Not on the Test - A great summary of the challenges in education

[BrianPlankis]

Hey all,

I'm attending a teacher education training this week and we were just shown this fabulous video about many of the things that are challenges in the USA with regards to testing. While not specifically stated, these are some of the fundamental problems behind coral reef decline. I can elaborate if anyone would like me to in regards to this comment.

A very funny, but unfortunately, accurate video:

http://www.notonthetest.com/

Brian

[CarmieJo]

That is a pretty sad commentary. Our exchange student of 2 years ago was from South Korea. While she lived with us she was a day student at a boarding school, returned as a boarding student last year and will be a senior this year. Her father wanted her to come to America as an exchange student because American students are taught to think, not just to memorize.

Unfortunately I think that era may be coming to an end. They just released the NCLB figures for this year and less than a quarter of our public school system's schools passed. Our son's education was a combination of private (6 years), charter (5 years) and public (1 year). The year of public school was in middle school and they spent the vast majority of the year taking practice tests for the End of Grade Tests. How can the teachers teach when all the kids do is bubble in test sheets?

By contrast the charter high school he graduated from never did practice tests and they have passed every benchmark every year they have been in existence. Now I realize that they do not have the same student make up as the public schools but I think that there is a lot to be said regarding letting the teachers teach their subject and not teach the test! Using this model virtually of all the students at his school passed Algebra 1, 2 and geometry while 60-70% of the public school students passed.

[PHYTO4LIFE]

Sure elaborate never felt there was enough individual attention in public school.

A Lot of people including my self come from public schools there is something truly missing especially preparation for career's/colleges etc at a early age.

If it wasn't for spell check you probably wouldn't understand this lol 4 edits too

[BrianPlankis]

Sure elaborate never felt there was enough individual attention in public school.

A Lot of people including my self come from public schools there is something truly missing especially preparation for career's/colleges etc at a early age.

If it wasn't for spell check you probably wouldn't understand this lol 4 edits too

Well, there are many things I can elaborate on, but I will focus on just one thing for this reply. Basically, the way the current educational system is setup in the USA, it is fundamentally undermining any effort at environmental education by generating graduates who do not understand how ecology and the many "branches of science" are fundamentally linked.

While part of the problem is that in some schools we are using very poor techniques or pedagogy to teach Chemistry, Biology and Physics (the big three for science in most public schools in the USA), there is a larger underlying problem. The underlying problem is that we are even teaching Chemistry, Biology and Physics. What we should be teaching is integrated science classes that incorporate chemistry, biology, physics, ecology, environmental science, etc. Many public schools offer a 4th year of science your senior year and in less than 3% of the public schools in the USA you can select an environmental science course. The problem is, the environmental science courses rely heavily on biology and the students last took that their freshman year. How many students remember what they last studied 3 years ago? Not very many, so much of the time in the 4th year science classes is review from what the students learned 2-3 years ago.

OK, so I'm going to focus on two things in this response :) The other underlying problem is that environmental science/literacy was left out of the NCLB standards during their creation. With schools focusing so much time on the test they are ignoring any subjects not on the test. There is an effort underway right now to include environmental science/literacy in the revised NCLB standards and while that is a very important step to fixing the USA educational system and is necessary, we still need to address the fundamentally flawed system that we are trying to revise with environmental literacy standards.

Until we get integrated science taught for four years in HS (ideally in MS too before kids lose interest in science) and get environmental literacy standards, it will be an uphill battle to fix global/national/local environmental problems. While I am low man on the totem pole in education at the moment, I'm going to see what I can do to help to resolve these problems.

If anyone wants to do some additional reading on this topic, in a very easy to read and eye opening way, I would suggest the book Earth in Mind by Robert Orr, stunningly good book and cheap.

Brian

[PHYTO4LIFE]

That explains a lot I kind of floated through school unfortunately I can blame myself but at the same time people are put into categories or labeled as failures at times I personally find that schools need to take a approach where if the child fails or is behind they should be forced into a program of some sort to catch up even if they lose their summer vacation a carreer and role models should always be a option for less fortunate kids

[Amie]

This was a great video, Brian. I just forwarded it to the Math guy in charge of our district. I'm sure he'll love it. ;)

[shiveley]

Well, as far as early education as it relates to college preparation, here are some statistics in relation to California State University, Sacramento's First-time Freshmen from Fall 2008:

Does not need Remediation - 37%
Needs Both English and Math Remediation - 33%
Needs English Remediation (only) - 16%
Needs Math Remediation (only) - 14%
Total remedial need - 63%

What this basically means is that in 2008 approximately 63% of our incoming freshmen had to take some level of high school course work before they could even progress to college level work. Subsequently, 22% of the incoming first-time freshmen from 2008 did not return in fall 2009.

What I'm getting at here is that there's a fundamental flaw in the way that we're preparing our children for the future...and unfortunately it's not just related to the sciences.

[Amie]

Of course that's not even counting the kids that apply for college and don't get accepted because their grades are too low or the ACT/SAT scores are too low. Or the kids that never apply for college because they didn't graduate HS or they just don't have the desire to get a higher education. Those statistic would be interesting to know as well.

[shiveley]

Just one last tid-bit of information in relation to our First-time Freshmen from Fall 2008 (since you indicated interest):

18151 potential first-year freshmen applied in Fall 2008
of that 12132 were admitted (accepted)
only 2623 actually enrolled

Now many of the admitted (accepted) students may have actually enrolled in other schools, so actual enrollment isn't a very useful indicator. However, it is worth noting that while admission rates have gradually been increasing over the years, actual enrollment figures have been steadily dropping.

Anyway, I'm sorry for diverting from the original premise of this post. It just a topic that is near and dear to my heart.

[BrianPlankis]

What I'm getting at here is that there's a fundamental flaw in the way that we're preparing our children for the future...and unfortunately it's not just related to the sciences.


Thanks for the statistic Jon, nice to have supporting numbers for statements isn't it? Unfortunately it is just a bad thing to have supporting numbers for, we certainly are not preparing our children for the future.

I completely agree it is not just related to the sciences. Math, English, second languages, etc. are all not doing well in this country. I just had to make a decision what content area I would attempt to become an expert in going into my doctorate and I chose my passion of science :)

Luckily there are other good people doing everything they can in the other content areas to attempt to improve those areas.

Just one last tid-bit of information in relation to our First-time Freshmen from Fall 2008 (since you indicated interest):

18151 potential first-year freshmen applied in Fall 2008
of that 12132 were admitted (accepted)
only 2623 actually enrolled

Now many of the admitted (accepted) students may have actually enrolled in other schools, so actual enrollment isn't a very useful indicator. However, it is worth noting that while admission rates have gradually been increasing over the years, actual enrollment figures have been steadily dropping.

Anyway, I'm sorry for diverting from the original premise of this post. It just a topic that is near and dear to my heart.


I think your comments have added to this thread, certainly have not diverted it in any way.

Amie, you should be aware of an interesting dynamic in the debate of the impact of the tests. MANY administrators actually prefer the tests and I'll refrain from publicly stating why as the reasons vary greatly, but in some circles the tests are seen as very positive. I disagree with this viewpoint and I have shown this video at some of my professional presentations and in classes I have taught and have received some rather nasty looks from people who later approached me as administrators.

Brian

[fishboy13]

Well as currently being a student in high-school I find the level of education in marine biology extremely lacking. I was looking through my biology book at school the other day and I looked up various terms, corals and anemones. In a eight-hundred page biology book there were three pages on coral reefs and anemones and over half of the pages were covered with pictures. The problem with education is that kids are not instilled with a love to learn. This is just my two cents ;).

[BrianPlankis]

Well as currently being a student in high-school I find the level of education in marine biology extremely lacking.


Very observant and unfortunately true :( Less than 3% of students like you in this country are even able to take an environmental science or marine science/biology class.

I was looking through my biology book at school the other day and I looked up various terms, corals and anemones. In a eight-hundred page biology book there were three pages on coral reefs and anemones and over half of the pages were covered with pictures.


Most science textbooks, biology or otherwise, in today's high schools have way too much content. Instead of going deeply into a few subjects (a few feet wide and a mile deep), they barely touch the surface on hundreds (thousands?) of subjects (a mile wide and a few feet deep).

Textbooks are more or less outdated today and rarely address our rapidly degrading environment properly. Teaching out of textbooks should never be the primary activity in a good science classroom. It can be a supporting activity, but there is so much good media available now (free), they are no longer needed.

The problem with education is that kids are not instilled with a love to learn.


Agreed. A big part of that is that science is not taught properly in the vast majority of schools. There are very good science teachers out there, just not enough of them.

I help prepare new science teachers by teaching science methods (how to teach science) and one of the first discussions we have is how THEY, the future teachers, were taught science in their lifetime. The answers vary, but a scary percentage (almost always a large majority of them ~80-90%) of them were taught:

1. From reading science textbooks aloud in class
2. Completing worksheets or questions from the textbook
3. Doing a "cookbook" laboratory investigation where they fill in the blanks on, you guessed it, another worksheet.
4. Repeat steps 1-3.

This is not how science should be taught, this approach is BORING and does not teach the students properly, they won't remember much of the information at all.

Science should be FUN and ENGAGING. Science is a fascinating subject and if students were taught properly they would LOVE to learn science and want to do more.

I spend the rest of every semester working with these new teachers on how to teach science properly and make sure the students are actually understanding what is being taught. Every semester I get the comment "Wow, I had no idea teaching science could be so interesting (fun)!" While I'm glad my new teachers learn this, it is sad their own science education experience was so miserable.

How have you been taught science?

This is just my two cents ;).


Thanks for your 2 cents! Glad to see a sharp high school kid here :)

This is just my two cents :)

Brian

[fishboy13]

Well, I have been always been a good student in science. Although steps 1-3 were used in grade school. This year in high school I have had the most wonderful biology teacher, he engages the whole class in the lecture everyday. Now how I got into taking care of reefs is another story ;). Hopefully one day this will change and we will have more young people like me in this wonderful hobby but until then we will keep on heading down this slippery slope.

[Amie]

Fishboy13,
It's great that you are so interested in science, especially if the courses have been so boring. I remember my science classes in High School to be mostly lab work, which was really fun. I wasn't too fond of disecting, however. But I loved chemistry. My teacher didn't like me too much after I almost blew up the classroom though.

I agree completely with you Brian about the books. The same thing is happening with the Math books as well. They try and cover everything, so they end up really learning nothing. The kids that I'm working with are getting all the way through HS without learning anything because they are not staying on a single subject long enough to remember it for the next year. They are doing horrible on the math sections of their college entrance exams because of the way the courses are being taught. It's really a shame.

You go for it, fishboy13!

[rgrace]

You were lucky, we had no lab work. We would read the book, memorize the definitions and that was all. I love science, but what we were taught was not science. Science should be a hands on type learning. If it were taught properly most of the kids would have an A in the class and look forward to science class. I instilled a love of learning in my children, from an early age. They would ask questions, and instead of feeding them the answer we would find a way for them to answer their own questions. My daughter wants to be an entomologist, and my son wants to be a robotics engineer. They are both constantly setting up experiments, and I would be willing to bet they have learned a lot more from their independent studies than they ever would from school.

[fishboy13]

Thanks guys, I have always had a love of learning ever since I was little. Something that I left out of my post earlier today was that parents also need to teach their kids to love to learn. I forgot to write that earlier because I was eating breakfast :).

[BrianPlankis]

You were lucky, we had no lab work. We would read the book, memorize the definitions and that was all. I love science, but what we were taught was not science.


Yes, very typical unfortunately. That is vocabulary, not science.

Science should be a hands on type learning.


Yes, but a key point is the hands on activity should be focused on student discourse and student generated explanations. While "hands on" science is catching on in this country, too often the hands on activity is not properly focused. The kids might be more engaged and have more fun, but they haven't learned anything more than if they were given vocabulary to memorize.


If it were taught properly most of the kids would have an A in the class and look forward to science class. I instilled a love of learning in my children, from an early age. They would ask questions, and instead of feeding them the answer we would find a way for them to answer their own questions. My daughter wants to be an entomologist, and my son wants to be a robotics engineer. They are both constantly setting up experiments, and I would be willing to bet they have learned a lot more from their independent studies than they ever would from school.


That is great you help them find a way to answer their own questions, too many students today simply want the answer given to them. If your kids are doing experiments constantly (manipulation of a variable) then they probably have learned more than most public school students. In many cases in this country when kids do an "experiment" in school, they are following a written list of steps with an already determined outcome. This does not help them build their inquiry and problem solving skills, it just helps them follow directions.

Brian

[CarmieJo]

My son was fortunate enough to graduate from one of the best public high schools in the US. I just asked him how he would describe the science classes, including AP Environmental Science, he took. His one word answer - "Engaging."