decrease in creativity and love of learning (here <\/a>and here<\/a>).\u00a0 As a parent I can tell you I would much rather have my children be instilled with a passion to know and the skills to find out, then success on a test.\u00a0 \u00a0(If you know about the data and studies that were used to support the development of the common core<\/a>, PARCC<\/a>, and the new teacher evaluation system please share below, I feel like I am missing part of the puzzle.)<\/p>\n

When I worked in private schools our goal was simply to provide the best learning experience for each student.\u00a0 It was a common theme for all those schools.\u00a0 We worked with individual students and crafted our lessons, activities and expectation around those we taught.\u00a0 We individualized everything. We sought to challenge our students and ourselves to know more, share more and to think deeply about things.\u00a0 We believed that experimentation, exploration and \u201cplaying around\u201d were essential aspects of becoming an active learner. We did not have a \u201cstandard\u201d, there were no minimum goals, there was no limit to what we could expect or accomplish.\u00a0 Our evaluation came from parents; they either continued to send their children to our schools or they did not.\u00a0 When I met with my administrators our discussion focused on what we could do to challenge our students and foster their passions. We discussed individuals how each was doing and how each could do better.<\/p>\n

I believe the theme to provide the best learning experience for each student is the same for public schools but we seem to go about it in such a convoluted manner it tends to get lost and I get confused.\u00a0 We try to individualize instruction because all students are not the same but we standardize assessment with the expectation that students learn at the same rate. We teach with a detailed scope and pacing guide; any exploration, divergence or remediation must be pre-planned. In some school districts all classes are to be on the same lesson each day.\u00a0 We set limits. We expect a pattern. We look for the average growth for a group of students. Should this mean as a teacher I target the students who have the potential for the most growth so my average growth of scores improves? We end up aiming for average, the middle of the road. Our focus is diverted from our students in the hopes of bettering our students.<\/p>\n

What I have always wondered is why aren\u2019t public schools more like private schools.\u00a0 The same peer reviewed school accreditation associations<\/a> such as NEASC<\/a> and Middle States<\/a> often accredit private schools and public schools alike. Private schools are accredited and their students go on to college without following and participating in state and federal mandates.\u00a0 So why do public schools follow all these mandates?\u00a0 Money, I know. Have towns thoughtfully reflected on these policies? Have they chosen their adoption because they are the right things to do for the children they serve? What would happen if a town just said no?<\/p>\n

Update: \u00a0A colleague shared this article<\/a> with me that shares some data about the\u00a0effectiveness\u00a0of standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning while browsing through my feeds I came across this article \u201cWhy Don\u2019t Top Private Schools Adopt Corporate Driven Reforms?\u201d\u00a0 (Thanks for sharing Skip) As someone who has worked in private and public schools it has always fascinated me why public schools do what they do. I am often bewildered by my experiences in public education.\u00a0 This may be because I began my career in private schools and have never fully transitioned my thinking into public education. Before you…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,26,27,131,111],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bethknittle.net\/WP_Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}