pic from magnusmangosmangos

Nonprofits, charter schools, foundations and businesses are being created to save the education system from itself.  The national security of the United States is at risk unless the economic foundation of the nation is solid. 

The education system needs dramatic improvement and can not be left to where one might live or what resources are available.  The education system has to produce for all  students the opportunity to be employees in the 21st century.  This means most jobs require a work force that is based in technology and science.  This means a work force that is able to work in a global economy. 

The Race to the TOP is not only about states competing for creating the best educational outcomes, it is also about the United States racing to the top of the global economy.

Together the US can reach that goal.   

pic from Graela

When letting a student know that they need to do something, you just might want to make sure you specify how the task is to be conducted. 

Should the task be meant to be a punishment or an opportunity to learn?  I would urge one to turn it into an opportunity to learn not only a lesson but facts that are important towards their educational goal. 

It is the students education that needs to be the focus not an adult’s opportunity to show the student who is in charge. 

pic from Graela

There are plenty examples of public schools either as District or Charter schools who have created exciting curriculum in which students are on wait lists to entry.  The results at these schools in comparison to schools that do not have waiting lists seems to suggest a simple fact.  The engagement of the student is fundamental to achieving positive outcomes. 

If homework is always viewed as a task in misery then the motivation to learn will decrease until there is no motivation.  Make things challenging and engaging and watch the results improve. 

Pic from wvdirtboy 

Let’s not fool ourselves about the GED education as an alternative.  It has not shown to help the student get a job, in fact it seems to to hurt.  The perception is that the individual could not make it in school and gave it up for something easier.

GED is not the quality an employer wants to see in a candidate looking for a job.  Let’s stop fooling the students and make it a high school diploma process for all students. 

The GED label hurts in applying for a job, so let’s stop trying to fool youth of its worth and move the dollars to getting a high school diploma as the outcome. 

Education is not just by a few administrators, it is by the whole community.  It is time for choices that provide more opportunity, not less.  Education is not meeting the mandate of classroom instruction for 6 hours.  Education is not passing the student with a D. 

Education is about creating a youth who is prepared to work and learn in the 21st century.  The fact that a large number of youth graduating from high school are ill prepared to work in the 21st century and ill prepared to learn to achieve an associate’s degree says a lot about the public primary and secondary education system.

The fastest way to achieve better outcomes is through choice and competition.  Charter schools, which are a segment of the public school system, are the right receipt to do this.

Educators are supposed to know better about how to deliver education to the students.  However, there so many students failing or dropping out that it is creating a crisis.

One of the largest growing segments of the education system is home schooling due to the lost confidence in public education. 

Charter schools are the one means to keep families engaged in public education because it allows a level of parent involvement that does not exist at district schools.

Students respond to a confused system of priorities with the means they know best to communicate, emulating the education system’s means of communication. 

Maybe it is time we let students tell the educators how they wish to be prepared for the 21st century and achieve their best!

 pic from flickr

The number of students dropping out of school is getting worse in most districts.  However, there are those schools that seem to be able to encourage their students to stay in school.  The common denominator is that they are engaging the students.  The response from students is that they feel that the teachers and the school are engaged and care about them getting an education and reaching their potential.  While it may seem simple, it still comes back to adults showing that they care. 

Motivation today is no different with youth than the time I had the privilege of working with youth in a minimum secure facility in the 1980’s.  100% of the youth told me in my discussions with them that, ”Why should I care about me if no one else cares.”

An educational system without student choice creates a psychological battle ground that states to the youth:  “It’s what we give you, take it or leave it.”  The easy way out is to leave school.  Youth have shown over and over again that confronting the educational system is not their concern.  As the youth begins to turn into a young adult and reaches their 22nd birthday, there is a realization that the educational system failed them. 

Charter schools are able to better handle providing the personal approach to learning for each student. 

pic from PBS HAWAII.ORG

Students have the right to demand equal access to a good education even if it means the need to remote into the right course online.  The web needs to become a utility that all citizens have the right to access.  It is during periods of budget cuts that the education system shows its commitment to underachieving students to be weak.  While the district schools that state it is not their fault that students fail, they also fail to admit the fundamental problem that one approach does not fit all students.  The use of technology, especially the web, has been shown to bring access to learning. 

The public library is a critical source of such access and the Internet has opened this resource, where distance and time prevented access previously.  The public library system should be incorporated into all public schools as their library resource to equalize access.  This will further increase library access to neighborhoods and be safe havens for learning. 

pic from PBS HAWAII.ORG

What is 21st century learning? 

• Outcome based
• What students know, can do and are like after facts learned
• Learning by analysis and evaluation
• Research driven
• Active participation
• Global classroom approach through classmates and others around the world
• Student-centered
• Co-learners
• Integrated and interdisciplinary curriculum
• Grades based on what was learned
• A lot of student freedom
• Self, peer and others assess work
• Curriculum connected to students’ interest and real world
• Project based opportunities are used for learning and assessment
• Curriculum and instruction address student diversity
• Literacy goes beyond traditional 3 R’s of reading writing and math aligned to living and working globally
• Global model based upon a high tech society
• Education not driven by NCLB and standardized testing
• High expectation

pic from PBS HAWAII.ORG

The lack of sufficient improvement in the education system has given rise to charter schools which function as semi-governmental entities.  These charter schools are more accountable to higher standards, creating results and delivering what the market forces want from the education system.   

While district schools have a school committee that is elected by the voters, a charter school has a board and staff that are accountable to the students attending the school, as well as to their parents.  Each student is the customer and the educational achievement of each individual student is the goal.  That is what is called choice.  If the charter school does not adequately meet the needs of the student then the student has the right to go somewhere else.  The end result is that the charter school loses the funding attached to the student. 

Some larger urban district schools have begun to allow students to change their school, but have run into the problem that the schools being saught after are full.  Students seeking slots at charter schools with successful records have found a similar problem. 

The fact that some district schools have turned to setting exams to be admitted to some of their schools seems to go against equal access to an education.  Charter schools are prevented from taking such action and I am in agreement that no student should have to take an exam to get into a public school. 

The one fact that is hard to overcome is that there is not enough room for every student to go to the school of their choice.  The result is a lottery system, and luck plays into whether a student gets what they consider to be the best education. 

“The Race to the Top” should create opportunity to shut down low performing schools and reinvent them with the high expectations of performing schools.  If the statistics show that it takes at least an associate’s degree to obtain a job that pays a living wage, why would anyone allow an educational system to do less?  Allowing students to graduate with a D is not preparing students for college. 

Charter schools represent an opportunity to bring the higher standards to education and hold specific public entities accountable.  It is faster and cost effective.  Choice in the public education system is the fastest way to change it across every state and local educational authority.